Promoting Energy Literacy Through Teaching Students About Energy Use and Behavior

Abstract

Research indicates that reductions in personal energy use can be effective in reducing a country's overall carbon dioxide emissions, potentially lessening the impacts of global climate change. However, the public is generally ill informed about energy use and the energy-saving behaviors that can lead to these reductions in emissions. As such, it is necessary to begin educating future citizens about the energy system and energy use in an effort to foster more energy literate students. This thesis uses existing research about energy literacy and misconceptions among students to create a cohesive curriculum unit to promote energy literacy through teaching about energy behaviors and use. High-quality lessons and activities about energy were found and compiled into a systems thinking curricular unit comprised of two activity cycles that address energy use, conservation, and efficiency, and the role students play in the larger energy system. Following the curriculum, a discussion connects each of the activities within the curriculum to systems thinking literature, educational theory, and the energy literacy research. Next, an exploration of where the activities within this curriculum guide can fit into various high school courses is included. Finally, curriculum writers were contacted in order to illuminate the barriers to distributing high-quality curricular units to science educators, and opportunities for further dissemination of research-based curriculums are presented.