Watt Watchers of Texas: Texas is Too Good To Waste™
Free Classroom Energy Activities for Teachers
If you are looking for classroom activities focused on energy consumption that includes actionable ways to teach students about saving energy at your school, you have come to the right place!
When your school participates in and implements a curriculum of energy conservation and energy efficiency, the Watt Watchers of Texas are here to help you supplement your efforts with our free energy activities and lessons to use in your classroom. These energy activities are designed to reinforce teaching and learning as well as increase awareness of how best to conserve energy in our daily lives.
In an effort to make these energy lessons for students as useful as possible for you as teachers, administrators, and staff, we have divided them into six themes which often have cross-over with other categories. Feel free to enact them whichever way you think is best: in-class assignments, take home tasks, or other types of student work. They are also further divided by grade level to help ensure that your students get the right lesson plans for their age.
These student activities supplement an energy conservation and energy efficiency curriculum. These exercises reinforce teaching and learning and are designed to increase awareness of how conserving energy, water, and materials is achievable in our everyday life.
We've divided the activities into six themes, but many are cross-curricular and cross-topic. Many are appropriate for a single class period or take-home assignment. Feel free to use or combine them in any order for a rich learning experience.
Electricity Activities For Students
Saving electricity is one of the easiest and most obvious energy conservation methods to be implemented in an energy efficiency program and curriculum. These activities encourage students to learn more about the items around them which use the most energy and how best to eliminate overconsumption.
Because water is a limited resource but also one which we need to use for a variety of life’s necessities including cooking, cleaning, and bathing. The activities included here help teach your students about the importance of water for all life on earth and why it is critical to implement conservation efforts to save this most-valuable resource.
Recycling is not just a trendy activity. It is a vital method for conserving precious materials extracted from the earth and preventing them from entering a landfill. Recycling allows these materials to be repurposed and eliminates the need for unnecessary transportation. To have an impact on overall energy consumption, activities can be done at the local level, including at your school.
Kids (and adults) don’t need to understand the particular processes behind heating and cooling of homes, schools, and other buildings to know that there is a need for reductions in energy consumption from air conditioners and heaters. These activities allow students to learn more about best practices when using their AC and heaters.
Transportation is vital for almost every aspect of daily life from commuting to and from school or work to visiting friends and family and everything in between. Cars, trucks, buses, and countless other vehicles use resources, so it is important to find ways to conserve these resources. Kids may not understand or care about fuel or engines, but they can easily relate to activities involving car pooling with their friends.
We all need food to keep our bodies running and healthy, but there is far more to food than simply eating. From learning about the agricultural industry and transportation of good to non-recyclable food containers and FDA requirements for food labels, these activities and lessons show students where their food comes from and where food waste goes once they’re done with it.
At Watt Watchers of Texas, we are excited to help you get your schools involved with the Student Patrol Program. We are dedicated to helping homes and schools save energy and money, and we know that kids should also be involved. Contact us today to learn more about getting your school participating in this exciting program.
