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Find out all about what efficiency is, what different types of efficiency are and how you can be more energy-efficient in our energy efficiency Teaching Wiki.

Download FREE teacher-made resources covering 'Efficiency'

What is efficiency?

Efficiency can mean different things in different contexts. Overall, efficiency means producing something without wasting time, effort, material, energy or money. If you are efficient at doing your homework, you will complete the tasks you have to do quickly but you will do them well without rushing. This means the result at the end is good but you didn't have to spend too much time doing it.

Efficiency in science means that energy is not wasted during a process, such as burning fuel or lighting up a room with lightbulbs. Here, we will explore what different versions of efficiency mean.

Economic efficiency

When an economy is efficient, it means that everything is used to its full potential and waste is very minimal or zero. Economics is all about how goods and services are produced, sold and used. In an efficient economy, every resource is used and distributed among people who make goods (producers) and people who buy goods (consumers) in a way that produces the best economic output for the consumers.

To make an efficient economy, there have to be many efficient decisions made by people in companies and people in shops buying products. Economic efficiency is a theory, not a reality. We can have very efficient economies but complete or pure efficiency is a limit we can work towards but never fully reach. In reality, economics measure the loss and compare it to pure efficiency to see how efficient an economy is.

Energy efficiency

Energy efficiency is when we use less energy to provide the same level of energy. This sounds confusing, but let's explain it! One example of energy efficiency is insulating a house. When we install insulation in a house, a layer of material is placed between the outer and inner wall of the building, which we can't see but it helps to keep the house warm. The material used in insulation stops most of the heat escaping from inside the house to outside. This means that when we turn the heating on in the house, it will take less energy to heat the house up to a comfortable temperature, because less of the heat is escaping out of the building. Toasty!

Another example of energy efficiency can be seen in the type of lights that are used. Some lights are more efficient than others, which means they can light up a room using less energy. Fluorescent lights are more efficient than incandescent bulbs, for example, because they produce much less heat, so most of the energy is converted into light rather than heat. Incandescent bulbs are the kind of bulbs we normally find in lamps and fluorescent lights are used a lot in schools and workplaces. This means that things can be more energy efficient if we use updated technology.

We use energy every day at school, home and work. The lights in your house, the interactive whiteboard in your classroom, and the computers in offices all use energy. Being energy efficient is good for the environment because we are not using as much of our planet's resources, like oil and gas.

There are some simple things we can do to help save energy and be more energy efficient! Take a look at the list below for some ideas:

Turn off your lights, computer, television and video games when you are not using them.

Make sure the washing machine is full when you wash your clothes and put it on a lower temperature, like 30 degrees Celsius. Your clothes will still be clean and smelling fresh, but it is a lot better for the environment!

The same is true for the dishwasher: make sure it is full. You can use an energy-saving cycle too.

Open blinds and curtains in winter so sunlight can warm up the room, then close them sometimes in summer so that the room stays cooler.

Efficiency Resources

Take a look at our Energy Efficiency Worksheet Pack for some word and calculation problems all about energy efficiency, perfect to test children's knowledge on this topic. Our Energy Efficiency in the Home Match and Draw Worksheet is a great activity for pupils to think about how energy efficiency is important in their everyday life and environment. For some inspiration on teaching this topic, check out our resource pack on Energy Changes and Transfers: Efficiency and Calculations , complete with lesson ideas, a PowerPoint, worksheets and extra challenges. All our teacher-made resources are easily printable and downloadable, saving you time and effort in the lesson planning process.

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What is Efficiency? | Economic and Energy Efficiency | Wiki

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Find out all about what efficiency is, what different types of efficiency are and how you can be more energy-efficient in our energy efficiency Teaching Wiki.

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Fun Kids - the UK's children's radio station

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Top 10 Facts about the Environment! - Fun Kids - the UK's children's radio station

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Our environment plays an important role in our lives and is a key factor in determining the quality of our lives. It is important for us to be aware of more "

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Children and Fire Safety- Facts, Tips, Tricks, and Resources

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When it comes to children, safety should be a priority and when it comes to fire safety, it is no exception. Teach your children about fire and the danger.

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You can change the language at the top!

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WHO fact sheet on adolescents health risks and solutions: includes key facts and provides a definition, information on specific health issues, WHO response.

