Energy Report Card
How it runs
The teaching sequence as the manual gives it.
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01
Build the list with the class instead of handing it out. Ask what wastes energy in their houses and in this school, and write down everything that is said. They will name the obvious one first — the fan left running in an empty classroom. Push, and the less obvious ones arrive: the tube light burning at noon in a room with an open window, the geyser left on all morning, the mixer run for one green chilli, the phone charger still plugged in with nothing on the end of it. -
02
Each student copies the agreed list onto a card and keeps it for a week, ticking one column each day and being honest about it. No marks and no scoring — the point is that they start noticing. A sample card: -
03
Energy habit | Always do | Sometimes do | Never do -
04
Switch off the light when I leave the room. -
05
Switch off the fan when I leave the room, and check the classroom fans if I am the last one out. -
06
Walk or cycle to school when it is close enough to walk or cycle. -
07
Open the fridge, take what I came for, shut it. Not stand there deciding with the door open. -
08
Put a lid on the vessel while cooking, so the gas goes into the food instead of into the kitchen. -
09
Run things off the mains rather than off batteries that get thrown away.
Ending it
How the manual closes this session, and where it can go next.
If it goes well
Then do the building. Walk the school with a clipboard and list everything in it that uses power: the tube lights room by room, the ceiling fans, the computer room, the water cooler, the pump that fills the overhead tank, the photocopier in the office. Against each one write down where its switch is, who is supposed to turn it off, and when it is actually off. Come back at lunch and again after the last bell and look a second time — the gap between what should happen and what does is the whole finding. Take the worst cases to whoever runs the building, with a named person against each switch and a time. A report card nobody acts on is homework; a rota is a change. Finish by asking the same question about the street outside: the shop lights left on overnight, the water pump running into an overflowing tank, the generator that starts up every evening — and who in that lane could switch what off.
Where this comes from
Bridge the Gap is a compilation. This is what the manual records for this session.
The manual prints no source for this session. It is published here as Swechha has used it, adapted over years of classroom work; if you recognise its origin, tell us and we will credit it.
Before you start sets out where the compendium as a whole comes from.
Next
Where to go from here.