Middle School

These lesson plans are suitable for students in grades 6-8.

Spotlight On:

Dear Diary

By Diana Turner and Lynn Salazar, Shadow Ridge Alternative High School, Hesperia Unified School District
Students identify ways in which their personal use of energy contributes to carbon dioxide emissions. After personal reflection time thinking about how the student uses energy, students get into groups of 3-4 and discuss.

Sustainability Project

By Stephen Chitraroff, Murrieta Valley High School, Murrieta Valley Unified School District
In this lesson, students will be exposed to a variety of alternative energy sources and will learn how to calculate the equipment needed for an average household. The assignment is completed on a wiki webpage.

Electricity and Magnetism

Kurtis Smith and Dave Massey, Santee Alternative
Santee School District

An application of how magnetism and electricity are related, students observe the spinning of a coil of copper wire that is part of a circuit powered by a battery and attached to a spindle positioned over a magnet and are ask to discuss why the mechanism works in the manner that it does.

Energy Savings Activities - Lighting

By the Green Schools team at Fortuna Middle School, Fortuna Union Elementary School District, CA
In this lesson, students in grade 8 use the scientific method to examine school lighting technologies and determine if there are opportunities to save energy and money.

How Big Is Your Footprint?

By David Casey, Analy High School, West Sonoma County Union High School District, CA
In this lesson, developed by a Green Schools teacher, students grades 8-12 increase their awareness of the impact of their choices on the Earth by studying the ecological footprint concept. They also learn how to calculate the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation of a set of data.

Watt Does It Cost to Use It?

By Mark Ziesmer, Sultana High School, Hesperia Unified School District, CA
In this lesson, developed by a Green Schools teacher, students in grades 7-12 learn how electrical usage is counted and priced and measure and evaluate representative household and school electrical items.

Window Treatments for Energy Savings

In this activity, students will investigate the patterns of heat (radiation, conduction, convection) in the classroom and learn how windows affect a room's comfort. Also, students will find out how to treat windows from the inside to make them more energy efficient.

Summertime, Soda, and Solar Energy - Insulating to Keep Heat in or Out

In this lesson, students will compare different insulating materials for their abilities to keep heat in/out, determine the best material for insulating against heat loss/gain, and explain the importance of insulating homes.

A Home Energy Audit

This activity allows student to become building inspectors, identifying features that can help or hurt energy conservation.

The Appliance Explosion

In this activity, students will discover the number and kinds of appliances they have their homes today, and compare this information with the appliances an adult had in his/her home a generation ago. This comparison should help students understand the important role that energy plays in their life, and why energy demand has increased so much in the last twenty years.

Cost Effective Buying

Students will learn how to evaluate energy-related purchases in terms of cost-effectiveness, utilizing concepts such as "payback" and "rate of return."

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