Creator: Ashley Ashbeck

C&I 371, Spring 2009

 

Lesson 4: From Coal to Outlet: How Much Electricity Do I Use?

Grade Level: 1st Grade

Unit Topic: Energy Conservation

Time Needed: Day 1- 60 minutes (total); Day 2- 15 minutes; Day 3- 1 day; Day 4- 40 minutes

 

Lesson Context: Now that the students have a more complete understanding of how electricity gets to their homes and school, this lesson will heighten a level of awareness in the students about the amount of electricity they use during a typical day.  In order to make lifestyle and other energy saving changes, it’s first necessary to realize what you can change and have to change.  The final lesson in this unit will then take the observations the students made about their energy consumption, and guide them in determining what they can do—changes they can make in their lifestyle or their surroundings—to conserve energy, and to promote those ways of energy conservation to others.

 

Madison Metropolitan School District Standards:

·         Use communication skills effectively—asks and responds to questions in group settings; initiate conversation with peers and adults; follow rules for conversation; use appropriate voice level in group settings.

UW-Madison Teacher Standards:

·         STANDARD 6: CONNECTS SCHOOL AND COMMUNITYTeachers use the knowledge and abilities necessary for collaboration with individuals, groups and agencies within the school and community. They base instruction of students on an understanding of curricular goals, subject matter and the community, and help the students make connections between community-based knowledge and school knowledge.

Wisconsin DPI Social Studies Standards:

·         D.4.7 Describe how personal economic decisions, such as deciding what to buy, what to recycle, or how much to contribute to people in need, can affect the lives of people in Wisconsin, the United States, and the world.

 

Content Objectives:

Students will learn that…

·         An energy survey is a list of common objects and actions that use energy, and requires the surveyor to determine how often these appliances and actions are used or done.

 

Process Objectives:

                Students will…

·         Take a walking survey of the classroom and surrounding hallways for objects requiring electricity, or actions people are doing that use electricity.

·         Share the observations they made with the rest of the class, contributing to the collaborative class list of objects/actions using electricity in the classroom and school.

·         Compare and contrast three different energy surveys.

·         Compromise with their classmates when deciding on the format for the class energy survey they created.

·         Collaborate with their classmates when completing an energy survey of the classroom’s energy usage.

 

Materials:

·         Copies of class energy survey

·         Copies of three energy survey examples

·         Student notebooks

·         Pencils

·         Computer projector

·         laptop

 

Procedure:

                Day 1: Creating the Classroom Energy Survey

·         Have the students take out a notebook and writing utensil.  Tell the students to line up from tallest to shortest.  Guide the students in folding the line in half, so that each student has a partner.  Once the students are paired up, and without any further explanation, tell the students that they will have FIVE MINUTES to walk around the classroom and hallway (up to a certain point).  Their task is to write down objects they see that use electricity, or tasks/actions that people are doing that require electricity.  Show the students on the clock at what time they should be back in the classroom.

·         The students should sit in a circle on the carpet with their notebooks when they return to the classroom.  To share what the students surveyed, do a continuous whip-around where students share one thing off their list and check off the items already shared—this whip-around will continue until all objects/actions have been shared.  For efficiency, the teacher should have a laptop with projector set up so that the list of objects/actions can be typed as they are shared, and so that the students can see the list being.

·         **Prior to this lesson, the teacher should have gone around the classroom and hallways and created his/her own list of as many objects and actions as possible.  If there are any major objects or actions missing on the list, have the teacher add them/suggest them, but overall, this list should be majorly compiled by the students.  Once the observations have been exhausted, take a good look over the list.  To spark the correct thought process needed to finish creating the class energy survey, use the example of light bulbs (or lighting, depending on how it’s on the list).  Ask out-loud, Let’s look at light bulbs, what could I ask someone about their light bulbs?  What about—how many light bulbs do you have? (The students should agree, and write this underneath “light bulbs.”)  Ask, well are there different types of light bulbs?  Help me make a list of the different light bulbs.  And, could you also ask how long you have the lights on?  Or how many times you turn the lights on and off? 

·         Throughout the day, keep coming back to the list and flesh it out as exemplified above.  At the end of the day, after the list has been fleshed out, tell the students that what they’ve done is created an energy survey.  An energy survey is a list of common objects and actions that use energy, and requires the surveyor to determine how often these appliances and actions are used or done.  People can do an energy survey in their homes to help them see how much energy they’re using, and when they’re using too much!  Tell the students that tomorrow, they will get a chance to take a look at different energy surveys that utility companies have for their customers to use. 