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World Health Day is celebrated every April 7th - it's a day to promote global health awareness. World Health Day is held on this day to mark the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO), and is seen as an opportunity to draw worldwide attention to a different aspect of major importance to global health each year. The first was celebrated in 1948 - 70 years ago - when the WHO held its first ever world health assembly.

This year, the WHO is calling on all leaders to live up to the pledges they made when they agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, and to commit to concrete steps to advance the health of all people, everywhere.

In our effort to build awareness, we are sharing some facts about health that may surprise you.

1. At least half the world's population does not receive the essential health services they need.

At CMMB, we view access to quality healthcare as a basic human right. We collaborate with partners to build locally sustainable healthcare solutions so women and children can lead healthier lives worldwide.

Did you know that 100 million people survive on less than $1.90 a day?

2. Health costs have pushed 100 million people into poverty.

Over 800 million people spent at least 10 percent of their household budgets to pay for healthcare in 2017. That is nearly 12 percent of the world's total population - often the poorest - who are further impoverished by the cost of healthcare.
What does this mean for people living in extreme poverty?
For children like Gloria, who lives in a poor and remote community in Kenya, it means a lot! She is a part of our Angel Investor program now, but before finding her Angel, her family had to choose between food and healthcare. As a result, Gloria's mom - who lives miles from the closest healthcare facility - was unable to receive the care she needed before and after Gloria's birth. This led to a host of health issues for both mom and baby Gloria. Fortunately, for Gloria and her family, things started to improve after they found their Angel Investor, Norbert, from Massachusetts. His monthly gift helps to ensure that Gloria and her entire family have health insurance, which gives them access care whenever they need it. Thanks to this gift, Gloria's parents can focus on providing food, shelter, and education to their children. All necessary for a healthy life and bright future.

3. More people have access to a mobile phone than a toilet.

Not everyone immediately recognizes the importance of proper sanitation. When so many needs go unmet - food, healthcare, shelter - others get pushed to the side. Toilets happen to be one of those expendable needs.

In many of the communities where CMMB works, open defecation is a common practice. With limited resources and a lack of understanding about how this practice negatively impacts health, proper sanitation is not seen as a necessity or priority. We are working hard within these communities to change this behavior. Using the Community Led Total Sanitation approach, trained community health workers - or champions as they are called - use a variety of triggers to help people recognize the importance of building, using, and maintaining toilets (pit latrines) in their communities.

CMMB volunteer Janet Choonga, spent a year in Zambia, training and educating communities around issues of improved sanitation. She explains that this helps communities to realize the consequences of poor sanitation, so that they themselves become the solution. When communities actually see how open defecation contaminates their water, and causes community-wide sickness, they are triggered to make a change and live healthier lives.

4. Weak health systems contribute to the deaths of 6.6 million children around the world every year.
Jovana (pictured above) a two-year-old child is assessed for malnutrition, and was later diagnosed with acute malnutrition. She is at the CMMB clinic at the Rimenze IDP settlement, outside of Yambio, South Sudan.
5. Every day, over 800 women die due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

CMMB works in South Sudan and Kenya, two countries with some of the highest maternal mortality rates around the world. In South Sudan the maternal mortality rate stands at 789 per 100,000, ranking it as 179th in the world. Kenya, stands at 510 per 100,000 ranking as 168th in the world. Many of these deaths can be prevented with access to better pre- and postnatal care.

In Kenya, approximately 8,000 women die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth every year. Baby Titus is just one of the children who was left without a mom.

When Ndunge went into labor, a traditional birth attendant was by her side. Titus was born but the new mother began to hemorrhage. With the nearest hospital over 25 miles away, and no access to transportation, Ndunge slowly bled to death, leaving Titus and his siblings without a mother. Tragically, what happened to Ndunge is not uncommon.

Many women in Kenya and around the world give birth at home, unable to travel the distance to the nearest hospital. Our community health workers are trained to identify pregnant women in their communities, and to educate and encourage them to seek pre-and-postnatal care, and to deliver at health facilities with trained birth attendants. No woman should die giving life.

6. Americans spend more on Halloween than the world spends on malaria in a year.

Total spending for Halloween this year reached $8.4 billion

Malaria accounts for half of all the deaths of Zambian children under the age of five, and about 20 percent of all maternal deaths. In partnership with USAID, CMMB has implemented training and support for community volunteers on how to prevent, control, and treat malaria, as well as how to deliver social behavioral change messages to communities. These messages urge communities, especially pregnant women, to sleep under malaria prevention nets, protecting the health of themselves and their children.

7. Diarrhea and pneumonia together kill more kids than AIDS, malaria and TB combined.

Mwaka was only 16 years old when she gave birth to her first child, Namwaka. She was just a child herself and didn't know anything about caring for a baby. Struggling with breastfeeding, she turned to feeding her baby a mixture of cornmeal and water from a bottle. In addition to the unfiltered water, the mixture lacked the vital nutrients babies need. Although Mwaka didn't realize it, the regular bouts of diarrhea were causing Namwaka to become malnourished.
Diarrhea kills 2,195 children every day-more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.
Fortunately, Mwaka met community health worker, Mrs. Zuze, who supported her with breastfeeding. When Mwaka switched to breastfeeding, Namwaka's health began to improve and her instances of diarrhea decreased.

8. Global Health has seemingly become a man's world. Only 28 percent of top health officials at the WHO are women.

Gender inequality exists all over the world. However, we see it most relevant in developing nations, where social implications have left women with few choices and little freedom. This is just one of the many reasons CMMB strives to empower women. For young women, one of the most powerful tools for empowerment is education and health.

In partnership with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, CMMB has implemented the DREAMS program in Kenya and Zambia. DREAMS is two-fold. It aims to reduce HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women, while keeping young girls in school during key-dropout points. The program works to make schools more girl-friendly and gender equitable.

14-year-old Leah is part of DREAMS in Kenya. She explained that families in her community prioritize sending boys over girls to school, making girls feel less valued and less prepared, and ultimately more vulnerable. "DREAMS is a club that empowers girls and women and it helps us feel as if we are not forgotten."

9. Gender-based violence remains high around the world. The WHO reports that 35.6 percent of women have been subjected to physical or sexual violence.

10. Predictions about health-related matters have proven to be pretty tough to make.

At CMMB, we do our best to implement programs that are successful and accepted by the communities where we work. However, we sometimes encounter unexpected obstacles.

In one rural village of Kenya, community members began rejecting water purifying tablets that were distributed to help combat the health risks linked to consumption of contaminated water. Our team on the ground went to investigate the cause behind the rejection. After speaking with different members of the community they learned that people didn't trust the water purifiers. They believed that they were dangerous, and would even lead to death for those who used them. Patiently and carefully, our community health workers held meetings to listen to the concerns of the people, to provide education, and to dispel the myths that has emerged. This story highlights the importance of communication and really listening. Change takes time, understanding, and a commitment to community involvement.

#HealthForAll

"Health for all" has been WHO's guiding vision for more than seven decades. It's also the impetus behind the current organization-wide drive to support countries in moving towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

What does Universal Health Coverage mean? It means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes access to quality health services including health promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. Right now, in Zambia for example, the doctor-patient-ratio is reported as one doctor to every 12, 000 patients. The WHO's acceptable ratio stands at one doctor to every 5,000 patients.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is possible and every day countries around the world are making strides towards achieving it. At CMMB, we are always looking for new ways to bring women, children, and their communities adequate and affordable healthcare. However, it is not enough. As a global society, we need to come together and join hands for a fairer, more accessible healthcare system around the world. Act now.

Everyone has a role to play. What's yours?

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Did You Know? 10 Global Health Facts on World Health Day | CMMB

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World Health Day is celebrated every April 7th - it's a day to promote global health awareness. World Health Day is held on this day to mark the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO), and is seen as an opportunity to draw worldwide attention to a different aspect of major importance to global health each year.

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Global Road Safety Facts for Children. Safe Kids Worldwide. (n.d.-a). https://www.safekids.org/global-road-safety-facts-children-safe-kids-worldwide

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Global Road Safety Facts for Children | Safe Kids Worldwide

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THE PROBLEMA growing epidemic of traffic injuries is devastating the next generation of children around the globe.

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NG, A. (2024, January 3). What is climate change: Facts for kids. National Geographic Kids. https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/geography/general-geography/what-is-climate-change/

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We've all heard of it, but what is climate change and what is it doing to our planet?

So, what is climate change?

Climate change (or global warming), is the process of our planet heating up.

Scientists estimate that since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has caused the Earth to warm by approximately 1°C. While that might not sound like much, it means big things for people and wildlife around the globe.

