Free Electrical Safety Program

Under most circumstances, children and electricity just don’t mix. But factor in the power of education, and you can really generate some sparks - and do it safely.Such is the case whenever APS takes its free electrical safety program on the road.

For more than two decades, APS employees - from lineman to meter readers - have taken the safety message into the classroom through a series of lessons and live presentations.

"Electric Safety: A Matter of Respect," aims to reach every fourth grader in APS’ service territory, and focuses on understanding and respecting the power of electricity. In 2002 alone, more than 6,500 Arizona students learned about electrical safety.

The program not only teaches students electrical safety, but it ties the safety lessons into the student’s current science curriculums. APS’ electrical safety program has separate components for students from the first through the fifth grade, but the APS instructors tailor their live presentations to fourth graders, who are learning about electricity in their science classes.

The kids may already be learning about how batteries work or how electric circuits operate, so the live presentations arerelevant to what they are doing in school. We just want to supplement what the schools are doing by concentrating more on the safety aspects, and opening the lines of communication on a topic not readily discussed.

Each participating school receives a free master kit of the materials which teachers can share and use to teach their various grades. The program offers a wealth of materials including retention materials, a sampling of handout booklets for each grade and how to order. The handbook, "It’s a Wired World: Experiments in Electrical Safety" of electricity-based projects is reserved for teachers to teach their students.

At the end of the presentations, APS instructors always have time to answer a multitude of questions from the kids, but the learning doesn’t stop there.

The kids are asked to write letters with their questions which helps them work on their letter writing, grammar and spelling skills.

For more information, contact Carol Rosson at (602) 316-7143.