The purpose of this lesson is to develop student understanding of the economic and environmental impact of energy use and energy management in a society where energy costs are rising as fossil fuels become increasingly scarce. Through personal investigation, students will learn how they can become more energy savvy and discover ways to conserve energy in their homes. Activities include:

• Guided Energy Audit of the School
• Watt Meter Activity

Handouts included

National Standards: 5-8

• INT-A: 1.c. Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
• INT-A: 1.d. Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
• INT-A: 1.e. Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.
• INT-A: 1.f. Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
• INT-A: 1.g. Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
• INT-A: 2.a. Different kinds of questions require different kinds of scientific investigations, including observing and describing, collecting, experimentation, research, discovery, and making models.
• INT-A: 2.b. Current knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations.
• INT-A: 2.d. Technology enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results.
• INT-A: 2.e. Scientific explanations emphasize evidence, have logical arguments, and use scientific principles, models, and
• INT-A: 2.g. Scientific investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study, generate new methods or procedures for an investigation, or develop new technologies to improve the collection of data.
• INT-B: 3.a. Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical.
• INT-F: 5.a. Science influences society through its knowledge and world view. The effect of science on society is neither entirely beneficial nor entirely detrimental.