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Hanukkah Energy Scavenger Hunt

By Leora Frankel
(Works best for grades 5-8)

This Scavenger Hunt (see below) is a great way to have children actively learn about energy efficiency while having Hanukkah fun. It can be implemented two different ways:

*Important Preparation: Before the activity, make sure you read through and fill out the sheet yourself. Some of the questions ask for specific facts about your building, so you'll need to know whether or not the kids have the correct answers.

For a Youth Group Meeting or Other Small Group:
Depending on the size of your group, you may want to split the kids into a few teams to compete against each other. Try to equally distribute the active vs. passive children, to help encourage involvement. Make sure an adult accompanies each group of children while they go around the building. In addition to being there for supervision, s/he will need to verify that the kids complete some of the actions or activities, and ensure that everyone is participating. Finally, let your building supervisor know about the game ahead of time. (S/he may ask you to omit the thermostat question, etc.)

You can either time the scavenger hunt or make is a race to see who can complete it first. If there are a number of groups, it might be helpful to have everyone write down what time they completed each activity. (For example, the thermostat might be at a different temperature than you originally measured it right after another group lowers it a degree. If you see that two groups were there at different times, then disparaging answers can still be correct.) Each question or challenge gains the kids a specified number of points. At the end of the activity, the child or group with the most points wins! (You may want to give out chocolate Hanukkah gelt or toy dreidels as prizes, but no matter who wins, everybody should leave with something.)

For a Hebrew School or Jewish Day School:
It would probably be too hectic having all of your students running around your school or synagogue trying to complete the scavenger hunt together. A good alternative for a school is to give each student a copy and have them bring it home to do for a specific date. The child's parent(s) will serve as the judge and should sign the top of the sheet verifying that the answers are correct and that their son or daughter completed the activity. This is a great way for parents and children to learn together. (You may want to attach a cover letter to the scavenger hunt, explaining it to the parents and asking for their participation.)

Then, when the students have brought back their completed scavenger hunt sheets, you can have a contest within each class to see which students scored the highest. Another, and potentially more exciting idea, is to tally all of the points each class earns and have a school-wide competition. (A way to account for different class sizes is to use the average score for every class.)

Instructions: This Scavenger Hunt involves a combination of finding certain items, performing challenges, and answering questions. For each completed task, you'll receive the number of points it's worth. Make sure you read carefully, record any information that is asked for on the lines provided, and don't make up any answers! (Only correct answers win points.) Be creative and have fun!

1. Count the number of Hanukkiot (special Hanukkah Menorahs) there are in the building/house.
How many did you find? ________ (+5 pts.)
How many candles were lit last night (w/out the shammash)? ________ (+5 pts.)

2. Sing the chorus to your favorite Hanukkah song. (5 pts. +2 extra if it's in Hebrew!)

The story of Hanukkah speaks of two great miracles. First, it explains how a small jar of oil fueled the Temple's Menorah for eight days–much longer than everyone thought the energy could last. In addition, it also celebrates the unlikely victory of the Maccabees, who didn't let adversity keep them from defending what they knew was right. This Hanukkah, we have the chance to be modern Maccabees, ensuring that our energy lasts as long as possible. Keep reading to find out how...

3. Count the number of doors and windows in the building/house. How many
Doors ________      Windows ________      are there? (+10 pts.)

4. Were any of the windows or doors propped open, allowing heat to escape? Did any of the closed doors leading to the outside have cracks near the floor, allowing air to flow out? (-5 pts.)
If so, close them (but ask permission first if somebody's working there). (+8 pts.)
Where were they? ___________________________________________________

Did you know that the amount of heat lost through a quarter-inch crack along a 3-foot door costs more than 20 gallons of fuel oil to reproduce? Not only is this a waste of money, but it adds to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is contributing to something in the environment called The Greenhouse Effect. Everyday, sunshine reaches the earth, turns into heat, and reflects back towards outer space. Certain gases in the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide can trap the heat that is reflected. All of this trapped heat causes Global Climate Change.

As the name implies, Global Climate Change means that the temperature of the atmosphere around the earth is rising and dropping to temperatures that are unnatural. This affects the world's ecosystems in many ways. For example, ice sheets in Alaska will melt and the ocean will rise and start to flood coastal ares like the Florida beaches. But don't worry–it's not too late to help stop Global Climate Change...

5. Count the number of light bulbs there are in the building/house (not including any on Hanukkiot or a Menorah). How many did you find? ________ (+15 pts.)

Were any of the lights left on in empty rooms? ________ (-5 pts.)
If so, shut them off and record where ______________________________ (+8 pts.)

6. Are any of them specially designed to be energy efficient, such as compact fluorescent bulbs? If so, how many, and where are they? ________________________________________________________________ (+2 extra pts. per bulb)

Did you know that lighting makes up about 25% of the electricity Americans use? If 1,000 of us replaced just 4 regular light bulbs in our house with special low-mercury compact fluorescent bulbs, we could prevent five million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere! Not only that, but we'd also reduce our electricity bills by more than $100,000 over the lives of those bulbs. What would you do with all that money? But wait, there's more...

7. Using just your bodies (no props), illustrate three different sources of light and heat. (+5 pts. per picture)

8. Guess (without looking at the thermostat) what temperature you think it is in the building/house right now. _______ºF (+5 pts.)

Did you know that heating and cooling use the largest amount of energy in most homes? You can prevent the emission of nearly 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide annually just by lowering your thermostat by three degrees in the winter. If 1,000 of us shifted three degrees, we could save over a million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year!

Find the thermostat in your building/house. What temperature does it currently read? _______ºF (+5 pts.) How close was your guess to the real temperature?

With permission, lower the thermostat 3 degrees. What is the temperature now? _______ºF (+5 pts.)

Kol Hakavod! Great Job!
You have followed in the footsteps of your courageous ancestor Judah Maccabbee, and taken important action. However, Hanukkah is not the only time we must be sensitive to the issues of Global Warming and Energy Conservation. By remembering to complete these simple tasks in our everyday lives, we can continue to help protect our environment.

P.S. Don't forget to tell your friends and family about what you learned! They can help too...

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