Shell and Canadian Geographic announce winners of national classroom energy efficiency challenge

CALGARY, May 7, 2012 /CNW/ - For the past two months over 11,000 students across Canada competed to win prizes by participating in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge (CEDC), a curriculum-based energy efficiency program.  Today Shell and Canadian Geographic are pleased to announce Duncan Cran Elementary from Fort St. John as the Top School.

"We are impressed at the level of participation from classrooms all across Canada," said Ashley Nixon, NGO and Stakeholder Relations Manager at Shell Canada.  "The students' support for the CEDC tells us that energy efficiency is important to Canadians.  Duncan Cran demonstrated commitment to the program and found innovative ways to reduce their energy consumption."

Students took the lead in learning about energy efficiency through completing the CEDC's fun and simple energy saving challenges.  Of the almost 500 registered, Duncan Cran was the only school to have 100% of their students participating in the program and was awarded Top School as a result.  For winning the Top School Prize, Duncan Cran will receive $1,000 for a school party, $1,000 for school supplies and a $1,000 donation to a charity of their choice.

"While we had a hand in creating and administering the program, the students made it their own," Gilles Gagnier, Vice President, Digital Media and Custom Publishing at Canadian Geographic explained, "Feedback from classrooms was so positive that we've decided to run the competition again in September.  Ultimately, we'd like to see every student in Canada learning how they can reduce their energy use."

Teachers and students are encouraged to visit the CEDC website to learn more and sign their classroom up for the program this September. http://energydiet.canadiangeographic.ca/

Notes to Editors:

A photo opportunity will be held at Duncan Cran Elementary tomorrow, May 8^th, from 10:00am to 11:00am.

Along with visuals including the presentation of a banner celebrating the schools achievement, media will be invited to interview Duncan Cran staff as well as Shell Groundbirch Operations Manager Rejean Tetrault and others.

For more information, please contact Christine Todd at 1-250-787-0417.

A media backgrounder and profiles of the winning schools are available.

CEDC Winners:

• Grand prize secondary: Mr. De Santis' grade 10 class from Vancouver Technical Secondary School in Vancouver, British Columbia
• Grand prize elementary: Mrs. Aylward's grade two/three classroom at St. Mark's School in King's Cove, Newfoundland
• Most Points prize: Mrs. D'Souza's grade one class at The Divine Infant Catholic School in Scarborough, Ontario
• Top School prize: Duncan Cran Elementary School in Fort St. John, British Columbia
• Video prize elementary: Miss. Archibald's grade 3/4 class at Keswick Ridge School in Keswick Ridge, New Brunswick
• Video prize secondary: Ms. Longworth's grade 6/7 class at Sir William Osler School in Vancouver, British Columbia

ENQUIRIES:

Canadian Geographic:  Please contact Ellen Curtis at [email protected] or 1-613-745-4629 ext 124. 

Shell:  For journalists and media inquiries only: Reporters may contact Shell Media Relations at [email protected] or 1-877-850-5023. Please provide both your email and phone number.

Notes to Editors

Canadian Geographic
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society is dedicated to imparting a broader knowledge and deeper appreciation of Canada — its people and places, its natural and cultural heritage and its environmental, social and economic challenges. The Society's mission is to make Canada better known to Canadians and its goal is to make Canadians more geographically-literate. The principal mechanism of its public education role is Canadian Geographic magazine. For more than 80 years, Canadian Geographic has been telling stories, explaining issues and making the country more accessible through words, pictures and maps.

Royal Dutch Shell plc
Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 90 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects. For further information, visit www.shell.com.

Shell Canada Ltd
Shell has been operating in Canada since 1911 and employs approximately 8,000 people across the country. A leading manufacturer, distributor and marketer of refined petroleum products, Shell produces natural gas, natural gas liquids and bitumen, and is Canada's largest producer of sulphur. Shell is one of Canada's oil sands developers and operates the Athabasca Oil Sands Project on behalf of the joint venture partners.

Classroom Energy Diet Challenge
The Classroom Energy Diet Challenge is a contest sponsored by Shell Canada Limited and Canadian Geographic to help students increase their understanding of energy, where it comes from and how to improve their energy efficiency.  As part of the Challenge, classrooms will have access to some great tips and resources to help them improve their energy efficiency. From February 6 to March 30 2012, students will complete curriculum-linked lessons and challenges designed to increase their knowledge and awareness about energy use in Canada.

Energy Diet Challenge
The original household Energy Diet Challenge was a partnership between Shell Canada and Canadian Geographic to help Canadians learn more about energy and ways they can improve energy efficiency.  From September 12 to December 4, 2011, six Canadian families competed to see who could shrink their carbon footprint the most, by making changes at home and in their transportation. Household and transportation energy use (as well as water use) were tracked over the three-month period.

