The Energy Problem
How do you use energy in your everyday activities?Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. All rights reserved.
This six-day lesson provides students with an introduction to the importance of energy in their lives and the need to consider how and why we consume the energy we do. The lesson's associated activities engage students in general energy issues, including playing an award-winning Energy Choices board game, and an optional graphing activity that provides experience with MS Excel graphing and perspectives on how we use energy and how much energy we use.
Devices that engineers design often convert energy into forms that help us do every day activities—from drying our hair to powering the school bus. In the developed world, energy consumption is close to our technological capacity to produce energy useful to consumers. Engineers and all other people must now reconsider how we use energy. We must make and use products that help society, all while consuming less energy.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Explain how the depletion of fossil fuels is a serious global issue.
- List three decisions and actions they can make/take to reduce their personal energy consumption.
- Use mathematics in other fields, using graphs, computation and models.