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Energy Wise: A Mini Unit
This is a great unit and especially applicable in today’s economy. We are experiencing first hand the need for conservation of our resources.
1. Find three or more ways you can save energy in your home, meeting place, or school. Talk over your plans with your family. Then, actually use one or more of the ideas to save energy.
2. Make up a game about people, places, or things connected with energy and play it with others.
3. Take a tour of a power plant used by your utility company to produce electricity for your community.
4. Visit a place that uses wind, solar, geothermal, or some other energy source in a new way to make heat or electricity.
5. Participate in a recycling project.
6. Make a sour of fuel for a fireplace or campfire by rolling your own paper logs following the directions below. Burn at least one paper log to find out how long it will burn and how much heat it will give.
-- Take on old broom stick hand and roll a sheet of newspaper around it.
-- Continue rolling sheets of paper, one on top of the other.
-- When the paper logs are about 4 inches thick, tie the rolled bundle of newspaper with a piece of wire near each end and remove from broom handle.
7. Collect some stories and pictures about the different kinds of energy being considered to help our country supply its own energy needs.
8. Find out about ways energy was made and used in your community over 50 years ago. You might do one of the following:
-- Interview older people about energy sources they used in the past.
-- Visit a site where energy was made or used, such as an old coal mine, grist mill, or oil well.
-- Invite a speaker from your public utility company to tell you how energy was made in the past.
9. Make a “draftometer” and test you home or other location for air leakage:
-- Cut a 5-inch by 10-inch strip of plastic wrap
-- Tape the strip to a long pencil so that the plastic hangs freely
-- Blow the plastic gently and notice how it reacts to air
-- Test for air leakage by holding the draftometer near the edges of closed windows and door
10. Find out how heat and hot water are made in your home or other location.
11. Find out about the kind of insulation being used to keep heat or coolness from escaping too quickly.
12. Show two or more ways to do each of the following:
-- Keep comfortable when the temperature is above 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
-- Keep comfortable when the temperature is below 64 degrees Fahrenheit.
-- Travel without using fossil fuels, such as gasoline, kerosene, coal, and diesel fuel.
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Multimedia Activities