School Profiles

Most Points Prize Winner

Mrs D'Souza
Grade 1

The Divine Infant Catholic School
Scarborough, ON

Ms. Blossom D'Souza's grade 1 class was one of three classrooms that earned the maximum number of points, including all bonus points, in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge, and was entered into the Most Points Prize draw. Lucky for them, their name was pulled!

The Scarborough, Ont. class worked hard throughout the 8-week competition to complete all 25 challenges. One of their favourites, Ms. D'Souza says, was the Tips, Tricks and Announcements challenge.

For winning this prize, Ms. D'Souza's class received $500 for a class party, $500 for classroom supplies and a $500 donation to the charity of their choice.

Overall, Ms. D'Souza says it was a "very enriching experience" and her students learned valuable lessons on recycling and conserving energy.

Top School Prize Winner

Mrs Todd
Grade 1

Duncan Cran Elementary School
Fort St John, BC

Duncan Cran Elementary School was the only one in the competition to have 100% participation from every student. For winning the Top School Prize, they receive $1,000 for a school party, $1,000 for school supplies and a $1,000 donation to a charity of their choice.

Christine Todd, Duncan Cran's vice-principal and science teacher, instructs nine out of 11 classes at the school. She saw the CEDC as a perfect fit to get her students and teachers excited about saving energy.

The school held assemblies to keep students and teachers enthusiastic about the Challenge and tracked points on their CEDC posters. While the competition is now over, Todd says the school will continue with their energy-saving practices, including participating in Drew's One Hour No Power.

"When you do activities like this and see how kids react, see them thinking," she says, " it just inspires you to keep being a better teacher and keep doing these things."

Grand Prize - Secondary Winner

Mr De Santis
Grade 10

Vancouver Technical Secondary
Vancouver, BC

Congratulations to Mr. De Santis' grade 10 class at Vancouver Technical Secondary School for winning the grand prize draw at the secondary level. This lucky west coast class will receive a complete SMART Board 885ix interactive whiteboard system to continue learning in style.

In order to be included in the draw, Mr. De Santis' class had to achieve at least 30 points in the Classroom Challenge stream of the competition. At ten challenges completed, including Post-It!, Sign up or sign out and Do you really need it?, the winning class earned a total of 51 points.

De Santis says it's hard to pick a favourite challenge, but he really enjoyed how Sign up or sign out and Post-It! were designed to raise awareness about energy-saving practices throughout the school. Designing the class logo was also a great starting point to the competition. "It helped students come up with creative, fun and intelligent ways to combine the school's ideals with those surrounding energy conservation."

Grand Prize - Elementary Winner

Mrs Aylward
Grade 2/3

St. Mark's
King's Cove, NL

Alaina Aylward's grade 2/3 class from St Mark's School in King's Cove, Nfld. achieved a minimum of 30 points in the Classroom Challenge and were the lucky winners of the grand prize draw at the elementary level.

This keen grade class achieved a total of 41 points by completing seven challenges, including Post-It, Making the energy grade and Drew's One hour No Power.

For winning the draw, Aylward's class will receive a SMART Board 885ix interactive whiteboard system. In addition to the interactive whiteboard, the system includes an ultra-short-throw projector, a multi-user Pen Tray and a control panel.

Video Contest Prize - Elementary Winner

Miss Archibald, "Let's save the Earth"
Grade 3/4

Keswick Ridge School
Keswick Ridge, NB

Suzanne Archibald and her grade 3/4 class from Keswick Ridge School in New Brunswick won the elementary leg of the video contest with their fantastic public service announcement, "Let's Save the Earth". During public voting, the video earned 990 total votes from views and Facebook 'Likes'.

Since September, Archibald's school has been focusing on going green and being kinder to the Earth by holding assemblies and taking part in eco initiatives, such as creating their winning video for the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge.

While Archibald says her students enjoyed writing their video's script and making their "Let's save the Earth" song, they were most excited "with the filming of the video and seeing their vision come to life."

For winning the video contest portion of the challenge, Archibald's class will receive a $2,000 gift card for technology to support school learning.

Video Contest Prize - Secondary Winner

Mrs Longworth, "We are the future"
Grade 6/7

Sir William Osler
Vancouver, BC

Adrienne Longworth's grade 6/7 class at Sir William Osler were CEDC superstars, winning the video contest prize for the secondary level and achieving an impressive 132 points in the classroom challenges.

While her students enjoyed the challenges, their favourite part of the competition was creating the video. For Longworth, she saw this video contest as a way to take learning beyond the classroom.

"It's nice to have your voice heard and this can be done for youth through social media," she says.

