Scope and Sequence

The complete 34-lesson structure of How Public Utilities Work.

How Public Utilities Work is organized into five units, totaling 34 lessons of instruction, plus a bonus chapter on careers. Each lesson stands alone but builds on prior lessons. The structure below shows the full arc; the Sample page contains two complete lessons if you want to see what an individual lesson looks like in detail.

Unit 1 — Understanding Utilities (Lessons 1–7)

The foundation unit. Students learn what a public utility is, how regulation works, how electricity is generated and delivered, how meters work, and how natural gas, water, and wastewater services parallel and differ from electric service. By the end of Unit 1, students can describe the basic structure of the utility sector and identify the major players.

  • Lesson 1: What Is a Public Utility?
  • Lesson 2: Who Watches and Who Owns Public Utilities
  • Lesson 3: How Is Electricity Generated?
  • Lesson 4: How Electricity Gets to Your Home
  • Lesson 5: What’s On Your Meter?
  • Lesson 6: The Gas Industry
  • Lesson 7: The Water Industry

Unit 2 — Energy at Home (Lessons 8–14)

How utilities show up in students’ daily lives. Reading and understanding bills, recognizing energy usage patterns, exploring efficiency technologies, and understanding how time-of-use pricing and large loads (including data centers and cryptocurrency mining) shape the grid. By the end of Unit 2, students can read a household bill, identify high-usage devices, and explain why timing of consumption matters.

  • Lesson 8: Reading Your Electric Bill
  • Lesson 9: Using Less, Saving More: Efficiency, Conservation & Smart Devices
  • Lesson 10: Heating and Cooling Effectively
  • Lesson 11: Weatherization
  • Lesson 12: Day vs. Night Use & Time-of-Use Pricing
  • Lesson 13: Large Loads, Data Centers & Crypto

Unit 3 — Safety & Emergencies (Lessons 14–21)

Practical safety information that every student should know. Electrical safety at home, what to do when wires are down, hidden hazards like contact voltage, the 811 call-before-you-dig system, storm preparedness, outage survival, and scams targeting utility customers. By the end of Unit 3, students can identify utility-related hazards, respond appropriately to emergencies, and recognize common scams.

  • Lesson 14: Electric Safety at Home
  • Lesson 15: Natural Gas Safety at Home
  • Lesson 16: Wires Down Safety
  • Lesson 17: Contact Voltage & Hidden Hazards
  • Lesson 18: Know Before You Act: 811
  • Lesson 19: Storm Preparedness
  • Lesson 20: Outage Survival & Restoration
  • Lesson 21: Utility Scams & Worker Verification

Unit 4 — Rules, Rights & Regulation (Lessons 22–28)

How utility decisions actually get made. Who writes the rules, who watches the utilities, how rates are set, how deregulation reshaped the market, what consumer protections exist, how disputes get resolved, and the surprising complexity of seemingly simple things like streetlights. By the end of Unit 4, students can explain how a rate case works, identify their rights as utility consumers, and understand the layered regulatory environment.

  • Lesson 22: How Utility Rules Are Made
  • Lesson 23: Affordability: Who Can Pay the Bill?
  • Lesson 24: How Electric Rates Are Set
  • Lesson 25: Deregulation & Market Structure
  • Lesson 26: Customer Protections & Disputes
  • Lesson 27: Streetlights

Unit 5 — The Grid Today & Tomorrow (Lessons 28–34)

The transition underway. Grid reliability and resilience challenges, smart meters and the data they generate, residential solar and net metering, community solar and equity, electric vehicles and transportation electrification, and the climate considerations driving clean-energy policy. By the end of Unit 5, students can describe the major forces reshaping the grid and identify policy questions where reasonable people disagree.

  • Lesson 28: Grid Reliability & Resilience
  • Lesson 29: Meter Reading & Smart Meters
  • Lesson 30:  Solar, Net Metering & Interconnection
  • Lesson 31: Community Solar, Equity & Clean Energy Access
  • Lesson 32: Water Distribution & Infrastructure Reliability
  • Lesson 33: Electric Vehicles & Transportation Electrification
  • Lesson 34: Climate, Clean Energy & What Comes Next

Bonus Chapter — Careers in the Public Utility Industry

A focused look at 39 careers in the public utility industry, from line workers and substation technicians to engineers, attorneys, regulatory analysts, and grid operators. Each career profile includes a description of the work, typical education and training pathways, salary ranges, and entry points for students considering the field. The bonus chapter is integrated with the Glossary, so students completing the curriculum encounter and re-encounter the vocabulary of utility-sector careers throughout.

Reference Materials

Beyond the 34 lessons of instruction and the bonus chapter, the book includes:

  • Instructor Section — teaching notes, answer keys, and differentiation guidance for Lessons 1–34
  • Glossary of Key Terms — vocabulary from all 34 lessons, including career profiles and the bonus chapter
  • Formula & Calculation Reference — all 26 formulas (F-1 through F-26), organized by Unit
  • Flexible Scheduling Guide — full 34-lesson program plus a 30-lesson core option for shorter academic calendars
  • Standards Alignment Summary — NGSS, ELA, Math, Social Studies, CTE
  • Resources for Educators — federal agencies, state regulators, advocacy and industry organizations

Two ways to use the curriculum

The 34-lesson program

One lesson of curriculum per week of school. Across a standard 36-week U.S. academic year, this leaves two weeks of slack for testing, breaks, or local enrichment. This is the one the curriculum is designed around.

The 30-lesson core option

For schools with shorter calendars (such as some private and parochial schools) or for cases where the curriculum is sharing time with another subject, the book includes a 30-week core option. The Flexible Scheduling Guide in the back matter identifies which lessons are core (always include) and which lessons are optional (include if time permits). The 30-week core preserves the full arc of the curriculum while compressing the optional enrichment.

Inside each lesson

Every entry follows the same internal structure, so students and teachers know exactly what to expect:

  • Opening narrative — a scenario, story, or question that sets up the lesson
  • A teaching image — designed to provide a graphical summary of the lesson
  • Core content — the conceptual material, presented at three reading levels (A, B, C)
  • Four activities — in-book exercises with no outside materials required
  • Vocabulary — key terms introduced and defined, cross-referenced to the glossary
  • Lesson assessment — 10 questions covering the lesson’s material, with answer key in the Instructor Section
  • Instructor entry (in back matter) — background brief, facilitation notes, common student questions, and grade-band guidance

Standards coverage at a glance

The full standards crosswalk is available on the Standards page. At a high level, the curriculum maps to:

  • NGSS — performance expectations across grade 5, MS-ETS, MS-PS3, MS-ESS3, HS-PS3, HS-ESS3, and HS-ETS bands
  • C3 Framework (Social Studies) — Dimensions 2 (Economics, Civics) and 4 (Communicating Conclusions)
  • CCSS-ELA — Reading Informational Text, Writing, and Speaking & Listening practices, grades 5–12
  • CCSS Math — selected practices, primarily in Units 2 and 4 (bill reading, rate calculation)
  • CTE — Career and Technical Education alignment surfaced primarily through the bonus chapter on careers

→ Standards Alignment crosswalk