How to explore and measure

To calculate your school carbon footprint you will need to investigate how your school produces CO₂. There are eight assignments:

• Two assignments for all pupils and staff. You will need to encourage everyone in your school to complete the individual tasks.
  
• Six assignments for the Carbon Detectives Team.
  

Assignments for all pupils and staff

You need to ask your friends, classmates and teachers to complete these assignments online. They have to enter information about:

• Food - the packed lunches and snacks, and drinks eaten during a normal school day.
  
• Travel - the distance travelled to and from school on a normal day.
  

The counter in the explore and measure box tells you how many people you need to complete this task and how many people have entered information so far. You could make an announcement in assembly to tell everyone.

Assignments for the Carbon Detectives Team

There are six assignments to investigate. You will need to find out about:

• Energy and Water - how much energy and water your school uses.
  
• Food - the meals provided by the school.
  
• Waste and Recycling - measure waste and how it is disposed.
  
• Travel - the distance travelled by school vehicles and trips.
  
• Purchasing - what paper and equipment your school buys.
  
• Buildings and Grounds - the ground floor area of your school and the number of new trees planted each year.
  

Each assignment has:

• A page where you enter your data to help you.
  
• Guidelines to help you collect the data. Make sure you read these before you start.
  

When you have collected the data and entered it on the ‘explore and measure’ pages, you can look at your results and find out the total amount of carbon dioxide produced by your school and the size of your school footprint per person.

Go back to your school homepage to read about each assignment.