QA Graphics Offers Schools Interactive Technology for Sustainable Education

ANKENY, IA, September 25, 2010 (Press-News.org) QA Graphics, a provider of green education displays, continues to help schools promote environmental awareness among students, faculty and the community during the 2010 school year by providing a solution that can be used as part of a sustainable curriculum.

QA Graphics supports schools' green education efforts, offering an interactive display called the Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard (EEED), a solution that makes sustainable education fun and easy to understand. The Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard can showcase green school initiatives by displaying information about a school's real-time resource use, green features, carbon footprint reduction, recycling procedures and other sustainable practices. By incorporating this display into the school's curriculum, interactive demonstrations, quizzes and games make learning about the environment fun. The EEED is presented in a user-friendly format similar to a website and can be shown online, or on other technology common to schools, like touchscreens, kiosks and SMART Boards.

"Displaying real-time building data and providing tips that everyone can follow to be more efficient is a simple way to get everyone involved for a more efficient school," said Dan McCarty, president and owner of QA Graphics. "Showing students how their actions directly impact the school promotes an environmental awareness that can be carried on at home and in future actions."

A school's real-time resource use can be shown by integrating the EEED with the building control system. This allows the display to "talk" to the building automation system (BAS) or meters within the school and display the school's live building data in a way that's easy to understand, so that students and faculty can see how much water, electricity, etc., is used on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

Schools working towards the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification can achieve credits for using educational displays that demonstrate why a building is sustainable. Using the Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard can help achieve Innovation in Design credits including the ID Green Education credit or the ID School as a Teaching Tool credit.

The Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard is easily incorporated into the curriculum, designed as a plug-and-play solution, and much of the content can be edited allowing the display to be revised as the school's sustainable initiatives change. Visit http://www.qagraphics.com/eeed to learn more.

QA Graphics has developed two solutions with educational pricing specifically for schools:

Interactive Education Package Includes: $3,200
• Home Page - Displays an image of the school.
• 1 2D Demo - Demonstrate how a sustainable feature implemented at the school works.
• Green Features Page - Provide educational descriptions and pictures to showcase sustainable initiatives.
• Interactive Quiz - Test students' sustainable knowledge.
• Environmental Tips Page - Provide easy tips that anyone can do to help the environment.
• Weather Widget - Display current weather information and forecasts.
• Editable content, photos and videos so that the curriculum can grow with the school's green initiatives.
• EEED is displayed online - Allows the application to be utilized in multiple locations.

Interactive Education with Live Data Includes: $8,500
• Home Page - Displays an image of the school.
• 1 2D Demo - Demonstrate how a sustainable feature implemented at the school works.
• Green Features Page - Provide educational descriptions and pictures to showcase sustainable initiatives.
• Interactive Quiz - Test students' sustainable knowledge.
• Environmental Tips Page - Provide easy tips that anyone can do to help the environment.
• Weather Widget - Display current weather information and forecasts.
• 2 Live Building Data Points - Display real-time resource use for 2 data types (i.e., gas, electric, water, C02). This includes totalization in the form of daily/weekly/monthly/yearly data.
• EEED Gateway device to retrieve live data from the building.
• Preconfigured CPU to provide a turnkey solution.
• Editable content, photos and videos so that the curriculum can grow with the school's green initiatives.
• EEED is displayed online - Allows the application to be utilized in multiple locations.

A custom EEED can be developed to include other display needs, like news/announcements, wayfinding, a building directory, a calendar of events, menu, advertisements, donor recognition and other custom options.

To learn more about how energy efficiency education can be incorporated into sustainable curriculum, attend a free webinar sponsored by QA Graphics. Visit http://www.qagraphics.com/schools to view times and register.

About QA Graphics
QA Graphics is an innovative computer graphic development company specializing in the building automation and green building design industries. The company is an industry leader in the design of graphical user interfaces (GUI) and energy efficiency education used to showcase green building initiatives. Visit http://www.qagraphics.com to learn more.