This activity allows students to compute the cost of electricity needed to light the classroom and the amount of coal used to produce the electricity to light the classroom for one hour. Have the students discuss how the classroom is lit, where the electricity comes from and how much they think it costs to light the classroom for one hour. Explain to the students that coal produces more than half of the electricity used in the United States. Tell them that the electricity needed to light a fluorescent tube costs approximately three-tenths of a cent each hour. Have the students count the number of fluorescent tubes in the classroom, then multiply that number by 0.003, three-tenths of a cent. The answer is the total cost to light the classroom for one hour. Explain that 1 pound of coal produces 1.25 kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is the electrical power used by 1,000 watts of energy for one hour. The average fluorescent tube uses 18 watts per hour, produced by 0.014 pounds of coal. Have the students multiply the number of fluorescent tubes in the classroom by 0.014 to determine how much coal is needed to light the classroom for one hour. These numbers can then be used to discover how much it costs to light the classroom for a day, a week or a month, and how much coal is needed. Discuss the calculations with the students.
This activity gives students an appreciation for dependence on electricity and teaches how regulating energy consumption makes the energy source last longer. Have the students brainstorm activities that are dependent on electricity and discuss with them how electricity is generated and what natural resources are needed to generate that electricity. Explain that electricity demand is on the rise due to increased use of computers and other electronic equipment. Ask the students what it would be like to live at home without electricity for two hours. Brainstorm a list of items the students would have to avoid using during that time. Have the students try to avoid using electricity for two hours as homework. Afterward, discuss how they felt during the activity, dependence on electricity, and how it would affect them if the nation ran out of nonrenewable energy resources. Explain the importance of conserving these resources. Give each student a cookie and have them begin eating. Tell them to raise their hands when finished. Every 15 seconds, count the number of hands raised until all cookies have been consumed. Create a graph indicating how many students finished every 15 seconds. Give each student a second cookie and tell them they can only take a bite when you tell them to. Every 15 seconds, tell them to take a bite and have them raise their hands when finished. Count the number of raised hands every 15 seconds. Create a second graph. The second graph will usually show that cookie resources lasted longer overall. Discuss the two graphs with the students, including similarities, differences and why the cookies lasted longer when consumption was regulated. Discuss conserving nonrenewable energy resources.
This activity teaches students about coal and mining. Discuss with the students how coal is created and how coal is used. Explain that coal is a nonrenewable energy source that is buried underground and harvested by mining. Discuss land reclamation with the students. Tell the students they will be mining coal from a piece of land. Give the students their land (chocolate chip cookies) and mining equipment (toothpicks). Tell them not to eat their cookies until the end of the project. Have each student trace an outline of the cookie on a piece of paper, mapping the location of chocolate chips seen on the top and sides. Have them count the chips they can see and write the number down. Each student will then carefully mine as many chocolate chips as possible, setting them aside in a pile. When finished, they will count the number of chips mined and write the number down. Then they will put their cookies back together without the chocolate chips and compare it to the cookie map. Let the students eat the cookies. Discuss with the students the differences between surface and underground mining and ask them if their reclaimed cookies looked like the original cookies. Discuss land reclamation.