The description is filled in here for boats
Keyword Search
Edu. Standards Search
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Advanced Search Tips to improve your search
not logged in
Add to MyTE | View PDF

Curricular Unit: Energy-Efficient Housing

Contributed by: Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder

Drawing shows sun shining on a house, high outdoor temperatures, and cool indoor temperatures.

click for copyright


Grade: 9 (9-11)


Time Required:

See individual lessons and activities.

Summary

We all know that it takes energy to provide us with the basics of shelter: heating, cooling, lighting, electricity, sanitation and cooking. To create energy-efficient housing that is practical for people to use every day requires combining many smaller systems that each perform a function well, and making smart decisions about the sources of power we use. Through five lessons on the topics of heat transfer, circuits, daylighting, electricity from renewable energy sources, and passive solar design, students learn about the science, math and engineering that go into designing energy-efficient components of smart housing that is environmentally friendly. Through numerous design/build/analyze activities, students create a solar water heater, swamp cooler, thermostat, model houses for testing, model greenhouse, and wind and water turbine prototypes. Students should concurrently be taking Algebra 1 in order to complete some of the worksheets.


Engineering Connection

Engineers are the creative people who are always coming up with ingenious and better ways to provide us with reliable and energy-efficient shelter. Energy-efficiency means performing some task so it uses the least amount of energy possible. Using energy wisely might involve conserving and minimizing the initial energy required to create an engineered product or system, and/or designing its ongoing energy use to be as minimal as possible and/or use renewable energy sources. Engineers design energy-efficient technologies for buildings, homes, transportation, power systems and industry to reduce consumption and expense of our energy resources.


Keywords: efficiency, efficient, electricity, energy, home, house, housing, power, renewable energy, shelter, structure


Related Subject Areas

Related Lessons

Related Activities

Unit Overview (Return to Contents)

Overview of topics by lesson: (1) heat transfer, especially solar water heaters and swamp coolers, (2) electrical circuits, including designing a thermostat, (3) lighting, especially daylighting and greenhouses, (4) renewable and non-renewable energy sources, especially water and wind power, and (5) passive solar design, especially for heating.

Contributors

See individual lessons and activities.

Copyright

© 2007 by Regents of the University of Colorado
This digital library content was developed by the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program under National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326, and the Discovery-Learning Apprentice Program at CU-Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Supporting Program

Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder

Last Modified: December 8, 2009
K12 engineering curriculum K-12 engineering curricula K12 engineering curricula K-12 engineering activities K12 engineering activities K-12 engineering lessons K12 engineering lessons Engineering for children Engineering activities for children K-12 science activities K12 science activities K-12 science lessons K12 science lessons linker Are you a bot?
Use of the TeachEngineering digital library and this website constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.