Unfortunately, rising temperatures don't just mean that we'll get nicer weather - if only! The changing climate will actually make our weather more extreme and unpredictable.

As temperatures rise, some areas will get wetter and lots of animals (and humans!) could find they're not able to adapt to their changing climate.

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What causes climate change?

1. Burning fossil fuels

Over the past 150 years, industrialised countries have been burning large amounts of fossil fuels such as oil and gas. The gases released into the atmosphere during this process act like an invisible 'blanket', trapping heat from the sun and warming the Earth. This is known as the " Greenhouse Effect ".

2. Farming

Believe it or not, cows' eating habits contribute towards climate change. Just like us, when cows eat, methane - a type of greenhouse gas - builds up in their digestive system and is released in the form of... a burp! This might sound funny, but when you imagine that there are almost 1.5 billion cows releasing all that gas into the atmosphere, it sure adds up!

3. Deforestation

Forests absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide - another greenhouse gas - from the air, and release oxygen back into it. The Amazon rainforest is so large and efficient at doing this that it acts like our planet's air conditioner - limiting climate change. Sadly, many rainforests are being cut down to make wood, palm oil and to clear the way for farmland, roads, oil mines, and dams.

How will climate change affect the planet?

The Earth has had many tropical climates and ice ages over the billions of years that it's been in existence, so why is now so different? Well, this is because for the last 150 years human activity has meant we're releasing a huge amount of harmful gases into the Earth's atmosphere, and records show that the global temperatures are rising more rapidly since this time.

A warmer climate could affect our planet in a number of ways:
- Shrinking sea ice
How will climate change affect wildlife?

Climate change is already affecting wildlife all over the world, but certain species are suffering more than others. Polar animals - whose icy natural habitat is melting in the warmer temperatures - are particularly at risk. In fact, experts believe that the Arctic sea ice is melting at a shocking rate - 9% per decade! Polar bears need sea ice to be able to hunt, raise their young and as places to rest after long periods of swimming. Certain seal species, like ringed seals make caves in the snow and ice to raise their pups, feed and mate.

It's not just polar animals who are in trouble. Apes like orangutans, which live in the rainforests of Indonesia, are under threat as their habitat is cut down, and more droughts cause more bushfires.

Sea turtles rely on nesting beaches to lay their eggs, many of which are threatened by rising sea levels. Did you know that the temperature of nests determines whether the eggs are male or female? Unfortunately, with temperatures on the rise, this could mean that many more females are born than males, threatening future turtle populations.

How will people be affected by climate change?

Climate change won't just affect animals, it's already having an impact on people, too. Most affected are some of the people who grow the food we eat every day. Farming communities, especially in developing countries, are facing higher temperatures, increased rain, floods and droughts.

We Brits love a good cuppa, (around 165 million cups of the stuff every day!), but we probably take for granted just how much work goes into growing our tea. Environmental conditions can affect the flavour and quality plus it needs a very specific rainfall to grow. In Kenya, climate change is making rainfall patterns less and less predictable. Often there will be droughts followed by huge amounts rain, which makes it very difficult to grow tea.

Farmers might then resort to using cheap chemicals to improve their crop to earn more money, even when long-term use of these chemicals can destroy their soil.

How are people coping with climate change?

Buying Fairtrade products can help make sure a farmer is paid a fair wage. This means they can cover their costs, earn enough money to have a decent standard of living, and invest in their farms to keep their crop healthy, without needing to resort to cheap methods of farming which can further damage the environment.

This support also helps farmers to replace eucalyptus trees - which take up a lot of water - with indigenous trees that are better for the farmers' soil. They can learn to make fuel-efficient stoves which will not only make them a little extra money, but also reduce the carbon footprint of the community - cool!

How can I help prevent climate change?

Small changes in your own home can make a difference, too. Try switching to energy-saving lightbulbs, walking instead of using the car, turning off electrical items when you're not using them, recycling and reducing your food waste.

All these little things can make a difference. You can check out more eco-friendly ideas, in our kids' guide to saving the planet! Plus, check out our cool article about Greta Thunberg, too, to discover how young people are making their voices heard.

You can download information about Fairtrade and climate change for your school, here! www.fairtrade.org.uk/schools.

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What is climate change: facts for kids | National Geographic Kids

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What is climate change (a.k.a. global warming) & why is it happening? We explain how it affects our planet & how we can prevent it...