University of Wisconsin
The Why Files: Diesel Smells Sweet!
Fess up. Faced with the morning craving for caffeine, do you, with trembling hand, pour that first delicious, nutritious cuppa joe, and then just trasho the soggy coffee grounds?
Climate Literacy
Clean: Zero Energy Housing
Students investigate passive solar building design with a focus solely on heating. Then they design and build their own model houses, and test them for thermal gains and losses during a simulated day and night.
Climate Literacy
Clean: Solar Water Heater
Student teams design and build solar water heaters to capture energy in the form of solar radiation and convert it to thermal energy. Once the model devices are constructed, students perform efficiency calculations and compare designs.
![Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: The Energy Report: Nuclear Energy [Pdf] eBook](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: The Energy Report: Nuclear Energy [Pdf] eBook")
Other
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: The Energy Report: Nuclear Energy [Pdf]
Chapter 8 of a report on the energy industry in Texas. It examines nuclear energy, what it is, its history, and its uses. The nuclear power industry in Texas is described, including uranium mining, and types of nuclear reactors and how...
Other
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: The Energy Report: Solar Energy [Pdf]
Chapter 10 of a report on the energy industry in Texas. It examines solar energy, its history, and how it is used. The solar power industry in Texas is described, its economic importance, methods of producing it, and how it is...
Other
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: The Energy Report: Ocean Power [Pdf]
Chapter 20 of a report on the energy industry in Texas. It looks at power generated from the ocean, its history, and uses. This is a source that has been minimally developed in Texas and is unlikely to develop in the near future. It...
Other
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: The Energy Report: Geothermal [Pdf]
Chapter 21 of a report on the energy industry in Texas. It looks at geothermal energy, its history, and uses. The economic impact of geothermal energy in Texas is described, and its production, transmission, and availability. Also looks...
Other
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: The Energy Report: Hydrogen [Pdf]
Chapter 22 of a report on the energy industry in Texas. It looks at hydrogen as an energy source, its history, and uses. The economic impact of the hydrogen energy sector in Texas is described, the consumption of hydrogen, methods of...
PBS
Pbs News Hour Extra: Choosing an Automobile, Understanding Alternative Fuels
This lesson plan encourages learners to look at alternative methods of fuel and explore the various impacts each has on the environment.
Other
Kid Wind Project: Wind Turbine Blade Design
Learn how blade design affects the power output of a wind turbine. This is a short description but links to extensive information, a PowerPoint, and a lesson on designing your own turbine blades.
US Department of Energy
Us Department of Energy: Creating Biofuel and Mitigating Waste [Pdf]
A 36-page lesson plan unit where students create biodiesel from waste and clean vegetable oil, analyze the biodiesel fuel and purify it, as well as create soap from glycerin. They are also asked to prepare a presentation on their work...
National Geographic
National Geographic: Stakeholder Debate: Wind Energy
Using a case study of the Cape Wind Project in Nantucket Sound, students examine the various points of view of stakeholders, and hold a debate to argue about the pros and cons of this wind energy project. Includes handouts for...
National Geographic
National Geographic: Natural Gas: A Cleaner Energy Solution?
For this activity, students read informational text on natural gas and compare it to other fossil fuels for its greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact. They then prepare a pro or con position on whether natural gas is good...
National Geographic
National Geographic: Energy Solutions: Tapping Into Topography of Lake Turkana
In this lesson, students read and analyze articles about the alkaline water in Lake Turkana in Kenya, and about a wind energy project near Lake Turkana. They then examine the many factors that must be considered when undertaking this...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Human Impact
In this comprehensive interactive tutorial you will learn how we can reduce our carbon footprint by using alternate energy sources.
Other
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Learning About Renewable Energy
Extensive information about the different forms of renewable energy, energy efficiencies that can be achieved, energy research, and the many applications for renewable energy production.
Other
International Institute for Sustainable Development: Energy
Learn what the International Institute for Sustainable Development is doing in Canada to help ensure that clean, alternative energy sources are used in the future.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Grid
The class forms a "Presidential Task Force" for a week, empowered by the president to find answers and make recommendations concerning the future of the national power grid. Task force members conduct daily debriefings with their...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Windmill of Your Mind: Distributed Energy Goes to School
Students research the feasibility of installing a wind-turbine distributed energy (DE) system for their school. They write a proposal (actually, the executive summary of a proposal) to the school principal based on their findings and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: A Case of Innovation
A white paper is a focused analysis often used to describe how a technology solves a problem. In this literacy activity, students write a simplified version of a white paper on an alternative electrical power generation technology. In...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power to the People
Students read and evaluate descriptions of how people live "off the grid" using solar power and come to understand better the degree to which that lifestyle is or is not truly independent of technological, economic and cultural...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Corn for Fuel?!
In this activity, students examine how to grow plants the most efficiently. They imagine that they are designing a biofuels production facility and need to know how to efficiently grow plants to use in this facility. As a means of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy Storage Derby and Proposal
In Activity 5, as part of the Going Public step, students demonstrate their knowledge of how potential energy may be transferred into kinetic energy. Students design, build and test vehicle prototypes that transfer various types of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Hydrogen Oxygen Reaction Lab
This lab exercise exposes students to a potentially new alternative energy source-hydrogen gas. Student teams are given a hydrogen generator and an oxygen generator. They balance the chemical equation for the combustion of hydrogen gas...