Energy Efficiency lessons provide students and teachers with activities to bridge the subjects of Fundamentals of Energy and Climate Change, and provide activities for students to make their own solutions to energy issues.

Available Lessons:

Home Energy Quiz

The Home Energy Quiz will get your students thinking about how and where energy is used in the home. The follow-up discusses energy saving activities that can be taken to reduce the cost of heating and cooling. The Home Energy Quiz is from Energy Star.gov

Writing Across the Disciplines Lesson

Writing Across the Disciplines can be used to explore the Clean Energy Options available for Connecticut and the 20% by 2010 campaign. Students will research the Clean Energy Options and write an essay on why a customer should or should not participate in the options offered. Or, write a persuasive argument to have local electricity customers purchase clean power.

Ecological Footprint

The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of renewable and nonrenewable resources that are used by our activities. Ecologically productive land area is required to support everything that we eat or use, and also to absorb the wastes we create. Worldwide there are 4.7 biologically productive acres available per person, and this doesn’t include the needs of all of the plants and animals. A growing world population will reduce the number of acres available per person.

10 Percent Challenge

The 10% Challenge is a voluntary program to raise public awareness about global climate change and to encourage households and businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at lease 10 percent. The 10% Challenge was developed by The Alliance for Climate Action, a group of local, regional and state-level professionals in Burlington, Vermont.

12 Steps to a Sustainable High School

12 Steps to a Sustainable High School is an assessment and analysis tool that can be used by classrooms to promote understanding of how the complex current issues of energy, pollution, supply and consumption, and climate change are not just global, but also local. 12 Steps can empower students to make local changes that may effect how their school is run, the quality of life within the school, and even reduce the town’s spending.

There's a Thief in my Kitchen

That ceiling light may be stealing money from your family, heating up the room in summer and adding to greenhouse gases. This activity allows students to compare energy used by pairs of incandescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs. Some of the energy used by light bulbs is converted to heat energy, since this is not the intended use; this heat energy is considered waste.

Compact Fluorescent Cost-Benefit Analysis

The Compact Fluorescent lesson provides teachers and students with the means to connect energy use consequences and climate change causes in a “take home message.” Through examining home energy use, calculating potential savings and pollution caused by the generation of electricity, students can internalize each of these issues and share information with their families.

How does the electricity I use compare to the national average?

The impact electricity has on air emissions is determined by the fuel mix used to generate the electricity. The fuel mix varies according to location and fuel availability. Determin the fuel mix of the electricity you use with an EPA interactive site, and compare that to the fuel mix and air emissions in other parts of the country, and the nation's average.

Energy in the 9.3 Standard Unit

This unit plan provides resources and a format for teachers to comprehensively address the 9.3 Connecticut Science Standard: “Various sources of energy are used by humans and all have advantages and disadvantages.” The unit is set up in a layered curriculum that may be used as a whole or in parts. The comprehensive unit provides base knowledge activities at the “C Level”, and growth activities at the “B Level” and “A Level”.