Energy After the Feast: Holiday Activity – Student

Summary

The Energy After the Feast Student Handout turns energy conservation into an engaging, interactive experience. Students learn about four Energy Pathways—Compost/Biogas, Recycling, Food Donation, and Landfill—then work in small groups to sort meal item cards and explain their reasoning.

Students apply basic math and data interpretation skills to estimate the embedded energy in everyday materials and explore how recycling and reduction can help conserve energy. They compare recovery methods, evaluate trade-offs, and connect these concepts to local and global systems.

The handout concludes with reflection questions and an optional CER challenge where students defend whether conserving or recovering energy has a greater impact.

This worksheet reinforces energy literacy and systems thinking while meeting NGSS and literacy integration goals.