Energy Videos

Resources

Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
US Department of Energy: Energy Education and Workforce Development
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Energy Hog - For Parents and Kids
Alliance to Save Energy
Air and Waste Management Association

Classroom Activities

Hydropower (2 Activities)
Below is information about student activities on hydropower for grades 5-8.

Grades: 5-8
Summary:
Hydroelectricity is the extraction and conversion of energy from water into its most useful form—electricity. Where water flows from a high level to a low level, turbines can be used to convert this movement into electricity. Flowing water is one way in which electricity can be produced. The second way water can be used is by damming rivers to store water until it is needed. The damming of rivers is the most common way of producing electricity. About 20 percent of the world’s electricity comes from this method.

Even though there are no pollutants produced by hydroelectric power there are environmental and societal issues that impact people through the storage of water in dams. There are two activities in this lesson on hydropower principles and technology:

• Does the type or shape of a water turbine affect the efficiency of energy production?
• Building and testing a hydroelectric generator.

What Does the Sun Give Us? (5 Activities)
Below is information about student activities on solar energy for grades 5-8 and 9-12.

Grades: 5-8, 9-12
Summary:
You may have realized that the sun gives off heat. It feels so good to feel the warm sun on our skin when we're cold! The sun has an amazing amount of heat and even though we only get a small amount of that heat, it's just the right amount for us. You also may have realized how much light it provides us. Without the sun, we couldn't see. What about the moon? The moon doesn't have any light of its own. All of the light we see is really sunlight that is reflected or bounced off our moon.

Where does the energy to build, light, and heat our houses and schools come from? The sun has actually created almost all of the energy we use today. If we want to find more energy, we can look back to the sun itself. All the light and heat we feel is energy that we might be able to use. How much energy could the sun give us? How much would this energy cost us? How can we capture the energy and use it for our needs? This lesson has five experiments that will begin to answer these questions. The activities are:

• Pizza box solar heater
• Solar resource simulator
• Measuring solar radiation
• Length of day around the world
• Capture solar energy

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