S7 E3: Energy Through Their Eyes - A Visit to Clear View Elementary

Career Day gets a lot more interesting when the kids take the mic. We’re at Clearview Elementary with students who tell us what they learned about Jones Onslow EMC, what electricity powers in their homes, and what they’d change if they could give “electric powers” to anything from a bed to a flying carpet.

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Transcript

Phantom Power And Home Savings

SPEAKER_04 0:04

Hey everyone, Natalie here, and we've got a special episode of Flippin' the Switch for you this month. One of the best parts of what we do at Jones Onslow EMC is connecting with our community. And that means getting out to local schools and career fairs across Jones and Onslow counties. At a recent visit to Clearview Elementary, we met some amazing students and invited a few of them to be our special podcast guests. Join me and Crystal Phillips as we interview some of the most important guests we will have, the future leaders of our community. All right, so today we are here at Clearview Elementary School for a special edition of Flippin' the Switch. We are going to be interviewing some students because it's career day. So what's your name?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Camden.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Camden. And Camden, tell me one thing you learned today about Jones Onzo or electricity. Um, I learned that it or maybe even something cool that you like about it. Maybe about Mr. Costa's job and IT or our job.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

It works with electric electric electricity all around the county. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

That's right. And what is your favorite thing in your house that is powered by electricity? Um my phone. Your phone, yeah. You plug it into charge, right? Now, I have a pop quiz question for you. When your phone is at 100% and and you're plugging it in and charging it, do you think it's still using energy after it's fully charged? Yes. Yes, that's right. And there's a term for that. It's called phantom electricity. So another example would be you have a toaster at your house.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Yeah. And you put toast in it and you push it down and it comes out. Now, when it's plugged in and you're not using it, it's still using energy. So, with that being said, what's something you can do at your house to save energy?

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Um, unplug some stuff that you're not using. Yep, what's one more thing you can do?

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Um turn off lights whenever you're not using them. That's right. That's great. Those are two simple ways that you can save energy at your house. Okay, I'm gonna ask you one more question, and this is gonna be a silly one, so it can be whatever answer you want. Obviously, we can't see electricity, right? We can see it through the lights that are on in the classroom and through other things, but we actually can't see it working. But if it was a person, what would it look like? It could be a boy, girl, would it be mean? Would it be nice?

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Um I would say it would be a guy with yellow hair. Yellow hair, yeah. Um and it would be like all crazy.

SPEAKER_04 2:59

Yeah, crazy. All right, well, that's all I have today. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast and being our guest.

If Electricity Were Pikachu

SPEAKER_00 3:07

All right. Now we have Bruce. Bruce is here with us from Clearview Elementary. He is an I would say a resident Pokemon aficionado. He knows lots of things about Pokemon. And we're gonna ask a couple electricity related questions, but one that is related to Pokemon. If electricity was a Pokemon, which one would he be? I already know. Pikachu. Oh and why would it be Pikachu?

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Because he literally his power is literally electricity.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

That's right. Now let's for anybody that listens to the podcast that doesn't know a little bit about Pokemon, explain Pikachu to people.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Basically, Pikachu is he's based off of an actual animal. And his power is electricity, which you can use to attack, and also it probably could help with um electricity services.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Now, if Pikachu worked at Jones Onslow, what do you think his job would be?

SPEAKER_02 4:22

I'd say like technician.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Oh, so would Pikachu be in charge of like helping on the like a lineman to get the power back on?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

I think so too. Now, if I'm at work and I had Pikachu with me, would I have to be careful because he is electricity?

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Definitely, because you know, it's dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

That's right, and electricity is very dangerous. So do we touch electricity?

SPEAKER_02 4:51

No.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

So that means I could look at Pikachu, but I couldn't touch him, right? That's right. So if Pikachu was here for the day, I think he would be the most valuable employee at Jones Onslow because he could generate power even in an outage, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So if we had an outage, do you think Pikachu would be a real addition to the staff?

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

All right. If Pikachu was at Jones Onslow for the day, would he bring anybody with him?

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Probably Ash.

Simple Habits To Save Energy

SPEAKER_00 5:20

That's right. So he always has a good sidekick. Well, thanks, Bruce. I love that we had our resident expert here, and congratulations on doing a great job, buddy. All right, will you put the headphones on? All right, and then pick up your microphone. And what is your name? Elena. All right, Elena. There are lots of things that happen at Jones Onslow. And like you learned earlier, it is an electric cooperative, okay? Now I'm gonna ask you a couple questions and you can answer them to the best of your ability. And silly answers are fine too, okay? So one of the things at Jones Onslow is that we tell people that you should save electricity, okay? So if I told you, hey, could you save some electricity at your house? Would you A want to pedal your whole house with a bicycle? Because that would help you save energy. Okay, that seems like a good option. Or would you suggest maybe just turning out a couple lights? Turning out a couple lights. Why wouldn't you want to pedal the whole for the whole house? Do you think you could do that?

