Home Energy Investigation Contest

Hundreds of Colorado sixth-grade students are learning about energy efficiency and reducing energy use in their own homes by participating in a program sponsored by Energy Outreach Colorado.

The Home Energy Investigation Contest invites students to form teams, evaluate their family’s energy consumption, compile data, propose efficiency measures and present their findings to judges.

Colorado Energy Science Center launched the program in 2001. The 2008 contest drew 445 participants from six schools and more than 500 peers, parents and teachers.

Laura Laycock, science teacher at Challenger Middle School in Colorado Springs, was one of the program organizers and helped her students experiment with the energy use of various light bulbs, learn about types of insulation, and evaluate and graph the results from their home energy audits.

During class and after school, she helped 160 students in 30 groups develop their projects and present to a panel of eight judges. The three top-ranked groups from her school proceeded to a statewide contest and recognition event in Denver.

“The more in-depth the analysis got, the more they seemed to enjoy it,” Laycock said. “They realized that, as a 12-year-old, they can actually make a difference in how their family spends money.”

Other schools participating in the contest were Big Sandy Schools in Simla, and West Middle School, Orchard Mesa Middle School, Mount Gartfield Middle School, and Central High School in the Grand Junction area.

“I learned how to save energy in my home by not using as much water,” said one Challenger Middle School student. Another said, “We now use more compact fluorescent lightbulbs instead of incandescent.”