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Step |
Instruction |
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1 |
Have the students bring a power bill from their home showing how much kW hours
were consumed by their home during a one month period. |
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2 |
Review the function of a home power meter. Explain that it measures
kilowatt Hours. Explain that if a 100 Watt light bulb is left on for 10
hours, then it used 1 KWH which would cost about $0.10
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3 |
Have the students conduct a one week or one month survey where they go out to
their power meter and record the reading on the meter. Also have them use
a watch to record how fast the wheel is spinning. Do this by having them
count how many rotations occurred in a 60 second period. |
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4 |
As the students record their data, have them add their Watt hours to a table on
the wall showing data for all students. The table should have 1 column per
day, one row per student. Give the student a code number like "like house
#1" to get around the privacy issues. |
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5 |
Make sure the each column has a daily total and then a $ amount under that, and
then a lbs of CO2 below that. One kW equals about 2 Lbs. of CO2. |
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6 |
Once the students start plotting their collective class carbon foot print they
will suddenly be very aware of their wasteful habits in power consumption!
It's really a GREAT motivator! |
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7 |
Have the students try and to an accounting / bar chart / pie chart showing
where they thought the total kW hours . Tell them to use the power
measurements they took in the previous lab experiment to make as accurate
estimations as possible. |
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