Energy Efficiency
How many times have you used electricity today? If you don’t know, chances are your students don’t either. Yet, how we use electricity has a profound impact on our environment. More than three-quarters of electricity in the U.S. is generated using fossil fuels— non-renewable resources that are unsustainable for energy production in the long-term.
These lesson plans, videos, and related resources help students to understand how they use electricity every day and how they contribute to the growing demand for electricity. Ideally, students will become more aware of the importance of their choices and how they can make a difference.
Download the You Have the Power Action Guide here.
Lesson Plans
- Make a Difference, Choose a Light Bulb!
How can a simple choice like choosing one type of light bulb over another be important? In this lesson, students compare how much energy different types of light bulbs use. Students then evaluate the short and long term economic and carbon foot print aspects of the alternatives available.
- How is Electricity Generated?
Generating electricity is simple in principle. Students build a model turbine to learn how any moving medium can potentially generate electricity. They explore the impact of using renewable versus non-renewable resources to produce electricity, including. Students consider the life cycle cost of the different energy sources by researching the economic, environmental and political costs and benefits.
- Electrically Speaking: Acid Bath!
Life in the ocean is dependent on healthy oceans. The burning of fossil fuels on land is having an impact on our oceans. Students first examine the effect of ocean acidification on shells. They follow up the activity with research into the effects of warming and acidification on ecosystems in the world's oceans including the bleaching of coral reefs.
- Electrically Speaking: Carbonated Oceans
The oceans are great absorbers of carbon dioxide released through the burning of fossil fuels. However, this is not without a cost to our oceans. Students measure the pH of a variety of cold and warm samples of water in order to examine the dueling parameters of increasing temperature and increasing acidification of the oceans. They then apply their new knowledge to further their understanding of the complex geochemical cycles of the world's oceans.
- 1Fossil Fuels
- 2Hydroelectric
- 3Conservation in the Home
- 4Power through Steam
- 5Ethanol
- 6Nuclear Power
- 7Wind Power
- 8Student Inventor: Solar Powered House
- 9Energy Saving in the Kitchen
- 10Improving Your Building's Shell
- 11Youth Becoming Empowered
- 12HVAC and Energy Usage
- 13Plotting Data to Track Energy Usage
- 14Carbondale's Energy Champions
- 15Energy Champion Awards
- 16A Network of Power Lines
- 17Turn off the lights!
- 18Line Loss
- 19Power Distribution: The High Voltage Network
- 20Power Distribution: Connecting the User
- 21Energy for the Future
- 22Natural Lighting and Electricity Use
- 23How Wind and Solar Power Work
- 24Energy From the Sea
- 25Solar Power
Related Resources
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- Click here to see the full list of additional classroom resources.
- Interactive Map: Visualizing the U.S. Electric Grid
- Bottled Water and Energy
- Hong Kong Academy Ecological Footprint Assessment 2010
- Water Requirements of Different Energy Sources
- Pizza Box Solar Oven
- NEEF Teaching Water Energy Connection
Comments
- Electric microscope
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Radiation source
- October 23, 2011, 9:29 AM
- @Mercedes (EarthEcho International)
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Mercedes,
While these lesson were created specifically for middle and high school classrooms, the Action Guides can be adapted for use with much younger students and might be something you could use with your students. All the best!
- May 16, 2011, 9:41 PM
- dav bishnoi
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speak truth always
preserve your live stock.
- April 29, 2011, 2:32 AM
- Mercedes
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Need materials for third grade, that's the grade I teach. :=(
- April 26, 2011, 7:53 PM
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