UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | March 29, 2024

Watt’s Your Future Worth: Advances in education fueled by energy

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Passing a class is important. Passing life is crucial.

Without educating ourselves, the crucial challenge of passing life is nearly impossible.

There are so many outlets to which we can turn to gain knowledge. I suggest that you use them efficiently.

If you don’t have a clue about life and what is going on around you, then how will you make it through?

You won’t, at least not as successfully as you would if you were educated.

Becoming educated about our community, our country, our nation and ourselves is vital to being successful.

So, how do we become educated?

We go to school in classrooms lit by electricity.

We travel the country in vehicles powered by fuel to have hands-on experiences.

We search the Internet on various devices that stay charged by electricity.

We read electronic forms of our textbooks on devices that we charge every day.

Sure, there are experiences that increase our knowledge that may seem like they don’t take an ounce of energy to complete.  For instance, biking to the mountains and spending the weekend in the wilderness seems energy-free, but is it?

Energy is used in practically every activity we engage in, including those activities that increase our level of education and knowledge.

For a long time, I took for granted the amount of impact that energy has on a day of educational learning. Then, one day during middle school the power went out and school got put on a standstill.

The reality of education depending on energy hasn’t changed.

Lately I’ve started gauging my educational involvement off of when my laptop dies. If the battery in my laptop dies before the battery inside my own body dies, then I know I’ve had a productive day of learning.

Yes, I use my laptop enough in one day for it to die before I am even done using it for the day, but I also believe in energy efficiency.

Using energy efficiently does not mean not using energy at all. Efficiency happens when the greatest possible amount of productivity happens along side the least amount of waste.

Using your laptop isn’t bad; turning on lights so you can review your notes isn’t bad. Driving to school isn’t bad either, so long as all of these things are done efficiently.

When you are done using your laptop or any computer or mobile device, don’t just put it down and let it keep running – power it off or put it on power save mode.

A light is only useful if someone is around to use it. Don’t leave on lights in rooms that aren’t occupied. Being energy efficient while at school can be a little more tricky. You never know when someone is going to walk in the room right after you flipped the switch just to turn it back on. You never know if you turning the light off is going to leave someone stranded in the bathroom in the dark. So, make yourself aware of your surroundings before flipping the switch. 

Driving to school isn’t a bad thing so long as it is necessary. For many students, walking to school is unrealistic due to the distance. For those of you near school, I encourage you to walk or bike. You can continue to be energy efficient while you are at school by not driving your vehicle from class to class. Walking from the Holland building to the North Instructional Building can be a pain, but it is entirely doable. 

It is necessary to use energy to live the lifestyle that our society does. It is necessary to use that energy efficiently.