The Light Bulb Challenge

Today we put the M in STEM, and the A in STEAM!

As always, we started out the day watching an episode of SciGirls.  This one was about garbage, and reusing to reduce the amount of trash going into the landfills.

The SciGirls used the first half of class to test the difference between compact fluorescent light bulbs and incandescent bulbs.  The challenge: Are incandescent or compact fluorescent light bulbs more energy efficient?  The broke into their groups, and got to work on their challenges.  They each received cooking oil, a dropper, paper, a ruler, thermometer, stopwatch, and a calculator.  Each station was set up with a lamp containing either a CFL or incandescent bulb.

After they were done experimenting and retesting, they presented their findings.

Here comes the M part of STEM:

They received a word problem that really helped demonstrate the results of their experiments.

When your neighbors go on vacation, they set a timer to turn on a lamp at 9 PM each night and turnit off at 6 AM each morning.  How much energy would this light use in two weeks if it used an incandescent bulb?  If it used a CFL bulb?

                        wattage of bulb = energy used
hours of use X          1000           (kilowatt-hours (kWh)

Our CFL bulb had 15W and the incandescent had 60W.
See if your girls can remember how to do this!  The results are pretty eye opening!

And the A in STEAM:

For part two of class, we had an artist from Art Scraps drop by with a LOT of reused art supplies.  The SciGirls spent an hour and a half creating, designing, and building.  So much fun!  It was so fun to see the girls personalities come out through their creations!

It was a great class!  Next month is our annual Christmas/holiday celebration!  Stay tuned to see what we were up to!  Hint:  Makeup!!!