Electricity Meter Activity

How does electricity use connect to global warming? In this simple exercise, students will use energy meters to measure the voltage, current, and power of various appliances and use these measurements to caculate how much carbon dioxide is emitted in the use of the appliances. The activity can be used in environmental biology classes to illustrate how our actions often have unseen effects on the environment. It can also be used as part of a larger unit to calculate a student's entire carbon budget. In a chemistry class, it can be used to illustrate how the factor lable method of calculations can extend to any avenue of thought. Physics classes could use it as an introduction to electrical concepts such as voltage, current, and power. The exercise includes a brief introduction to the necessary electrical terms and a worksheet to guide the students through their calculations. Why not try this lab as a scavenger hunt to find the devices that use the most electricity?

The energy meters we use in this lab