EWEB teaches Irving Elementary fourth graders electrical safety with live demos
Irving fourth graders watched live electricity at work and learned why water, downed lines and car roofs can be dangerous. EWEB is taking the lesson to 16 classrooms.
Fourth graders at Irving Elementary School in Eugene got a lesson in electrical safety that was meant to stick long after the classroom visit ended. Eugene Water & Electric Board educators brought PowerTown, a live-voltage demonstration, to the school on May 19, turning electricity from an abstract warning into something students could see moving through materials, including water.
The 30-minute presentation uses live electrical components to simulate the real electric grid, and EWEB says it is designed specifically for fourth graders. During the lesson, students saw which everyday objects conduct electricity and learned why that matters at home, near neighborhood transformers and around power lines. They also learned what to do if a power line falls on a vehicle, a scenario EWEB treats as one of the most important safety messages for children to remember.
One Irving student said the demonstration was fun to watch but made the warning clear: do not play with power. That is exactly the kind of reaction EWEB is aiming for, said Lance Hughes, the utility’s safety program manager, who said fourth grade is a critical age to introduce electrical hazards early and build lifelong caution.
The Irving visit was part of a broader effort that EWEB says will reach 16 fourth-grade classrooms across four school districts. The utility says any fourth grade teacher in its service territory can request a PowerTown demonstration, extending the program beyond a single school assembly and into a wider safety campaign for Lane County children and families.
EWEB first piloted PowerTown at Fairfield Elementary School in May 2025, then expanded the line-safety instruction for young students as a targeted outreach effort. The utility says it has long used electric-safety demonstrations for schools, first responders, construction workers and the public, and it dedicates a portion of customer rates to education programs that include science, watershed health, water quality, clean energy and emergency preparedness.
That broader mission gives the Irving lesson a practical edge. In a county where summer play, storm damage and fallen lines can create real hazards, the message from the classroom was simple and memorable: electricity is useful, but it demands distance, respect and caution.
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