Connected to the Grid

  Change is Simple in the CLIC lab

By Student Blogger Lexie

Have you ever done a Change is Simple project with your class? Well, my class, Mrs. Gibbas’s class did one on Monday, March 28th.

My class, Mrs. Gibbas’s class, went to the CLIC lab down the hall at 9:00am. We were about to do our third Change is Simple project, yet our first time going to the CLIC lab for it, as we have only done Change is Simple in our classroom before. As we entered the room, we were greeted by four Change is Simple workers and all the materials they had brought. One of them stood centered in the front of the room, “Hello!” she said, “Do any of you remember my name?” A classmate of mine, Ryan, raised his hand after about five seconds and the lady called on him, as he was the only one with his hand up. “Is it Kat?” he said. “Correct! I am Kat,” she replied. She then said the names of the other Change Is Simple workers. 

Next, Kat asked us to raise our hand to be a volunteer, but she warned us that we would be made fun of a bit. Many people raised their hands, but Ryan was picked. He went to the front of the room, and was directed to sit next to a doll house.

She then kept turning on some fake electrical things in the house, to show all the electricity that each item used. 

We then all talked about ways we can save electricity. Some of the things were to take a shorter shower, have cereal instead of cooking, just wear a different shirt instead of just washing one, and turning off the lights and just using the light from the window.

Then she asked us what we used to measure electricity, and after a few wrong answers, we came up with WATTS. Then I was called up to try to light up a light bulb by moving a lever. I wasn't able to light it up, other than the two seconds I did. Then Will was called up, and got it on for about five seconds. She then took me back to try another light bulb, and this one lit up almost instantly.

Kat said it was because the first light bulb was 150 WATTS, and the other light bulb took only seven WATTS.

Next, Kat put us into four groups. She gave us each a number, then we held up our number with our fingers. She put each group at a table, and gave us a sheet. The people in my group were me, Jake, Will, and Maci.

With the sheet, we were instructed to choose one item from each of four places they had made, and put a prediction of how many WATTS it used.

Then we went around the room, going to each station, and we used a special WATTS tester to see how many WATTS it used.

In my group, our most crazy outcome was that we predicted the Ipad would be 850 WATTS but was only 7.3 WATTS.

We then ended the Change is Simple project by saying, “CHANGE IS SIMPLE!” all in unison.