Keeping the heat in
Outline of activity
Investigating materials as insulators
Resources
6 plastic containers (eg. 1 litre plastic bottles); a piece each of cotton wool,
newspaper, woollen fabric, aluminium foil, fleece fabric (each large enough
to completely wrap a container); warm water (around 40°C); thermometer
(digital if possible)
Introduction
Most schools spend around 40% - 60% of all their budget on heating.
Some buildings waste a lot of energy. If your school could save money on heating, there
would be more to spend on everything else.
Why would it be good for the environment to save heat energy?
Heat moves from warm areas to cool areas. Some escapes through the
walls and roof, and around badly-fitting doors and windows.
Additional activities
Spotting the spots
Use a thermometer to spot the cold-spots and hot-spots around your school, and mark
them on a plan of the school.
(How about red for hot and blue for cold?)
Try and find what causes them.
Could they be made more comfortable?
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Activity
See how you can save heat energy in your school. If your school is properly insulated, it’s
harder for heat to escape.
Some materials are good insulators. They keep warm things warm, and cool things cool.
Which of these materials do you think is the best insulator?
news
cotton wool
newspaper
woollen fabric
I think
aluminium foil
fleece fabric
is the best insulator.
Now do an investigation to see if you are right.
You will need :
6 plastic containers, a piece of each material, warm water (around 40°C), a thermometer
1
Wrap each piece of material around a container.
Leave the sixth container unwrapped, as a control.
2
Fill each container with warm water.
Use the thermometer to record the temperature and to check that they are all the
same. Make sure there’s the same amount in each container.
3
Measure the temperature in each bottle after:
15 minutes
4
30 minutes
45 minutes
+1
+2
1 hour
2 hours
Record your results on a graph.
Which material is the best insulator? Were you correct?
Where did the heat go?
Can you plan an investigation to find out
how well different materials keep things cool?
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Reducing rubbish
Outline of activity
Set up a plan to reduce the school’s output of rubbish. If your school doesn’t
have recycling facilities, set them up. Check your success by monitoring the
school’s weekly output of bin bags.
Resources
Reducing rubbish chart (simple example given – pupils could design their
own)
Reducing rubbish plan (simple example given – pupils could design their own)
Introduction
Discuss waste, and what we do with it.
�ne� w
� s�
Recycling saves raw materials,
energy, and space in landfill.
Background
7%
80% of our rubbish could be recycled, but in Wales we only
manage 7%1 . Find out how much your county recycles.
How much do other countries recycle? 2
64%
52%
48%
47%
12%
Austria
64%
Belgium
52%
Germany
48%
Netherlands
47%
England
12%
1 Friends of the Earth “Waste” booklet
2 Friends of the Earth “Waste” booklet
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Activity
Can you reduce your school’s rubbish?
1
First you need to find out how much rubbish your school throws away.
2
The easiest way is to count the rubbish bags each week.
You could ask the caretaker. Record your answers on a chart.
3
Make a plan to reduce rubbish. See how Jack sorted his rubbish.
Some things can be re-used, some can be recycled.
Can you think of a snappy title for your plan?
4
Put your plan into action!
5
When your plan is up and running, keep on counting the
rubbish bags each week, and recording them on your chart.
6
You could make a graph to show the results.
Have you succeeded in reducing rubbish?
You could do a plan like this at home!
Additional activities
For on-line interactive resources and downloadable / printable pdfs about waste
and recycling, see
Environment Agency website http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk
and for more information:
Friends of the Earth
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/issues/reduce_reuse_recycle/index.html
Waste Awareness Wales http://www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk
http://www.recycle-more.co.uk Go to Schools then Activities
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
re-use
recycle
Example
paper (used on one side)
Example
paper (used on both sides)
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Can you re-use
or recycle?
Type of rubbish
How will you do it?
collect it in boxes,
near places where it is produced
keep it in boxes, in places where it will be collected /
used (eg near photocopier)
Reducing rubbish plan
Reducing rubbish chart
Mark the date that you started your Reducing rubbish plan
March
Week ending
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Number of bin bags
put out each week
Saving water in the garden
Outline of activity
To learn how to save water in the garden, and to make
a Water Conservation Garden.
Background
Water butts collect rainwater from downpipes such as building guttering.
In any one year, 3,600,000 litres of rain falls on to a typical primary school
roof (4,000 square metres) – enough to fill almost 19,000 water butts!
Water butts usually cost around £25 to £35 each, but most water companies
sell subsidised butts.1
1 http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/sd/focuson/water/
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Activity
1. Jack wants to water the plants in his garden. What does he use?
2. We should never
water. Collect rainwater in a
the
. Waterbutts are large containers that collect the
down from gutters and downspouts.
to water
pouring
Fill in the gaps, using these words:
rainwater
waste
waterbutt
garden
3. Jack puts grass cuttings around the flowers. What is this called?
4. Mulching prevents the ground
the
.
out, saves
, and protects
Fill in the gaps, using these words:
soil
drying
water
Make a Water Conservation Garden in your school grounds.
1
Choose plants that live in hot dry conditions, such as thyme, evening primrose, rock
rose, Californian poppy, pinks, lavender, buddleia and hebes.
2
Use woodchips, bark or gravel for mulching around plants. This keeps down the
weeds and saves watering.
3
Use decking, gravel or paving instead of a lawn.
4
If you need to water your plants, do it in the early morning or evening.
5
Don’t water too often – it makes the plants grow too weak,
with shallow roots.
6
Instead of a hosepipe, use rainwater from a waterbutt.
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
You can make a difference
Outline of activity
Encouraging people to do little things that can make a big difference
Resources
“Small things you can do” chart
Paper, drawing materials
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Activity
Jack is trying to learn how to lead a “sustainable lifestyle”.
This means “doing little things every day now that will make a big
difference to the Earth’s resources in the future.”
Here are some small things you and Jack can do to make a difference:
Small things you can do
How do they make a difference
recycling one glass bottle
saves enough energy to light a 100W
bulb for 4 hours or a low energy 20W
bulb for 20 hours
using a shopping bag
reduce the 7 billion carrier bags that
food shops give away every year –
many of them ending up in the sea,
harming and killing animals
recycling one plastic bottle
saves enough energy to run a 60W bulb
for 2 days or a low energy 15W bulb
for 8 days
using rechargeable batteries
it takes 50 times more energy to make
batteries than they give out, but
rechargeables can be used up to 50 times
recycling one aluminium can
saves enough energy to run a television
set for 1 hour
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Additional activities
Find out more small things you can add to your chart,
by looking at these websites:
Environment Agency
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/fun/?lang=_e
Friends of the Earth
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/issues/
reduce_reuse_recycle/index.html
Waste Awareness Wales
http://www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk
Design a poster, card or bookmark encouraging people to make a big
difference by doing something small.
Your class could put your MAKE A DIFFERENCE designs together to make a
calendar. How about producing them to sell, to raise money for a good
cause?
©2005 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority