Middle schoolers at Melrose Leadership Academy in California wanted a better way to cool their hot, stuffy classrooms. Mini air conditioners were causing power outages when too many ran at once. So students in the school’s Youth vs. Apocalypse club proposed an idea for a more climate-friendly system: a heat pump.
Heat pumps work by moving heat out of a building in summer and into a building in winter. A heat pump would be more practical than tiny air conditioners. And, since it runs on electricity, it would emit fewer greenhouse gases than the school’s current heat source, a gas-fired boiler.
The students discussed their idea with architects and got the whole school to sign a petition. In December 2023, their proposal was approved! The heat pump should be installed by early 2027. Augie Balquist, a student on the project, says the experience showed him that “the voices of young people matter.”