unknown 6:28

Uh maybe.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

If you were pedaling a bicycle to generate energy, what do you think you could actually turn on from your pedaling of the bicycle? A lot of lights? All of your lights? You'll be pedaling for a long time, but I'm very impressed with your stamina. Okay. So when you are saving energy, you just turned out all the lights. But what if you happen to leave one lamp still on? If your lamp could talk to you and you left the lamp on and you were supposed to turn it off, what would the lamp say? Turn me off. He's not very creative, is he? What else? If he could say anything, what if he say, hey lady, could you turn me off? We say that would be bossy. A nice lamp. Okay. And our last save energy question for you. Do you think when you go to bed at night, you should unplug some things? Do you think that's important, or do you think you should just go into sleep mode on a device?

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Unplug some things.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

That's right. And do you know another name for things when you're not using them and they're plugged in? If something is plugged in, they are called Phantom. So they're like a Dracula. So think about whenever you're leaving in a toaster plugged in in the morning and it stays plugged in all day, it's still using energy, even though you didn't pop a Pop Tart or toast in there. Okay. All right. I'm glad that you have a nice lamp. I'm glad to know that you can ride a bicycle very well. And thank you for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

What's your name?

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Um, Mohammed.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

Mohammed. And what but you have a nickname, right? What's your nickname? Um, it's Mo. All right, Mo. Okay, we're talking about electricity today. We're here at Career Day and we're learning all about the different careers near our school, right? Okay, so first thing, what happens if you touch a plug with wet hands or even just touch a plug sometimes in general? What do you think happens, like an electrical outlet in your house?

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Um, you could get electrocuted.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

Yeah, you could get electrocuted. Do you have you ever seen those little covers that you can put on the plug so that you can't touch it?

SPEAKER_03 8:42

Yeah, my mom has to.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

Yeah, do you have any siblings?

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Um, yeah, I have a lot.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

You have a lot? Do you have any little siblings? Yeah, they could crawl around and sometimes when they're little, we they don't know as much as we do, right? So we have to make sure that it's nice and safe. And sometimes we can put those things on the plugs. Okay. Do you think sometimes when you touch a doorknob when you're going into different rooms, you can get shocked?

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:05

Yeah? Why do you think that is magnetic? Yeah. Like some kind of like static energy, yeah. So sometimes we get shocked. Sometimes if we touch something like this, like the soundboard, sometimes we can get shocked too. Do you think it hurts? A little bit. A little bit, yeah. Okay, now let's move on to some silly questions. Okay. What do you think if electricity looked like a person? What do you think it would look like?

SPEAKER_03 9:33

A bunch of wires.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

A bunch of wires, like kind of like crazy looking? Yeah. What color do you think it would be?

SPEAKER_03 9:43

Silver.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Silver. And do you think it would be a loud person or do you think it would be a quiet person? A loud. A loud person. I think so too. Okay. One last question for you before we move on to our next guest. If you could make anything in your house that doesn't have electricity have electricity, what item would you make? Have electricity. An example would be our first group that we had. Someone said they wish their bed had electricity so they could stay in it and come to school and lay down. Your chair. Your chair? Okay, what about your chair? What do you what would it do if it had electricity?

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Uh keep my butt warm.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

Keep your butt warm? That's kind of smart. Kind of like in the car. Like there's there's there's seat warmers in the car.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

It's always cold.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

Yeah, if you're cold at school. Yeah. Cool. Well, thank you so much to our first guest. Good job, Mo.

Electric Superpowers And Lineman Work

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Oh, thanks. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

Okay, what's your name?

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Malcolm.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

Malcolm. Okay, Malcolm. What do you use at your house that uses a lot of electricity?

SPEAKER_02 10:43

No, the lights.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

The lights, okay, of course. So we it's important that we turn off the lights when we leave home, right? Okay, so beyond the lights, what are some things we can do at home, or what are some things that you can do in particular that will save electricity at home? So when things are fully charged, what should we do?

unknown 11:00

Unplug them.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Unplug them, that's right. And then I'm gonna ask the same question that I asked him. There's a bunch of stuff in your house that doesn't have electricity. If you could choose one thing to make have cool powers and electricity, what would it be?

unknown 11:14

Food.

SPEAKER_04 11:15

Food? And how what with with electricity and food, how would that work? What would it do for you?

SPEAKER_02 11:21

It will it will be like when what if I eat part of it, it will regenerate.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Oh, regenerate. See, I was gonna say like maybe it can make like you could put the food out on the table and it can make a recipe for you or something. But the regenerating, like when the food is gone and it just regenerates, that's what you want.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

So I can get infinite food crisis.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yeah, that's great. Cool. All right, well, good job, Malcolm.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Bye.

