Project details

Subject specific learning objective & Activities

This project is designed for grade 9, math class. Although the project will cover all STEAM topics, focus will be on math.

Students are expected to share an overview of the energy expenditure of the school over the past 5 years. They will need to include graphs, averages, means and median consumption over the years. Students are expected to cover energy consumption both in cost and kWh.
Students need to research what activities are consuming the most energy at school (lights, heating, transportation, kitchen...) and, based on this, decide how they want to reduce energy expenditure of the school and motivate their choice with numbers.
Students need to include an estimation on how much energy they believe they can save - in Dollars and kWh - in absolute and as a relative number compared to current school expenditure.
Students need to investigate what renewable energy sources they want to introduce at school. I want to see the cost of the installment, the energy savings that this will result in, a calculation as to when they would break-even based on cost and savings spread over different years and how long the school will be benefiting in total during the lifespan of the installment.

STEAM goals and activities

Science

The Science part of STEAM involves three main fields: physics, biology and chemistry. The project can be focusing on a combination of these 3 core sciences or 1 specific one.

For students to succeed in this project they will need to research the different sources of energy the school is currently using. My grade 9 students are expected to investigate and understand what the different types of energy are and what is the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy.

I want them to research the energy sources in their state/country and know how much of each is being used nationwide.

Technology

Technology is an integral part of STEAM as it facilitates the blending of these five fields together. Of the five, Technology is perhaps the most versatile because it can stand as its own field, and assist in science, engineering, art and math.

I want my students to set up meetings through Teams or Zoom, connecting globally with other schools that went through similar exercises before. They will research the internet to find a school to partner with on this specific point.

They will be designing their marketing strategy by using design apps. They can choose to make a video commercial/vlog, flyers, posters or an infographic.

Engineering

Engineers all around the world are applying the principles of math and sciences to solve real-life problems by designing and constructing different solutions and tools.

Students will need to design a mock-up of what they intend to introduce as renewable energy source. They will need to think of all the different aspects of their design and integrate it together as 1.

Art

Art is the part of STEAM where students will take all the theoretical information and transform it into a user-friendly object.

As part of this project, students will be setting up a marketing campaign, hoping this will boost interest and engagement from the rest of the school. They can create posters or a company logo by using a software of choice (PowerPoint, Word,Canva, Google draw).

Math

Math is an essential component of STEAM as it will help students in interpreting data, producing measurements, calculating finances, creating graphs etc.

For this specific project, students are expected to understand what the biggest energy consumers are in the school and what is the low hanging fruit that can easily be reduced?

Students will talk to the school finance person and try to understand the distribution of energy throughout the school. What is consuming the most and what hardly wastes any energy?

They will calculate the school's energy consumption over the past years. We will see graphs and pie charts on the different energy sources the school is currently relying on. They will need to research how much energy they can save through this project and how much they can replace by renewable energy.

Students are expected to share a proposal including the finances of the project, cost vs. savings, etc.

21st century skills and activities

Critical thinking

Students will need to demonstrate they understood the importance of the topic and that they understand the background and the why of the project.

Collaboration & Leadership skills

Students will need to collaborate in teams of 5 and decide together on their strategies and how to move forward. They can appoint one person in their team as ART director, one person as Head of Engineering, Science Research Specialist, Finance director and Technology manager.

Communication

They will not only communicate withing their little team, but they will also be asked to peer review the project of the other teams and give constructive feedback.

Each group will need to connect globally with another school to gather ideas on the objective and how to best achieve it. The teacher will help setting up the connection if needed.

At the end, they will need to present their ideas to the full school.

Creativity

Students will need to demonstrate they are creative and think out of the box when designing their marketing campaign for the project.

Technology literacy

Students will need to work with different technologies and software in order to succeed in the project. They will need technology to connect globally and to research the project. They will need to show they are able to make graphs, tables and pie charts in excel. They will need to use Canva, Word or YouTube to create their marketing campaign. Lastly, they will need to present their project via Sway, Prezi or PowerPoint.

They will be allowed to use school computers, also after school, if needed.