MSTE Online Resource Catalog

This lesson is designed to allow middle-school students (and others) to explore power and energy usage in the home. Power comes from a power plant to your home through a system of power lines, power substations, and transformers that make up the power grid. This Java applet shows power flowing through the transformer drum, the meter, and into the home circuit breaker panel. From there, it powers various appliances. Users can open and close switches to turn appliances on and off and track power usage and learn concepts such as power conservation, network flows, and the relationship between power and energy. An appliance's energy use and cost depend both on the amount of power needed for its use and on the amount of time the appliance is used. Some appliances require a lot of power, but we don't use them often, so they don't use much energy over time. Other appliances may not need as much power, but are used for more time. For example, a toaster needs a lot more power than a room air conditioner does, but most people use a toaster for much less time.

Interactive (Lessons that include an interactive component, generally Java, JavaScript, Flash, or a TI program.), Lesson (Lessons that don't include any sort of interactive component.)

Electricity

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