Curated OER
Off the Grid
Students examine the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non renewable energy sources. In this engineering lesson students explain what it means for a house to be "off the grid".
Curated OER
Clean Energy: Hydro-power
Students read about and discuss renewable and non renewable energy and identify how a dam produced energy using hydro-power. In this water energy lesson plan, students look at diagrams and pictures of water energy technology.
Curated OER
Floods
Students investigate how hurricanes impact a stream flow. In this floods lesson students predict the impact of storms on animals and interpret data.
Curated OER
Why Do We Build Dams?
Students are introduced to a dam and what a dam does. In this dam lesson plan, students explore how a dam uses water supply, electricity generation, flood control, recreation, and irrigation in order to control the water.
Curated OER
Swim to and from the Sea!
Students come up with devices that would aid the salmon life cycle in passing through a dam. In this dam activity, students learn about the salmon migration. They then come up with devices that would help the natural life cycle of salmon...
Curated OER
Dam Impact
Students explore the environmental impact of dams. In this environmental impact lesson plan, students explore the major environmental impacts of dams and the engineering solutions used to address the major issues.
Curated OER
The Biggest Dam in the World
Learners recognize that the Three Gorges Dam is now being constructed in China on the upper Yangtze River. They build a dam in an empty fish tankusing common materials they have at home or can easily find, such as twigs and leaves, food...
Curated OER
Lake Billy Chinook
Young scholars explore aerial photographs and maps of Round Butte Dam. They examine the land modifications necessary to create a dam. After reading a book about building a dam, students compare the environmental impact of Lake Billy...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Tireless Tides: Extracting Energy From Ocean Tides
Renewable energy is the energy that is extracted from natural sources, such the Sun (solar), earth (geothermal), wind, and water (hydropower). These sources are renewable because they can be replenished by the same natural sources within...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Leaky Clues to Dam Design: How Reservoir Height Affects Hydroel
It's hard to believe that the same water that you use every day to quench your thirst, cook with, bathe in, swim in, and wash your clothes and dishes, is capable of another trick-it can make electricity. Electricity can be generated...
BBC
Bbc: Mapping the Destruction: Levee Repair
Graphic and photographic slideshow that shows how the failed New Orleans levees are repaired.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Dam Forces
Students learn how the force of water helps determine the size and shape of dams. They use clay to build models of four types of dams, and observe the force of the water against each type. They conclude by deciding which type of dam...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Fish Friendly Engineering
Students further their understanding of the salmon life cycle and the human structures and actions that aid in the migration of fish around hydroelectric dams by playing an animated PowerPoint game involving a fish that must climb a fish...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Dam Pass or Fail
Students conduct Internet research to investigate the purpose and current functioning status of some of the largest dams throughout the world. They investigate the success or failure of eight dams and complete a worksheet. While...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power Your House With Water
Students learn how engineers design devices that use water to generate electricity by building model water turbines and measuring the resulting current produced in a motor. Students work through the engineering design process to build...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Dams
Through eight lessons, students are introduced to many facets of dams, including their basic components, the common types (all designed to resist strong forces), their primary benefits (electricity generation, water supply, flood...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Why Do We Build Dams?
Students are introduced to the concept of a dam and its potential benefits, which include water supply, electricity generation, flood control, recreation and irrigation. This instructional activity begins an ongoing classroom scenario in...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Water and Dams in Today's World
Students learn about the importance of dams by watching a video that presents historical and current information on dams, as well as descriptions of global water resources and the hydrologic cycle. Students also learn about different...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Locks and Dams
Students are introduced to the structure, function and purpose of locks and dams, which involves an introduction to Pascal's law, water pressure and gravity.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Clean Energy: Hydropower
Hydropower generation is introduced to young scholars as a common purpose and benefit of constructing dams. Through an introduction to kinetic and potential energy, students come to understand how a dam creates electricity. They also...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Dam Impacts
While the creation of a dam provides many benefits, it can have negative impacts on local ecosystems. Students learn about the major environmental impacts of dams and the engineering solutions used to address them.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Are Dams Forever?
Students learn that dams do not last forever. Similar to other human-made structures, such as roads and bridges, dams require regular maintenance and have a finite lifespan. Many dams built during the 1930-70s, an era of intensive dam...
US Energy Information Administration
U.s. Eia Energy Kids: Hydropower: Energy From Moving Water
Of the renewable energy sources that generate electricity, hydropower is the most often used. Learn other interesting facts about hydropower as the pictorial illustrations bring the information to life.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Swim to and From the Sea!
Students are introduced to the basic biology behind Pacific salmon migration and the many engineered Columbia River dam structures that aid in their passage through the river's hydroelectric dams. Students apply what they learn about the...