https://koshland-science-museum.org/explore/lights-night-webquest
Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences
Activity takes two 45-minute class periods. Computer access is needed for part of the activity.
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Activity
supports the Next Generation Science Standards»Middle School: 1 Performance Expectation, 1 Disciplinary Core Idea, 8 Cross Cutting Concepts, 7 Science and Engineering Practices
High School: 1 Performance Expectation, 1 Disciplinary Core Idea, 6 Cross Cutting Concepts, 8 Science and Engineering Practices
Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
GPe 
GPeEnergy Literacy
5.4 Economic factors.
5.5 Political factors.
5.7 Social Factors.
6.5 Social and technological innovation.
6.6 Behavior and design.
6.8 Calculating and monitoring energy use.
Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines
Other materials addressing:
B) Recognizing citizens' rightrs and responsiblities.
Other materials addressing:
A) Individuals and groups.
Other materials addressing:
A) Human/environment interactions.
Other materials addressing:
C) Resources.
Other materials addressing:
D) Technology.
Other materials addressing:
E) Environmental Issues.
Other materials addressing:
A) Identifying and investigating issues.
Other materials addressing:
B) Sorting out the consequences of issues.
Other materials addressing:
C) Identifying and evaluation alternative solutions and courses of action.
Notes From Our Reviewers
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- The idea of having students describe what they see in the night sky is nice, but it will be difficult to have them discuss whether or not what they see is disturbed by light pollution. To arrive at this conclusion, they would need to see a difference.
- Possible follow-up topics include energy cycles (photosynthesis and respiration), global climate change, properties of light and energy (from a physical science perspective).
- Educators should emphasize that the carbon calculator is using some simplified equations. They will appear like a black box to the students and some more explanation will be helpful.
About the Science
- The activity challenges users to connect energy use and decisions with broader environmental impact. It forces individuals to examine their energy use and expands thinking beyond immediate self and neighborhood to global perspective.
- There is an interesting but unexplained connection between evening lighting and energy usage as the starting premise for the activity. It would be enhanced if the connection was supported by scientific data. One image suggests lighting in the United States has decreased, yet national energy use has not. Data is from 1993, 1997 and 2003.
- Activity takes students on a journey from local to regional to national to world - with changing perspectives on the topic.
Next Generation Science Standards See how this Activity supports:
Middle School
Performance Expectations: 1
MS-ESS3-4: Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 1
MS-ESS3.D1:Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 8
MS-C1.2: Patterns in rates of change and other numerical relationships can provide information about natural and human designed systems
MS-C1.3: Patterns can be used to identify cause and effect relationships.
MS-C1.4:Graphs, charts, and images can be used to identify patterns in data.
MS-C4.2: Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions—such as inputs, processes and outputs—and energy, matter, and information flows within systems.
MS-C5.3:Energy may take different forms (e.g. energy in fields, thermal energy, energy of motion).
MS-C5.4:The transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed or natural system.
MS-C7.1: Explanations of stability and change in natural or designed systems can be constructed by examining the changes over time and forces at different scales, including the atomic scale.
MS-C7.2: Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part.
Science and Engineering Practices: 7
MS-P1.8:Define a design problem that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process or system and includes multiple criteria and constraints, including scientific knowledge that may limit possible solutions.
MS-P4.2:Use graphical displays (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, and/or tables) of large data sets to identify temporal and spatial relationships.
MS-P4.3: Distinguish between causal and correlational relationships in data.
MS-P6.1:Construct an explanation that includes qualitative or quantitative relationships between variables that predict(s) and/or describe(s) phenomena.
MS-P6.4:Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to construct, revise and/or use an explanation for real- world phenomena, examples, or events.
MS-P6.8:Optimize performance of a design by prioritizing criteria, making tradeoffs, testing, revising, and re- testing.
MS-P8.2:Integrate qualitative and/or quantitative scientific and/or technical information in written text with that contained in media and visual displays to clarify claims and findings.
High School
Performance Expectations: 1
HS-ESS3-2: Evaluate competing design solutions for developing, managing, and utilizing energy and mineral resources based on cost-benefit ratios.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 1
HS-ESS3.A2:All forms of energy production and other resource extraction have associated economic, social, environmental, and geopolitical costs and risks as well as benefits. New technologies and social regulations can change the balance of these factors.
Cross Cutting Concepts: 6
HS-C1.3:Patterns of performance of designed systems can be analyzed and interpreted to reengineer and improve the system.
HS-C2.2:Cause and effect relationships can be suggested and predicted for complex natural and human designed systems by examining what is known about smaller scale mechanisms within the system.
HS-C4.2:When investigating or describing a system, the boundaries and initial conditions of the system need to be defined and their inputs and outputs analyzed and described using models.
HS-C5.4: Energy drives the cycling of matter within and between systems.
HS-C7.1:Much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable.
HS-C7.4:Systems can be designed for greater or lesser stability.
Science and Engineering Practices: 8
HS-P1.3:ask questions to determine relationships, including quantitative relationships, between independent and dependent variables
HS-P1.8:Define a design problem that involves the development of a process or system with interacting components and criteria and constraints that may include social, technical, and/or environmental considerations. 
HS-P3.5:Make directional hypotheses that specify what happens to a dependent variable when an independent variable is manipulated.
HS-P4.6: Analyze data to identify design features or characteristics of the components of a proposed process or system to optimize it relative to criteria for success.
HS-P6.1:Make a quantitative and/or qualitative claim regarding the relationship between dependent and independent variables.
HS-P6.5:Design, evaluate, and/or refine a solution to a complex real-world problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations.
HS-P7.1:Compare and evaluate competing arguments or design solutions in light of currently accepted explanations, new evidence, limitations (e.g., trade-offs), constraints, and ethical issues
HS-P8.1:Critically read scientific literature adapted for classroom use to determine the central ideas or conclusions and/or to obtain scientific and/or technical information to summarize complex evidence, concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms.
