How much energy do you regularly use? How much of an impact will you have if you reduce your energy use?
Why?
- Students examine and visualize the extent of their regular energy use to get an intuitive sense of what energy really is
- Bring big sustainability topics into science classes
Visualizing Energy...
This is a video I found a while ago on TED-Ed:
This video is full of important Science, Math and Sustainable Development topics. It helps students visualize energy use (hard to visualize by itself) in terms of lightbulbs (easier to visualize). He discusses the fact that we need more substantial, systemic change than just 'eliminating plastic bags' to really make a difference in the world.
The video has been flipped on TED-Ed, meaning that in addition to the video, it has questions and extra resources for students. It is a good place to start a conversation on difficult topics such as sustainable power generation and personal energy use. Today I will focus on the personal energy use aspect. Flipped to a class, the questions given on TED-Ed can act as a homework check for a teacher as well as a formative assessment about their current understanding of the topic.
Personal Energy Audit
Watching the video, I was reminded of a project from third year where I had to perform a Personal Energy Audit by tracking my energy use over the course of a week. We then had to analyze our results and create a plan to reduce our energy consumption. Here are some of my results from that project:
The hardest part about collecting the data is figuring out the rate of consumption of each item. Most of them require the application of Ohm's Law (V=I/R) to find out the current. The natural gas can be found from utility bills and transportation can be approximated by mileage and gas consumption. This is where a Google Spreadsheet would come in handy. Each student could be assigned a different item and figure out how much energy it consumes for each hour/kilometre/month in operation and record the value and any assumptions. They could record their findings on the spreadsheet so the rest of the class would be able to see it. They could then use their classmates' values to Collaboratively calculate their total energy consumption by just keeping track of approximately how long each appliance is running and multiplying it by the consumption. The collaborative aspect of the task makes it much less laborious for each student while emphasizing the need for authentic and necessary collaboration.
Be Critical...
After performing the analysis, they would be responsible for creating an Action Plan that they can use to figure out how to reduce their energy consumption which they will put into practice. They should then compare their results to the number of lightbulbs given by the presenter in the video and critically analyze his assumptions. As an extension, the whole class can look at the total energy consumption and find out how many lightbulbs that equates to. Group discussions can be used to develop strategies for reducing power consumption as a school/community and educate their peers on the issue.
The investigation gives the students a great feel for the scale of their impact compared to the assumptions in the video. They can validate the speakers assumptions based on their own data and determine whether their personal impact is worth the effort it may require.
Curriculum connections...
In terms of curriculum, the assignment requires appropriate research, unit conversions, energy conversions, record keeping and data management, and basic electricity and energy calculations. Based on these expectations, Grade 11 or 12 Science would probably be appropriate. I think an interesting application would be for students to start the project in Grade 9 (or earlier) and track their energy use until Grade 12. This way they can evaluate and improve their own plans for reducing their energy consumption.
On the 21st Century Continuum...
Depending on how far a teacher wants to go with this project, I think it has the potential to be transformative in all dimensions of the 21C framework. The best part of it is that they can put self-constructed knowledge to good use with their Action Plans and set a good example for friends and family members by implementing them.
1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
3. Real-World Problem Solving & Innovation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
4. Skilled Communication: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
5. Self-Regulation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
6. Use of ICT for Learning: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
D2L
Today I attended a D2L training session. D2L would provide students doing an Energy Audit with the tools to collect the data, discuss the results and share the results with each other. They would also be able to share their results across schools and boards and track their progress over the years.
Future Lesson Ideas
- Nuclear Power Generation and Energy Return on Investment (EROI)
- Analyse carbon footprint/GHG emissions
- Embodied energy and life-cycle analysis
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