National Teacher Enhancement Project

Middle School Home Energy Audit

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Where Home Energy Audit fits in the curriculum:

Understanding energy supply and demand is also part of district curriculum and state standards. The Home Energy Audit unit for midlevel students is a math/science unit. It may to taught anytime during the school year when the curriculum focuses on energy.

A description of how the authors taught the project.

A tutorial for teachers new to problem-based learning.

Alignment with Colorado State Standards (which meet or exceed National Standards):

Science

1. Students understand the processes of scientific investigation of design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations.

2. Physical Science: Students know and understand the characteristics and structure of common properties, forms, and changes in matter and energy.

5. Students know and understand interrelationships among science, technology, and human activity and how they can affect the world.

6. Students understand that science involves a particular way of knowing and understand common connections among scientific disciplines.

Math

1. Students develop number sense and use numbers and number relationships in problem-solving situations and communicate the reasoning used in solving these problems.

3. Students use data collection and analysis, statistics, and probability in problem-solving situations and communicate the reasoning used in solving these problems.

5. Students use a variety of tools and techniques to measure, apply the results in problem-solving situations, and communicate the reasoning used in solving these problems.

6. Students link concepts and procedures as they develop and use computational techniques, including estimation, mental arithmetic, paper and pencil, calculators, and computers, in problem-solving situations and communicate the reasoning used in solving these problems.

Geography

4. Students understand how economic, political, cultural, and social process interact to shape patterns of human populations, independence, cooperation, and conflict.

5 .Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and the changes in meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.

Reading & Writing

1. Students read and understand a variety of materials.

2. Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.

3. Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage sentence structure, punctuation , capitalization, and spelling.

4. Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.

5. Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media , reference, and technological sources.

Created for the Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office and Friends of Fermilab, and funded by United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), and the National Science Foundation.

Authors: Sue Emmons, Powell Midddle School, Littleton, CO; Kevin Lindauer, Baker Middle School, Denver, CO; Janet Stellema, Monarch K-8, Louisville, CO; John Sepich, Scott Carpenter Middle School, Westminster, CO; Edited by Marge Bardeen NTEP II Project PI.
Webmaster: ed-webmaster@fnal.gov
Created: September 9, 1998 revised July 30, 2001
URL: /ntep/f8/projects/nrel/teacher.shtml