Students learn about electricity at co-op camp
Gliding high above the rooftops, lineworker Denton Jones and his coworkers gave kids a moment they won’t soon forget this summer. Denton took campers from Tri-County Electric Cooperative’s one-day summer camp for bucket truck rides over the electric cooperative’s Lancaster headquarters while they took in the 360-degree views of rolling farmland and wind farms of rural Schuyler County. It was just one of many activities the campers experienced during a busy day of learning at the co-op.
Tri-County hosted its inaugural Power UP Co-op Camp in July and August where co-op personnel taught fifth, sixth and seventh graders about the cooperative difference, electricity, safety and more.
The camp was born out of the gap the electric co-op had with students in middle school throughout its eight-county service area.
“We get into the schools in fourth grade to do safety demonstrations and then in high school, we might do a live-line demo and talk about our youth programs like Youth Tour and CYCLE,” says Stephanie Mills, the co-op’s manager of communications, member services and economic development. “So we had this gap in middle school we wanted to fill. These kids have advanced since fourth grade, so they’re able to apply what they’ve learned in their school curriculum to these real-world things.”
Tara Tharp’s son, Ezra, attended the camp in August and she says it’s a step beyond the safety demonstrations students receive in school. “It’s a great hands-on learning tool for them,” the fifth grade teacher says. “I think it’s more exciting for them to experience these things as opposed to sitting through a 45-minute demonstration with a few other classes.”
Campers started the day with a tour of the co-op and a live-line demonstration where they got an up-close look at the power of electricity and the importance of safety. Later, they heard from and asked questions of a variety of cooperative employees including those in finance, billing and operations. “Everyone knows about the linemen that work at the co-op,” Stephanie says. “But we wanted to show all the people it takes for the co-op to run.”
In the afternoon they went on bucket truck rides, got a behind-the-scenes virtual reality tour of power being generated, operated a cutout, built a circuit and played a co-op board game that employees made. “It was like Chutes and Ladders but explained what it means to be a co-op member,” Stephanie says. “They would move forward spaces when capital credits were returned or they attended their annual meeting and voted.”
The camp was possible because it was a team effort from all of Tri-County’s few dozen employees according to Stephanie. “I brought it to the table and we all did it together,” she says. “Different employees took on different stations and made them their own, like the VR goggles or the circuit building.”
Tara says Ezra is excited to go back next year and weeks after leaving the camp, still talks about what he learned. “He’s still using the terms he learned at the camp,” she says. “Just yesterday on the way home from school, he was pointing out poles and wires and telling me how they must be electric because of the grounding cord.”
Cooperatives operate following seven guiding principles and the camp centered around three of them: Cooperation Among Cooperatives, Concern for Community and Education and Training. Stephanie picked up the idea from another cooperative while attending a conference and leaned on Tri-County’s transmission cooperative, Northeast Power, to operate the live-line demonstration.
“We have the education component so the campers can learn about electricity and know how we work around it safely,” Stephanie says. “But, it’s important for our members — and everyone in our community really — to know why a co-op is so unique. Why we are different than other power providers.”
For more information on the Power UP Co-op Camp, visit www.tricountyelectric.org/power-co-op-camp.