To help kids understand the importance of sustainable energy, the Recycling & Environmental Action Planning Society (REAPS) has been awarded a grant to put those young feet on bike pedals.
The Prince George Community Foundation awarded a $2,116 grant to REAPS, in partnership with the Connecting Communities Association, the local organization that has developed a sustainability education program, so it could purchase a child-size electricity-generating bike to teach students and members of the public the importance of how to generate energy by using people power. The bike is designed to charge small electronics like cell phones, tablets and laptops.
The idea is to help youth understand how electricity can be generated, how it can be conserved, and how they can use their own energy to produce it.
"I wanted to target really young children who I see playing on smart phones and tablets, which is something quite new in society and to me it just seems a little bit strange for such young kids to be on these things and spending so much time on them," said Jody Holmes, founder of the Connecting Communities Association and environmental educator.
"So the idea was if they wanted to play on their smart phone or tablet they could actually use this electricity-generating bicycle to charge their devices so if they want to use them they have to do some physical activity first."
Holmes understands most young children don't understand where electricity comes from, so demonstrating the energy-generating bike will be an eye opener for them, he added.
"So it's a combination of teaching them about renewal energy like solar, wind and geothermal and comparing that with the conventional large-scale hydro power," said Holmes.
"So I want to teach children about renewable energies and with this bike they can create electricity themselves by using their own physical energy."
The bike has an inverter connected to a watt meter that has a digital display so children can see what kind of power they are generating with their physical efforts, added Holmes. The watt meter has a regular electrical plug attached that can be connected to an outlet that allows the energy the person is creating to go back into the grid.
Instead of taking energy, the person is giving it back.
"So the children will learn a combination of ideas like learning about renewable energies, encouraging physical activity by using the bicycle and also contributing to providing electricity, for example, to keep the lights on in the classroom or the computer that's used to run the projector for the power point presentation I will be using while teaching the program and that kind of thing."
For more information email Holmes at [email protected] or visit www.connect-communities.org.
