Decorah Middle School students show that a "blackout" can be a good thing

Many classrooms taught today without any lights in their classroom, using the natural light from the windows, including Sarah Casterton's science class

DMS science teacher Gene Adams and his 8th grade class were discussing the topic of energy consumption awareness during the Green Team Hex 1 last month.

Adams says, "With the Green Team we talk about what it means to help the earth, the environment, and healthy living. There are things we can do which are good for the environment, but are also good for us. We were looking for ideas that we could bring to the middle school. We started composting last year and have improved on that. It's actually a state mandate we clean the school with organic premium products. We already do a good job recycling here, so we were looking for other ideas we can do in our school."

The class brainstormed on ways to save energy. DMS 8th grader Maggie Schuring said, "I researched sites online for ways to conserve energy and I saw the tip 'Don't leave your lights on.' I thought that we could do that at school, since we have multiple lights in each classroom."

The class is challenging classrooms at DMS to shut off lights and teach in the dark for the day. Several classrooms have outside windows and could shut off all the lights during class. Other rooms may choose to shut off the either the front half or back half lights.

Schuring concluded, "We learn good habits like shutting off lights  at school. We can also use those good habits in our homes."

Friday is the first Blackout Friday. The last Friday of the month is planned to be blackout Fridays. The class thought it would be fun for the entire school to dress up in black or green on these days to promote energy consumption awareness.

From the front of the building it was clear to see less lights were being used today

The hallways kept a couple lights on for safety reasons

Student Maggie Schuring wore black to show her support for the blackout

Brigit Storhoff's class used their ipads today in class, but they used the energy the ipads already had, they won't be recharging today, in an effort to conserve energy