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The EnviroTech Project was a collaborative effort to simultaneously enhance the technological and environmental literacy of twenty technology teachers and their students by taking an inquiry approach to two essential questions. During four webinars with guest speakers, teachers examined a variety of informational and instructional resources relevant to the issue of replacing incandescent lamps with compact flourescents, including:
As a synthesis activity, teachers planned and implemented learning experience for students in their own school. The nature of these instructional experiences were quite varied, however all took an inquiry approach to instruction. Students conducted laboratory experiments (e.g., measuring power consumption, heat production, and light intensity of various types of lamps), Web-based literature reviews, and debates about the advantages of different lamps. Students charted the inputs, processes, and outputs of each major phase of the lifecycle of a CFL. They calculated the energy efficiency of lamps and compared the potential mercury emissions associated with coal-fired electricity generation. Some classes produced informative video and posters about the proper way to dispose of CFLs, while others conducted a home or school inventory of lamps or surveyed parents, neighbors, and custodians to discover the disposal practices for mercury-containing lamps. Teachers invited guest speakers (a lamp recycler and a physician) into their classrooms or took students on a field trip to a fish hatchery to highlight mercury deposition and bioaccumulation in fish. |
Essential Questions
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Instructional Examples Learn more by exploring some of the reports, instructional materials, and products these teachers and their students created:
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Originated: July 16, 2009 Revised:
August 14, 2009
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