"We are the future", received 379 views and 158 Facebook Likes, totaling 537 public votes.

Longworth and her students will receive a $2,000 gift card for technology to support school learning.

Media Backgrounder

The Classroom Energy Diet Challenge

• Nearly 500 classrooms (11,000 students) from across Canada are competing in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge.
  
  
• The Classroom Energy Diet Challenge is a contest sponsored by Shell Canada Limited and Canadian Geographic to help students increase their understanding of energy, where it comes from and how to improve their energy efficiency.  As part of the Challenge, classrooms will have access to some great tips and resources to help them improve their energy efficiency.
  
  
• From February 6 to March 30 2012, students completed lessons and challenges designed to increase their knowledge and awareness about energy use in Canada. Each classroom's progress is tracked on the Challenge website http://energydiet.canadiangeographic.ca/home/landing
  
  
• The Challenge is divided into two streams: the Classroom Challenge stream and the Video Contest stream. The Classroom Challenge features 25 curriculum linked activities that will earn classes points upon completion. Several great prizes will be awarded to eligible classrooms based on the number of points achieved. The Video Contest challenges classrooms to submit scripts for a creative video outlining ways to reduce energy use. Fifty scripts will be chosen and the successful classes will receive a Flip Video Camera to shoot their videos.  The winning video will be selected based on their impact in raising awareness about energy conservation; creativity and originality; production values and popularity as determined by public viewing [and voting].
  
  
• The Classroom Energy Diet Challenge follows 2011's successful Energy Diet Challenge where six families across Canada competed to reduce their energy and water use in the home and through smarter mobility choices on the road. As grand prize winners of that Challenge, the Kitchen-Kuiack family from Marsh Lake, Yukon, was named Canada's "slimmest" family, winning a brand new 2012 Toyota Prius v.
  
  
• The most popular Classroom Challenge has been 'Drew's One Hour No Power' inspired by Drew Belbin, a participant of the Energy Diet Challenge. A total of 20 classrooms have completed this challenge so far!
  
  
• Photos from the challenge are available on facebook (Shell Canadian Geographic Energy Diet Challenge) with regular updates being posted on twitter (CanGeoEDC).

Classroom Challenge Prizes

• Four prizes in total were given out as part of the Classroom Challenge.
  
  
• A SMART Board System is the grand prize item. Prizes were awarded via a random draw from among classrooms that reach at least 30 points by March 30, 2012.  A total of two SMART Board Systems were awarded as grand prizes with one going to a winning classroom from the elementary level and one to a winning classroom from the secondary school level.
  
  
• The Most Points Prize will be awarded to the classroom (from either an elementary or secondary school) that accumulates the most points through classroom assignments.  The prize consists of $500 for a class party, $500 to be used towards a class trip or supplies and a $500 contribution to a charity of their choice.
  
  
• The Top School Prize was awarded to the school (either elementary or secondary level) with the highest percentage of qualifying classrooms participating in the Challenge.  The prize consists of $1000 for a school party, $1000 to be used towards a school trip or supplies, and a $1000 contribution to a charity of the school's choice.
  
  
• Eligible classrooms were required to accumulate at least 30 points by March 30, 2012 by selecting and completing a number of pre-determined assignments, in order to assist their school in winning the Top School Prize.

Video Contest Prizes

• Flip Video Cameras were awarded to the 50 best video scripts submitted by classrooms.
  
  
• The grand video prize consists of $2,000 to be used towards technical equipment to support learning.  Two grand video prizes were awarded: one to the best elementary and one to the best secondary classroom video produced. The winning videos will also receive national public exposure through Canadian Geographic and potentially via other events or media outlets.

Fall Program

• Due to the success of the first round of the CEDC, Shell and Canadian Geographic are excited to announce that we will be running the Challenge again during the Fall 2012 semester.
  
  
• Teachers can register for the Fall program through the CEDC's website www.canadiangeographic.ca/cedc
  
  
• Registration closes August 30, 2012.

Key Dates

January 20: classroom registration closed
Teachers registered their classroom at www.canadiangeographic.ca/cedc

February 6: Challenge began
Students and teachers began completing the lesson plans and learning about energy resources and conservation.

March 2: Top 50 scripts announced
The top 50 scripts were announced and winning classrooms each received a Flip Video Camera to produce their video.

April 2: Classroom videos available for public viewing
Videos were posted on the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge website for the public to view and "like" their favorite video submission.

April 27: Contest winners announced
The winning classrooms were revealed and prizes awarded.

Classroom Energy Diet Challenge website:  www.canadiangeographic.ca/cedc

Please contact Shell Media Relations at [email protected] or 1-877-850-5023 or Ellen Curtis at Canadian Geographic at [email protected] or 1-613-745-4629 ext 124.