We used the data and graphs on the Sparks website to create an analysis lesson for our year 6 pupils. Children were asked to look at bar and pie charts and identify when we use energy and how our energy use has changed over time.
We also looked at the rising costs of energy over the past 3 years and thought about how saving energy in the future could help reduce costs and make financial savings.
Finally, we compared our energy use during a normal week and our energy saving week. We then discussed how changing our behaviour during energy saving week had made a difference and what positive behaviours we wanted to continue.
Activity description
Energy Sparks charts are a great way to practise looking at real data.
Before you start you need to know what a kW and a kWh is as lots of Energy Sparks charts have the option to show the energy data in kW or kWh.
kW stands for kilowatt. A kilowatt is simply 1,000 watts, which is a measure of power. So, for example, a 10,000 watt electric shower could also be called a 10 kilowatt shower.
A kilowatt hour (kWh) is a measure of how much energy you’re using. It doesn’t mean the number of kilowatts you’re using per hour. It is simply a unit of measurement that equals the amount of energy you would use if you kept a 1,000 watt appliance running for an hour. So if you switched on a 100 watt light bulb, it would take 10 hours to use up 1 kWh of energy. A 1,000 watt drill needs 1,000 watts (1 kW) of power to make it work, and uses 1 kWh of energy in an hour of continuous use.
Now, here are some questions you could try while looking at the data:
Using line charts
Explore the daily electricity charts for your school
Find the electricity data for your school for last Wednesday. How many kW of electricity were you using, when your electricity use was highest? What time of day was this? What do you think was happening in the school at this time? You can click on the legend to hide the data for other days.
Can you find how many kW of electricity your school was using at 1am last Wednesday? How much electricity would you expect to use at 1am when no one was in the school? Were you surprised at how much you were using?
Change units
Explore
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