Now we’re cookin’ with…sun
Steve Reeves (center) shows the power of the sun to Krista Fieselmann ‘10 (right) and Kim LaReau ‘10 (left)
For a few hours on Tuesday afternoon, Shawn Reeves made nachos, hot water for tea and was thinking of heating up some couscous; all with the power of sun. In only an hour, even on the partly cloudy day, his soda can of water increased from 60 to 80 degrees Celsius, and was still warming. In his spare time, he built a solar cooker out of aluminum foil, glue and a cardboard box.
Reeves is a part of a non-profit charity, or 501(c)3, which has just moved to Ithaca recently, called EnergyTeachers.org. Reeves, a high school physics teacher from Newton, Mass., is doing some outreach and advocacy on campus for his organization. In 2004, when the energy crisis was making headlines, he founded Energy Teachers as a way to share lesson plans and develop curriculum focused on energy. Now he travels all over giving lectures and helping teachers develop classes on energy. For instance, he told me, he just talked with one science teacher who had a bike that could generate electricity, but he didn’t now how to use it in the classroom. Energy Teachers helped develop a lesson on the difference in power to illuminate a incandescent light bulb verse a compact florescent.
On the stone wall on the back patio of the Center for Natural Sciences by the greenhouse (irony), Reeves set up a few solar cookers and some science equipment: a light meter, and a heat and light reader which he can plug into his computer and graph the days data. While I stood talking and taking pictures, students and professors stopped by to talk and learn about the power of the sun.
Reeves boasted to students about the time he cooked a pot of steamed yams in the middle of January. He said it doesn’t matter how cold it is with a solar cooker, only how cloudy it is. He uses a sealed jar to insulate his food, and protect it from the cold wind. His ’solar oven’ looks like a satellite dish, and concentrates the suns rays onto his food from multiple points.
For him, solar cooking is a relaxing pastime. He’s not trying to tell everyone should use solar cooking, or even to replace solar cooking as a means to reduce one’s carbon footprint. In fact the amount of energy a typical house hold uses to cook food is a small fraction compared to space heating, cooling and water heating. To him, solar cooking is just a cool pastime, and he hopes a few more people will take an interest.
IC Sustainability agenda
Caption: What will the new logo for IC Sustainability look like?
I just received the agenda from Susan for next Tuesday’s IC Sustainability meeting. There will some updates, but mostly this will be a group formation meeting. They will be discussing what the role of the group is, where it’s going and communication to the greater community.
Here’s the agenda:
Ithaca College Sustainability - Agdenda
February 24, 2009
Updates from last meeting:
Crafting an Identity for IC Sustainability
Virginia Mansfield-Richardson, Joe Sprangel, Stephanie Piech had offered at last meeting to help organize a visioning process for IC Sustainability
Other possibilities: graphic element, mission statement, list of goals/prioritized projects; webpage
IC Sustainability Communication
- How best to communicate what we do with each other & the community?
- Listserv -MMB
- Work with ITS and Marilyn Dispensa? (Leann Kanda)
- Facebook? (Jenna Hollier)
New Projects/Directions:
Sustainability major and minor-Brainstorm session
This would be a great pilot project for Integrative Learning
- How should this be created?
- Housed under what school/division?
- Who designs the curriculum?
- Who advises?
So, by the looks of the agenda, this won’t be really juicy, and filled with great sustainable changes for the future. But these are the necessary steps that need to be taken to form a group. If you can make it, the meeting is Tuesday, February 24, from 12:10 to 1:00 p.m. in room 301 of the Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise.
What’s the Second R? + Recyclemania Update
SOURCE: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
Do you have someone’s birthday coming up, or a empty space on your all, or need a little sprucing up in your boring bathroom? Rather then heading to Target for themed generic decor, or to Michael’s for a homemade decoupage, look first to your local antique store.
As the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Think of the respect your gain from owning something classy. Or tweak your since of art, and proudly display a series of framed, yellowed newspapers on the wall. Or revel in your nostalgia by putting a Power Rangers lunch box on a pedestal.
One good place to start is the Ithaca Antique Center. They have jewelry, furniture, and decorative accessories, such as shaving memorabilia, salt and pepper shakers, and vintage Life magazines and National Geographic magazines.
Redecorating your home? Check out Significant Elements on your way back from Wegman’s or Tops. They specialize in salvaging homes before they are torn down and thrown into rubble. They advocate for deconstruction. In their walls, they hold thousands of books, claw foot tubs, windows and doors. They even host classes on preservation.
While we are competing in Recyclemania (fifth in the country for composting food; 75th overall, just in front of Harvard and trailing New York University, 29.42 percent to 28.75 percent), it’s important to remember our other R’s like Reuse.
“If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold or recycled then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.” Ecology Center, Berkeley
Green Alum!
The former president of ICES, Anjuli Kronheim, spent the past year working with Green Corp, a fellowship organization which trains college students and graduates how to engage in environmental advocacy. Anjuli worked with 1Sky in Iowa. When I spoke with her during her Ithaca visit about a week ago, she told me that being there during the election year was incredibly exciting, and she was able to swing some votes for Obama.
Here she is helping Iowa go green
Batten Down the Hatches: Greening your Home
SOURCE: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
The Sustainability at Ithaca group has made a special arrangement with Cooperative Extension to make FREE CDs of this terrific program available to interested members of the IC community.
To get your free copy of the CD, e-mail Marian Brown or call her at 274-3787. Leave a message with your name and your office location where you can receive a CD via intracampus mail.
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