I am so glad you posted, and I am happy to hear that you, your class and your teacher are doing such an interesting topic in class. There are a lot of interesting new technologies available: I like to divide then up into 3 categories to help make sense of them all; things that help with power, things that help with water, and new building materials. Let’s pick just one: water. You might know that we are in the middle of a really bad drought. Conserving water is going to be very important to the future of our state, and our planet. One really practical thing that most people can install is a dual flush toilet. An average home with 4 people can use their toilet10 times a day. If that home uses 1.6 gallons each time it flushes, how much water does it use in a day? A dual flush toilet can use .9 gallons per flush if you only go number 1. So if you use your toilet for number 1 half of the time (5) how much water would you save each day? How much water would you save in one year? (365 days) How much over 5 years? Imagine if your whole block did the same thing…

I’m a fifth grade student at Gardner Bullis in Los Altos, CA. I’m in Sarah Koh’s class. She emailed you and wondered whether you could come in to talk to our class. Anyways, I was wondering if you could maybe tell me some advanced green technologies to help me with my project. In class we’re doing a “Green Project”. Our teacher is very enthusiastic about new green technologies.

Thanks,

Maddy