National Science Standards

Science as Inquiry: Content Standard A:
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop:

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
- Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations. Students should formulate a testable hypothesis and demonstrate the logical connections between the scientific concepts guiding a hypothesis and the design of an experiment. They should demonstrate appropriate procedures, a knowledge base, and conceptual understanding of scientific investigations.
- Design and conduct scientific investigations. Designing and conducting a scientific investigation requires introduction to the major concepts in the area being investigated, proper equipment, safety precautions, assistance with methodological problems, recommendations for use of technologies, clarification of ideas that guide the inquiry, and scientific knowledge obtained from sources other than the actual investigation
Understandings about scientific inquiry
- Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons. For example, they may wish to discover new aspects of the natural world, explain recently observed phenomena, or test the conclusions of prior investigations or the predictions of current theories.
- Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry. Mathematical tools and models guide and improve the posing of questions, gathering data, constructing explanations and communicating results.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Content Standard F:
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of:

Environmental quality
- Many factors influence environmental quality. Factors that students might investigate include population growth, resource use, population distribution, overconsumption, the capacity of technology to solve problems, poverty, the role of economic, political, and religious views, and different ways humans view the earth.

Learning Objectives

Each student will:

Define terms associated with an energy audit, e.g., incandescent, fluorescent, efficacy.
Identify the components of a school lighting audit plan.
Prepare a school lighting audit plan.

Background Information, Vocabulary and Materials

Background Information

The purpose of the Lighting in the Library activity is to calculate the electricity used to provide lighting in the school library and determine the feasibility of saving energy and money by using energy efficient lighting fixtures.

Your students will assume the role of an energy auditor assigned the task of assessing the current situation and making a recommendation for energy-efficient improvements. This activitity requires a selection of a room or section of the school, an examination of the school’s energy bill, and a basic understanding of algebraic concepts as a problem solving strategy.

Read through the Lighting in the Library* materials and identify a building or room in the school that will work to use for the lighting audit. For your convenience and faster download time, Lighting in the Library has been divided into three sections.

Lighting in the Library (1.8M pdf)
- Intro only (275k pdf)
- Student Worksheets only (855k pdf)
- Appendix only (701k pdf)

Specifically review “Student Worksheets” pages 1, 2, 3, and 4 for this
lesson. For Step 4 on page 3, obtain a school energy (electricity) bill or find out the average cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity.

Vocabulary

Materials

Lighting in the Library’s “Student Worksheets” pages 1, 2, 3, and 4.
(855k pdf)

Lesson Procedures

Presenting the Information

Refer back to the Advance Organizer slide number five and note that part of providing efficient, comfortable and productive spaces involves effective and efficient lighting. Explain that we'll be looking at lighting by using the Lighting in the Library materials and conducting our own lighting audit.

Read and discuss Lighting in the Library’s “Student Worksheets” pages 1 and 2 together as a class.

Student Practice / Activity

Teams prepare for the audit by reading pages 3 and 4 together.
Assign areas to be audited.
If time allows, teams complete steps 3 and/or 4 on page 3.

Feedback

Students complete plan for school audit by team.
Students complete Lighting in the Library’s “Student Worksheet” page 3.

Handouts and Worksheets

Lighting in the Library’s “Student Worksheets” pages 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Critierion-Referenced Test

This material part of final test. See Testing Blueprint in Teacher's Guide for details.

*Lighting in the Library
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs
(202) 586- 69240
http://www.eere.energy.gov/EE/buildings.html

Individual pages from this web site may be printed and duplicated for
student classroom use provided that proper credit is given to
the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC).