Energy Consumption and Conservation

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  • Home
  • Lesson Activities
    • Introduction
    • Energy and Climate Change
    • Our Contribution to Climate Change
    • Your Carbon Footprint
    • Calculate Your Carbon Footpint
    • Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
    • Personal Conservation Commitment
    • Your Challenge: Create a Public Service Announcement
    • Explore Possibilities
    • Select an Approach and Develop a Design Proposal
    • Make a Prototype and Test Your Design
    • Refine Your Design and Create Your Final PSA
    • Communicate Your Results
  • Student Resources
    • Table of Contents
    • Glossary
    • Engineering Portfolio
    • Engineering Design Process
    • More to Explore
    • Assessment Rubric
  • Teacher Resources
    • Lesson Preparation
    • Lesson Overview
    • Objectives
    • Using This Site
    • Technology
    • Schedule
    • Essential Questions
    • Enduring Understandings
    • Background Information
    • Teacher Notes
    • Appendices
  • STEM Careers
Skip Table of Contents
  • Lesson Preparation
  • Lesson Overview
  • Objectives
  • Using This Site
  • Technology
  • Schedule
  • Essential Questions
  • Enduring Understandings
  • Background Information
  • Teacher Notes
  • Appendices

Lesson Preparation

This STEM lesson about energy conservation is intended for students in grade 8 and is aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. The lesson is designed for students to work individually and in groups. Students will conduct research and take notes, build a bar graph, calculate their carbon footprint, write a personal conservation commitment and design a public service announcement. Teachers will need to guide students through the activities. Some work is designed to be done on the computer and some work is designed to be done in the paper-based Engineering Portfolio, which all students should complete as they engage in both group and individual activities.

Before you start the lesson, be sure to do the following:

  • Read through the Teacher Notes , which provide a page-by-page companion to the student activities in this lesson.
  • Print out and assemble a portfolio for each student and assign teams of 3–4 students, keeping in mind the number of computers your students have access to in the classroom.
  • For more ideas about technology and implementation considerations, read these tips: Consider Your Technologies (PDF).

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