Watt Watchers and Earth Day Resources for Grades K-12

PBS LearningMedia

• Published on April 6, 2021

As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day, Watt Watchers, Power Trip, CPS Energy, and KLRN are proud to share a number of PBS LearningMedia resources for educators to use at school or in their virtual classrooms! These fun and engaging educational activities can be done at school and at home. We even have Earth Day-related virtual events and programming that can supplement lesson plans.

All of the Watt Watchers K-12 activities are available in both English and Spanish, along with many of the resources posted here. Please check out the Blog: KLRN Earth Month Programming and Resources for even more incredible resources!

KLRN Earth Day Events

🌎April 22 at 1pm: OVEE Screening of Power Trip
🌍April 22 at 6pm: Watt Watchers Earth Day Event for Educators (Two-hour teacher training offers CPE credits)
🌏April 22 at 6pm: OVEE Screening with Student Panel

Tune in to KLRN for these Programs Focused on the Earth and Environment

H2O: The Molecule That Made Us: Crisis

Thursday, Apr. 8 at 08:00 pm and Friday, Apr. 9 at 01:00 am
9.2 KLRN World

H2O: The Molecule That Made Us: Changing Seas, Toxic Waters

Tuesday, Apr. 6 at 1:00 pm
9.2 KLRN World

H2O: The Molecule That Made Us: The Fate of Carbon

Thursday, Apr. 8 at 1:00 pm
9.2 KLRN World

American Experience: Amelia Earhart

Wednesday, Mar. 31 at 10:00 am
9.2 KLRN World

Dinosaur Train: Adventure Island

Monday, Apr. 12 at 8:00 am and 2:00 pm
9.1 KLRN HDTV

First Peoples: Asia

Saturday, Apr. 3 at 2:00 pm
9.2 KLRN World

First Peoples: Australia

Saturday, Apr. 10 at 2:00 pm
9.2 KLRN World

P. Allen Smith's Garden to Table: The Emergence of Spring

Friday, Apr. 2 at 08:30 pm
9.4 KLRN Create

The Rite of Spring

Friday, Apr. 2 at 11:00 pm
9.4 KLRN Create

Power Trip Videos and Supporting Educational Resources

Here you will find videos that can easily be incorporated into lessons and discussions about the environment, both at home and at school, as well as a list of curated Watt Watchers activities.

Power Trip: The Story of Energy

Power Trip: The Story of Energy: Short Documentaries Power Trip: The Story of Energy is a documentary series uncovering the hidden energy embedded in our modern way of life, revealed as the underlying force behind water, food, wealth, cities, transportation and war. Filmed around the world, this six-part series takes viewers on a journey through the past, present and future of energy. In this collection

KLRN Power Trip Page On this page, you will find resources from Power Trip, Watt watchers, CPS Energy, Itron, and Smart Energy Education that include film previews, interviews with industry professionals, and tools and educational activities to use in classrooms.

The Resourcefulness Collection for Grades 9-12 With rapid changes in technologies and an aging workforce, the nation faces a significant skills gap in STEM-related fields of study. The purpose of the resourcefulness project is to introduce students to different cross-cutting issues at the core of the relationship between energy and water. This collection presents images, video, and academic commentary to introduce key concepts and to inspire further research.

This collection includes resources to support teaching science, mathematics, engineering, and technology topics related to energy and water. The full text of the resource is available at https://stem.guide/

CPS Energy Resources

CPS Energy Careers in Energy Videos for Elementary Age Students It’s never too soon to start thinking about an exciting and rewarding career in the energy industry. We are proud of all 3,000 of our People First Champion employees working at CPS Energy. Here is a collection of videos to spotlight some of our employees, the jobs they do for us, and the importance of the life skills they use in their jobs each and every day.

World Water Day

In celebration of World Water Day, we are giving away hundreds of our educational water purification Eco Kits. These are great for a hands on activity for ages 6 to 16. We are also challenging you to help us create water superheroes and win an NFT! This video explains it all.

https://youtu.be/iyTfJK3bclY and here is the contest link: http://bit.ly/MWHeroesContest

The Math of Energy

The Math of Energy | Fossil Fuel Usage (for Grades 9-12) The use of fossil fuels, which has increased steadily since the beginning of the 20th century, has enabled many advancements in the quality of life around the world. However, fossil fuels are a limited resource and could become scarce during the 21st century. To create projections for future global energy consumption, we can apply lines of best-fit to historical data. There are several estimates of fossil fuel reserves remaining in the earth and these estimates are continually revised. In order to estimate when fossil fuels will be exhausted, we can equate the total fossil fuel resource base with the integral of our line of best-fit and solve for the time. The data in this episode is taken from 2012 studies on fossil fuel consumption.

Energy Explained: The Carbon Cycle

Energy Explained: The Carbon Cycle Teach students about the carbon cycle and how human energy use impacts this cycle. Fossil fuels – petroleum, coal, natural gas – make up the largest share of energy production and consumption in the U.S. They’re also part of the carbon cycle. Use the carbon cycle game in this lesson to model the flow of carbon and explain how fossil fuels fit into the cycle. The video in the lesson will help teachers connect the concepts to everyday life. Advanced students will be primed to discuss the associated public policy issues.

Watt Watchers Activities

Watt Watchers of Texas is a state-sponsored STEM program to help boost energy literacy for K-12 students and help schools save money by saving energy. Through the program, students, teachers, and families will have access to energy saving tips, activities, and lessons. Launched in 1985, Watt Watchers of Texas is an updated resource that builds upon the original beloved program and provides a modern look at energy, sustainability and conservation. The free K-12th grade student activities are divided into six themes surrounding energy and water conservation: Electricity, Water, Materials, Heating/Cooling, Transportation, and Food.