Energy in Schools is a government funded initiative to help schools in the UK to reduce their energy usage, reduce their energy bills, and to educate their pupils about energy efficiency.

Schools are given equipment such as micro:bits, smart hubs and energy displays (which can be installed in receptions, or other visible areas) which support behaviour change and help to engage its users about energy usage. The project is currently aimed at both Primary and Secondary pupils (Year 6 and 7) and works with their current computing curriculum, using a real world problem of climate change to teach pupils about coding and its outcomes and uses, as well as giving students the chance to use cutting edge IoT coding tools.

Students learn to programme micro:bits to perform a variety of tasks, including measuring the energy usage of appliances, and recording temperatures, as well as more complex tasks as the project goes on. It is also hoped that using coding as a tool to help tackle a world issue will also help to attract more girls to computing.

As well as being an effective way of getting students involved in coding, it also gives school staff an opportunity to save energy, reduce energy bills, and even swap energy suppliers, potentially saving schools thousands of pounds.

It has already been trialled in a local secondary and primary school and they are looking for further schools to get involved.

Energy in Schools is a collaboration between Samsung, The Centre for Sustainable Energy, My Utility Genius and Lancaster University, working with Joe Finney, Sophie Beck, Taylor Woodcock, Kathy New and James Devine from the School of Computing and Communications.

If schools are interested in being part of Energy in Schools, they can register their interest here.

energyinschools.co.uk