Students use a model house to calculate lighting and heating costs
On Friday, May 3, several eighth graders in John McCoy’s Advanced Science class at Walnut Springs Middle School took part in a STEM activity run by OSU Professor Betty L. Anderson. Eric Mays, an Electrical and Computer Engineering student, and Stephanie Pirman, a Computer Science Engineering pupil, assisted her. The eighth graders were given a real world problem of energy consumption and its financial and environmental impact. Given LED and incandescent light bulbs, the youngsters used model houses where they took temperature measurements and were able to calculate the lighting and heating costs for both bulbs. Using this information, they determined which light bulb was most efficient. The exercise was being tested as a potential activity for the OSU Engineering Department’s Outreach program.
Dr. Anderson is a Professor and the Associate Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in Dreese Laboratory at The Ohio State University. For more information about this and 22 other activities including volunteer opportunities, please visit
http://www.ece.osu.edu/~anderson/ and click on “Outreach.”