YEAR ONE INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH STUDIES
Research Topic: Electricity
Chosen Area of Focus: Finding out the different possible ways we can conserve electricity through light bulbs in the School of Science and Technology.
Framing our research topic
Our chosen area of focus is “Finding out the different possible ways we can conserve electricity through the light bulbs.” We have chosen this topic as we realized that many students always forget to turn off the lights before leaving the classroom for break. The teachers have reminded the students time and time again, however, that never worked, resulting in a huge waste of electricity. We also learn that there are many different types of light bulbs which costs vary. For example, the LED light bulbs, that lasts longer and saves more electricity than the normal light bulbs. We think that if we use a different type of light bulb, we can save a good amount of electricity, therefore using less electricity, and saving cost from the school’s electricity bills.
Possible reasons for problems
One of the reasons for this problem is because most students take electricity for granted, never did this thought cross their mind: that everything can be taken away at any second. Therefore, the students will not think of saving or conserving electricity, for they think that we have infinite electricity, which is not true. Another reason is the type of light bulbs that the schools have installed are the normal ones that takes more energy to power them up. Those light bulbs do not last very long either. Those light bulbs use up more electricity, and waste even more when the students forget to turn them off. If the light bulbs installed were those that are designed to save electricity, then the school would be able to save more electricity, and save more money.
After saving electricity, many people would benefit. Firstly, after solving this problem, more electricity is saved and conserved, which in turn, saves money as lesser money is spent on electricity (bills). The electricity saved can be used later for other more productive things, for example, being used in the labs for scientific research. The money saved through the bills can be spent on the students for research, or on their gcp trips, which helps the students to learn and apply their understanding in the real world instead of spending the money on electricity which the students have taken for granted. We hope that after we solve this problem, the students will start to appreciate the things which they have taken for granted, improving their character. We also hope that the students will be inspired and learn from us and spread the different ways to save electricity through light bulbs to the people outside school. More people will understand about the electrical problems faced not only by our school, but also in other places. They can help save and conserve electricity wherever they go. If everyone makes an effort to simply just change the types of light bulbs they use and turn off the light bulbs when not needed, the whole world would be able to save loads of electricity, therefore slowing the rate at which fossil fuels are being used, also reducing the greenhouse effects. It is amazing how one little project can actually go on to do great things in the world. Other advantages would be breaking the boundaries in research studies, and training the brain to think and create more innovative ideas to solve problems.
Some of the possible solutions would be for the light bulbs to be positioned differently at a particular area, therefore maximizing the amount of light given to an area. Lesser light bulbs would be needed to provide the same amount of light to that area, and lesser electricity is used to power up the area, therefore saving more electricity. We also thought of other types of light bulbs that may already exist which are activated by sound or have motion sensors attached. Those light bulbs would help to save a lot of electricity for people would not forget to turn off the lights. However, one of the down sides of it would be people becoming lazy after a while. We also think that a suggestion could be made to the Student Council where the student councils would walk around the classes to check if the light bulbs were turned off, if not, a punishment may be issued. Another solution we thought up of would be to create a light bulb that uses the least amount of electricity to power up a room and last very long yet provide the same amount of light that normal light bulbs would do.
An innovative way that we heard of to power up villages with no electricity was to use the water bottle light bulbs. The people living in the villages are too poor to afford electricity and light bulbs. The water bottle light bulbs are easy to make and provide enough light for the people in the day. These water bottle light bulbs solved the villagers problem of electricity and money.
Reasons for choice of topic
The main reason why we chose this topic is because we want to spread awareness to many other people that they should never take electricity for granted and that they should start to save and conserve electricity now. This also allows us to fulfil the requirements of the project task as the project task is about conserving electricity, which is what we are working on. This topic benefits the society as people will know that each and every one has to put in effort and play their part if everyone wants to conserve as much electricity as possible.
Feasibility of the research
Every research project would always present their own problems and difficulties as nothing would be easy. However, our chosen topic is manageable in a way because we can get our information from a variety of sources. For example, we can always start by interviewing different people relevant to our topic who will give us conducive answers and comments regarding this chosen research topic. In fact, the people whom we will be interviewing are working in the school compound, so the interviews can be arranged quickly.
Manageability of the research
The first part of the project is the understanding and research of the topic. That part needs a lot of information about the electricity being used in the school. Without the information, the project cannot advance. Not only are the information critical in the project, but we also need to be less narrow-minded about the possible solutions, there are no limits in innovation. We are also not sure if the OM would disclose anything about the bills and information regarding the light bulbs. There are sure to be many different difficulties that we will face, failure is also a possibility. In the face of obstacles, we cannot lose heart, instead, we have to do our best to overcome it all. Even if the OM does not want to disclose any information as it is secretive for any reason, there will always be other ways to find out what we want to know. Sure the other way would definitely be long and tiring, but we will be able to pull through. We will try our best to find a way to figure things out. Nothing is impossible.
Before we do anything, the most important is to plan how each and everything would be done. It would be best if the different components of the project could be done quickly, carefully and smoothly. To finish our project without going out of point, we would have to work together as a team. Also to make it fair for everyone, teammates would be assigned different roles to complete different parts of a task.
Accessibility of the information required
The most important information we would need would be knowing how much are the monthly electricity bills, how much electricity are used, the total number of light bulbs in the school compound, the different type of light bulbs used, how long the light bulbs last, some instances where electricity is wasted due to the light bulbs (forgotten to turn off), what the night lightings are like and why are night lightings necessary. The information could be obtained from the school’s OM, students, teachers, cleaners through interviews. However, it may present some difficulties as the OM may not be allowed to disclose any information about the information we need.