Can your data reveal which devices in a building waste the most energy?

The Project

The Smart Meter project is a three-phase journey where students move from passive users of technology to engineers who control it. Phase I: Becoming an Energy Engineer — students calibrate hardware and build a functional Smart Meter. Phase II: Launching the Energy Investigation — students audit the energy use of legacy and modern devices to find the performance gap. Phase III: Creating the Power Plan — students translate raw data into a Technical Recommendation for a real client. Grades 4–6 focus on basic energy changes and comparing light sources. Grades 7–8 audit complex plug-in devices and learn to identify noise in large datasets.

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   Phase I: Becoming an Energy EngineerPhase 1 of 3

   1. The Engineer’s Brief

      Students explore energy transformations while receiving their first official client brief outlining a real energy challenge. They learn to trace how energy changes form — from kinetic to thermal to radiant — and prepare to use a pocket computer (microcontroller) as a professional measurement tool.

   2. Tooling Up

      Students perform a hands-on hardware tour and calibrate sensors by building a Light-Sensing Name Badge. They discover how sensors function as inputs and LEDs as outputs, ensuring their instruments are mission-ready before data collection begins.

   3. Coding the Smart Meter

      Students program a pocket computer (microcontroller) with the logic required to calculate Watts, Watt-Hours, and electricity costs. They discover the common language of energy measurement through the Block Tower demo, producing a functional Smart Meter device that converts raw energy readings into financial data.
2. 2
   Phase II: Launching the Energy InvestigationPhase 2 of 3

   1. The Device Battle Pt. 1

      Students establish a baseline by measuring the energy use of Device A — a legacy tool like an incandescent bulb. They investigate how variables like sensor proximity and data rigor affect measurement accuracy, producing the first half of a comparative dataset representing traditional energy use.

   2. The Device Battle Pt. 2

      Students test Device B — a modern alternative like an LED — under matching conditions and measure its real energy use. They discover the direct relationship between technical efficiency and dollar savings, completing the comparative dataset and preparing for analysis.

   3. Data Integrity & Efficiency

      Students examine their findings to separate noise from clean data while learning the difference between energy efficiency (better technology) and energy conservation (behavioral changes). They discover that data integrity is a core professional standard, producing a verified dataset for the Power Plan.
3. 3
   Phase III: Creating the Power PlanPhase 3 of 3

   1. Building the Savings Roadmap

      Students translate investigation data into a persuasive plan for a real client. Working in teams, they project findings across thousands of devices over a full year, calculate large-scale savings, and build a professional presentation for their recommended solution.

   2. The Power Pitch

      Students showcase their Savings Roadmap in a 5-minute Power Pitch and defend their findings during a live Q&A session. This culminating event produces a Technical Recommendation that justifies their proposed solution to the client.