 

Day 2: Comparing and Contrasting Energy Surveys, & Completing the Class Energy Survey

·         Have the students count off to divide themselves into groups of three.  Hand out one of each of the three energy surveys to each of the groups, and have the students look at them for about five minutes without any further instruction.  Draw a three-circle Venn diagram on the board.  Review with the students what each of the sections of the circle means, and label the sections.  Then, have the students share what makes each survey unique, or similarities they see between surveys.  Record the observations in the Venn diagram, explaining out-loud the reasoning why each observation goes in a certain section.

·         Ask the students how they’d like to format their energy survey, based off of the observations they made of the examples.  Tell them to think about what format would be easiest if we were to give our classroom energy survey to another classroom to fill out.  As the teacher, pose questions such as, What about if someone can’t read really well.  We want them to be able to do the survey as well, what do you think about including pictures?  Have this discussion, and come to an agreement on the format of the survey.  **Teacher’s homework is to finish the survey per agreement of students.

 

Day 3: Completing Class Energy Audit

·         Hand out a copy of the class energy audit to each student.  As a class, go through the items on the survey that require only a number, such as the number of light bulbs, and divide up the tasks to the students to complete.  For the items on the survey that are actions, such as how long the lights are left on during the day, decide with the class how they can keep track of these durations.  Following the example of how long the lights are left on, a piece of paper could be posted next to the light switch and whenever the lights are turned on or off the time could be recorded on the paper.

·         Have the students fill out the items that they can, such as number of light bulbs, number of items plugged into outlets, etc.  Set up the rest of the survey and how it will be recorded, and who will be responsible for recording.  Remind the students that there will be a lot of things to do, so everyone will get a chance to do something!

·         Conduct the rest of the survey for the rest of the day.  At the end of the day, with about 15 minutes left, gather all of the students on the carpet and bring closure to the energy survey by gathering all of the data collected by the students and compiling it onto one energy survey.  Tell the students that tomorrow they will analyze the data they collected to see where they could improve their energy consumption.  Also, hand out a blank energy survey to each student and tell them that, over the weekend, they should try to do an energy survey of their house—and that if they’d like to ask their parents to help them, they could teach them how to do it too!

 

Day 4: Analyzing the Data from the Energy Survey

·         **Prior to today’s analysis of the energy audit, the teacher should gather facts and data about the energy usage of the items and actions that the students collected data for their energy survey.  You can use the following website for data, http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/home/neg_info.aspx as well as others.

·         Use the facts that you found, paired against the data the students collected in the energy survey yesterday, to create Student Spectrums.  On one side of the room, make a sign that says “MORE” and on the opposite side of the room, make a sign that says “LESS.”  Create scenarios that require the students to think about whether the energy they use is more, less, or equal to the “average” usage.  For example, if the classroom has 5 incandescent light bulbs, ask the students whether they think that a fluorescent light bulb uses more or less energy than an incandescent light bulb.  Then ask if they think a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) uses more or less energy than an incandescent light bulb.  This activity would take preparation on the teacher’s part, however allows the students to react to their energy usage in the classroom.

·         Ask the students if they’d like to share the energy survey they created with the other classes in their grade (hopefully they say yes! But if not, a discussion could involve how it’s important to share the knowledge they’ve learned with others.  Plus, the students should be PROUD of what they created!).  Divide the students up into groups of three or four.  Give each group one of the blank energy surveys.  Brainstorm with the students how they want to present the survey to the other classes, what they think is important to say about it, etc.  When the students feel prepared, have they go to the other classrooms and present their energy surveys for the other classrooms to complete.

 

Assessment:

I will be looking informally at the ability of each student to collaborate with the rest of their classmates.  This lesson requires teamwork, and respectful sharing and agreeing on ideas—a student that meets my expectations will share what they’re thinking, listen to their classmates’ ideas quietly and respectfully, and help make decisions for the good of the class.  Participation in the activities is key, and I will look for a willingness from each of the students.  Day 4’s Student Spectrum activity will allow me to see whether students are challenging what they know about energy efficiency and whether or not they’re willing to analyze their energy usage.

 

Resources:

 

Energy Surveys

“Home Energy and Water Efficiency Survey.”  Retrieved on April 30, 2009, at http://www.sce.com/NR/rdonlyres/4A8F1423-B7CC-4D18-BD81-423EDEAFF8C2/0/MailInSurveyOnline_Home_Energy_Survey.pdf

 

“Do-It-Yourself Home Energy Audits.” Retrieved on April 30, 2009, at http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/energy_audits/index.cfm/mytopic=11170

 

“Home Energy Audit for Kids.” Retrieved on April 30, 2009, at http://www.earthcarecanada.com/Library/Home_Energy_Audit.pdf