SPEAKER_04 11:46

Okay, what's your name?

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Grady.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

Grady, okay. So for our listeners, Grady has a little bit of knowledge about the electric industry because your dad's a lineman, right? Yeah. And do you think your dad's job is easy or hard?

SPEAKER_02 12:00

It's hard.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

And what do you think he does when he goes to work?

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Uh he works on the poles.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

The poles and the power lines? Do you think he wears special things so that he doesn't get injured?

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

What kind of things?

SPEAKER_02 12:17

He wears uh uh like really big gloves.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

Really big gloves.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

And um he wears no, he gets picked up by like a lineman and gets carried over there.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Yep, in a bucket, right? And then does he wear anything on his head?

unknown 12:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

He wears a um he wears like a struction hat.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

Construction hat, like a hard hat, yep. And if you could work at a place like Jones Onslow, would you do something like your dad or would you do something different?

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Do something like my dad.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

Like your dad? How about this? If you were the boss for a day at Jones Onslow, what would you do?

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Take off a day.

SPEAKER_04 12:59

Take off a day? You wouldn't even come in? That's super smart. Someone said earlier that they would have a party and they would bring food. And we said that would be super fun. What are your favorite things that have electricity? They could be a small device, it could be going to the movie theater. What are some things that you like to do that involve electricity?

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Uh play on my PS5.

SPEAKER_04 13:21

Play on your PS5. Yep. And I actually have a question for you. When you're not using your PS5, do you think it's still using electricity or no?

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Uh kind of.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

You know what that's called? It's called phantom electricity. That means that when you have things plugged into your home and you're not using them, they still draw electricity. Isn't that kind of cool? But we have to save electricity too, right? So what is something you can do at home that helps save electricity and power in your house? Uh turning off all the TVs. All the TVs. And what's one more thing you can do?

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Uh turn off the stove.

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Turn off the stove. Yep, that's a good one. All right. Well, we have one more funny question. I'm gonna ask you the same question that I asked Mo. If you could make anything in your house, have electricity, and do something super cool, what would it be? My bed. Your bed. And would it take you places or maybe make you warm? What would it do? Waken you up for school. Wake you up for school. That's awesome. Because then you wouldn't be able to sleep in and you could get to school on time, right?

unknown 14:30

Yeah.

Lightning Humor And VR Talk

SPEAKER_04 14:31

All right. Well, great job. Thanks for coming on the podcast today. All right, can you hear good in your headphones? Yeah. All right. What's your name?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Royce.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

Royce. All right, Royce. We're gonna ask some funny questions. We've been asking some serious questions. So we're gonna have some fun. Okay. So we talked about what electricity might look like. If lightning had a favorite snack, what'd it eat? Thunder chips?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

What would it eat? It would probably eat the poles that um have like the that keeps a house ice on them.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

Oh, like a like in a utility pole? Like it would eat one of those? I think it kind of does sometimes, don't you think? You know what I think of? I think elect I think electricity and lightning. Have you guys ever had pop rocks before? You know how they pop in your mouth? That's what I think a lightning, a lightning bulb would eat. Okay. So light bulbs, you have a bunch of those at home, right? Yes. Like in lamps and in the ceiling. Do you think light bulbs get scared of the dark?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Yeah? That's why they're on all the time, right? But when we're trying to save power at home, what should we do to the light bulbs?

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Turn them off.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

Turn them off. Do you keep lights on at home, or do you are you one of those that turns them off? Sometimes I forget.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Keep them on.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

You keep them on, yeah. Okay. I'm gonna ask you the question that we've been asking everybody too. What is one thing in your house that you wish had electricity and what would it do? A carpet. A carpet? And then what would it do? Fly. Fly? Would you get on the carpet and fly places? Yes. Yeah? Do you have stairs in your house? Yes. Yes? So then you wouldn't even have to go up the stairs. You wouldn't even you it would just take you right up there, right? What is your favorite thing that has electricity? It can be a device, it can be something you use in the classroom, it can be somewhere that's not at your house. What's something that you like that has electricity?

SPEAKER_01 16:31

My VR.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Your VR? Oh, VR super cool. What games do you play on your VR?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Um, most likely Gorilla Tag.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

And how do you play that?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Um, you just move your arms around and like despose it yourself.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Oh, cool. So you you want to make do you have any siblings?

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Um, yes.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

You want to make sure they're not around you when you do that because you could whack them on accident, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah.

Follow Jones Onslow EMC

SPEAKER_04 16:52

But you um it seems like you don't really care. You're gonna play it wherever, right? All right. Well, thank you very much. That's our last guest for today. Well, folks, that's all for today's episode of Flippin' the Switch. Be sure to follow us on our social media platforms to stay in the loop with Jones Onzo. We'll see y'all next time.