Lesson Overview

Students learn about insulation, how to calculate R-values, and are guided through designing an energy efficient house online.

Target Grades: 3-5

Set Up Time: 20 minutes

Class Time: 1.5 hours

Lesson Resources

Objectives

  1. Describe insulation and how different materials are better than others at keeping heat in.
  2. Explain how homes use energy and that it costs money to use energy.
  3. Identify actions that can be done to save energy and money.

Guiding question: How does a house keep heat in?

Educational Standards

ALASKA CULTURAL STANDARDS: B3, B4

ALASKA ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS: 3-5.W.TT.2

ALASKA MATHEMATICS STANDARDS: 3-5.OA.2

ALASKA SKILLS FOR A HEALTHY LIFE: D1, D2

ALASKA DIGITAL LITERACY STANDARDS: 3-5 KC.4, 3-5 ID.2, 3-5 ID.3

ENERGY LITERACY CONCEPTS: 5.3, 5.4

NGSS: 4-PS3-4

Lesson prepration:
  • Read the Background section below.
  • Recommended (but not necessary) to do the AK EnergySmart “Our Electric Footprint” lesson before this lesson
  • Find an Alaskan video or story to introduce the lesson – either using the example in the Additional Resources or one local to your community.
  • Print one worksheet per student (in “lesson resources” drop down above).
  • Preview the web activity and preload on the computer/tablet or it have easily accessible for the students.
Gather Materials:
  • One computer/tablet with internet access per student or group of students
  • One copy of the Design Your Own Energy Efficient House Worksheet for each student
  • For each group of students:
    • 1 set of Ice Melting blocks or 1 metal item (like a cookie sheet) and 1 plastic item (like a thick cutting board or a food storage container) Example blocks
    • 2 pieces of ice or small snowballs
    • 2 rubber bands or O-rings
    • Towel/paper towels (clean up)

When building a house, people commonly focus on the initial cost of building materials and labor. Building a house requires budgeting, prioritizing, and making trade-offs. Decisions regarding insulation and energy efficiency will impact the long term energy use of the building and its annual energy costs.  

Indigenous Alaskans have always built homes to be energy efficient and used local, sustainable materials. For example, in the Yup’ik community of Quinhagak (kwin-ah-hak), winter housing was traditionally polygonal with a double-wall construction. In 2010, Quinhagak partnered with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) to build a modern version of traditional housing. The resulting structure is an eight-sided, super insulated, super efficient home that uses around 75% less energy than European-style homes in the community.

For new and existing buildings, significant energy and operating cost savings can be achieved through proper building design as well as use of energy efficient appliances and systems. Incorporating energy efficient house design and appliances can increase the cost of the initial investment. However, the long-term (or life cycle) cost is lower due to lower operations costs from energy savings.

Models provide simplified scenarios to use as learning tools to explore how choices and factors can impact outcomes. This lesson will guide students through a simple model that will give them the opportunity to see how different building and use choices can affect how much it costs to operate a home over time. While the model presented is based on actual building costs, it is designed only for educational purposes and not analyses of actual buildings.

Building Budget – The amount of money available to build your house. 

Conduction – The transfer of energy in the form of heat or electricity from one atom to another within an object by direct contact, i.e. transfer of heat through solid materials

Energy Efficiency – Reducing energy use through an improvement in technology that makes an existing use of energy more efficient, i.e. allows us to do more with less. Examples of energy efficiency include replacing incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs, adding extra insulation to a house, or using Energy Star® appliances

Insulation – A substance that prevents the loss of heat, especially in a house. Examples include fiberglass, cellulose and expanded polystyrene. 

Life Cycle Cost – The cost to purchase, own, operate, maintain, and, finally, dispose of an object.

R-Value – The insulating value of a material used in building a house. The R-value of an insulating material tells you how well that material insulates (or its ability to resist heat from going through; the “R” stands for “resistance”). The larger the R-value, the better the material insulates.

Gear Up:
  • Ask students to think of how they use energy during the day, and how a house stays warm in the winter.  Discuss how people in different locations use different materials for building and heating their house (such as rural Alaska relies primarily on diesel fuel while Anchorage primarily uses natural gas). If possible, ask an Elder to discuss how homes were traditionally built and the types of materials used to keep a home warm. You can also watch the “Traditional St. Lawrence Island home” video in Additional Resources.
  • Set up the “ice melting block” mini lab (or do as a demonstration):
    • Hand out one worksheet per student. 
    • Each lab station/group has two ice melting blocks, or one metal item (a conductor) and one plastic item (an insulator). Ask students to make observations about each one (without telling them what they are) and record on their worksheet. Students may notice that one “feels” colder. 
    • Ask them to predict which one would melt an ice cube faster and record on their worksheet.
    • Place an ice cube on each and have the students observe how quickly the ice melts on a conductor compared to an insulator. You can use a rubber band or o-ring to keep the ice cube in place.
    • Ask them to explain what happened, and guide them to understand how different materials transfer heat faster than others, which is why it is important to use good insulating materials for our houses to keep our heat in.
    • Explain how even though one ice block felt “colder” the items were the same temperature before ice was placed on them: the heat was transferring from our hand quicker than the plastic item which meant it felt cold. (BrainPop video on heat transfer). If available, use an IR thermometer to measure the temperature of the items to show they are the same temperature before adding the ice cubes.
    • After describing insulation (with physical examples or pictures if possible), ask what else can be done to save energy in a house. Examples might include shutting doors and windows, turning lights off, turning the heat down, or sealing cracks around windows and doors.
Activity
  • Direct the students to complete the web activity three times to compare different options in the house and how much money is left over in the budget compared to the amount of money spent on energy over the next 25 years.
  • After the first time through, they can click “try again” at the end, which will take them back to the first question. Then, the questions will show more information about each option such as cost of the choice and cost for a year as well as showing the savings after 25 years.
  • Wrap up: Once everyone has been through three rounds and completed their worksheet, ask students what made the biggest difference in savings and discuss what they could do differently at home to save energy now. You can also ask students to highlight other important ideas they learned through this activity and reflect on their daily life choices.  
Extension

Build a model house out of cardboard (or local materials to model traditional housing) and test it with different insulation. NEED has a lesson plan which can be downloaded for free here: https://shop.need.org/collections/energy-efficiency-and-conservation/products/energy-house

Evaluation

Ask students to:

  • Explain what insulation is and how it works.
  • Describe or write a story about how to reduce energy use at home or school.