It’s Friday, a day we all recognize and love, thanks to the questionable talents of Rebecca Black. It’s also the first day of June, which is the first real month of summer which means one thing and one thing only: schools getting out and it’s time to get outside. But before you run out of school yelling, “SCHOOL’S OUT FOR THE WEEKEND!” make sure you take a few minutes to power  down your school and home. Read on for more.

If your Action Team is participating in ACE’s Biggest Loser: Energy competition, you’re probably well aware that powering down gadgets and devices saves your school (and home!) both quite a bit of CO2 from being released into the atmospheres and a bunch of money on the energy bill. But did you know that you can actually get extra credit for doing things like creating posters to remind everybody to turn out the lights when they leave the room or throwing a Power Down Day? Yeah, you totally can! Just be sure to tell us about your projects. Plus, one lucky Action Team who submits a bonus project will win a PowerDown PrizePack that’s worth 50 bucks.

Okay, back to how you can PowerDown for the weekend:

At school:

1. Go around to all classrooms and shut off the lights. Lights out, everyone!
2. Being an Energy Vampire slayer. Sneakily unplug all computers, power strips, desk lights… anything connected to a power strip.

At home:

1. Sunny out? Keep the lights off for the entire day. The natural sunlight will be more than sufficient.
2. Cloudy out? Turn off all of the lights for half a day or half the lights for a whole day.
3. Unplug all gadgets when you’re done playing with them.

See? Powering down is super easy. For even more extra credit, head on over to our Facebook page and post a picture of your powering down activities.

Happy Powered Down weekend!