Teacher Guide & Resources
Maine Saves Energy: A Guide to Student-Led Investigations Using Real-Time Electricity Monitoring was developed to assist teachers in carrying out student-led investigations of residential electricity use utilizing existing and emerging technologies. Consult About This Guide to learn more about the components of the guide and how it can supplement and enrich the lessons in the existing PowerSleuth units.
Investigation Guide: Using Real-Time Electricity Data to Spark Student-Led Investigations
Overview
Students examine different types of electricity data available to homeowners. They engage in a series of investigations designed to help a "mystery" homeowner use the available data to understand and reduce their electricity use and costs.
Key Ideas
- Electricity bills, meter readings, and real-time electricity monitoring devices document actual electricity use in the home.
- Electrical energy can be quantified and compared.
- There are many questions that can be investigated using electricity data. Asking appropriate questions are key to driving scientific investigations.
- Ongoing investigations provide evidence for solving problems, including developing strategies for conserving electricity.
Investigation Goals
Students will:
- develop an understanding of and examine electricity use data.
- describe and interpret patterns of household electricity use.
- design and conduct an investigation to answer a question about electricity use in the home.
- apply investigation findings and make recommendations for reducing the amount of electricity used in the home.
Investigation Resources
Investigation Guide (20 pages, 758 KB)
Investigation Guide and Supplementary Activity Matrix (13 pages, 2.9 MB)
- Email 1: Please answer my questions about electricity use
- Central Maine Power Electricity Bill (Addison Fox)
- Bangor Hydro Sample Bill
- Maine Public Service Sample Bill
- Email 2: Is this helpful? Meter Readings
- How To Read Your Electric Meter (Activity from Maine Public Service Company)
- Email 3: Check this out - Real-Time Electricity Monitoring
- Investigation Planning Guide
Supplementary Activities
- Lesson 1 Modification: Electricity Discovery Box
- Lesson 6 Modification: Maine's Energy Picture
- Student Handout: Predicting Energy Use by Sector
- Student Handout: Next Month's Electricity Use
- Appliance Card Sort Teacher Notes
- Appliance Cards
- Student Handout: How Many Ways to a Kilowatt Hour? Scavenger Hunt
- Going Graphic! Teacher Notes
- Student Handout: Going Graphic!
- PowerMeter Display (for 5.15.2011)
- Graph Match Teacher Notes
- Student Handout: Graph Match
- Developing a Graph from a Narrative and Developing a Narrative from a Graph Teacher Notes
- Student Handout: Developing a Graph from a Narrative
- Student Handout: Developing a Narrative from a Graph
- Making a Statement Teacher Notes
- Student Handout: Making a Statement
- The Wishings Teacher Notes
- Student Handout: The Wishings: Watt's a Graph Good For?
- Student Handout: The Wishings: Electricity Delivery Cost Rate of Change
- Student Handout: The Wishings: Total Cost of Electricity (Delivery & Supply)
- Student Handout: Comparison of Delivery Cost and Total Cost Graphs
- Student Handout: Electricity Cost Rate versus Rate of Change
Resource Pages
- Annotated Real-Time Electricity Use Display for Addison Fox
- Two Views, Same Data
- Home Specification Sheet for Addison Fox
Links
- Contribute to the largest data base of electricity usage by participating in Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's SPARK Project
- Explore Daylight Saving Time. Why do we have it and does it save? The CBS News "Fast Draw" team provides an animated explanation for setting why we set our clocks back in the fall and move them ahead in the spring.
- Sunrise/Sunset Times for (Augusta) Maine. Sunrise/set data available for other locations on this site as well.
- Temperature data for Maine
- US DOE Electric Power and Renewable Energy in Maine. Charts and statistics that show historical trends for electricity consumption in Maine and the growing production of electricity from renewable energy resources.
- Power Plants in Maine
- Home Energy Appliance Use Data Visualization by GE: How Much Appliance Does Each Appliance Use in Watts?
Connection to Maine Agencies
A Maine Energy Education Representative Program (MEEP) representative will come to interested schools, free of charge, to guide and support the concepts in this lesson:
- School Energy Efficiency Investigation: Students use tools to see how their school uses energy and where energy is wasted. Tools include an infrared thermometer, a temperature/humidity datalogger, a light meter, and Kill A Watt meter. Students can then make recommendations on how energy can be conserved in their school. This project can also be combined with the Greenhouse Gas Surveys being offered by Maine DEP.
For schools in Aroostook County, a Maine Public Service (MPS) representative will come to interested schools, free of charge, to guide and support the concepts developed in this lesson.
