Curated OER
Thar She Blows!
Students identify the advantages and disadvantages of wind farms and turbines. They examine how weather conditions can affect their effectiveness and how engineers are trying to solve the problem. They discover how engineers use this...
Curated OER
Lights Out!
Students examine static and current electricity, and discuss what their lives would be like without electricity. They listen to a teacher-led lecture about electrons and atoms, and explore static electricity using a comb or a balloon...
Curated OER
Generators: Three Mile Island vs. Hoover Dam
Students are given a history of electricity and its development into the modern age lifeline upon which we so depend. The methods of power generation are introduced, and further discussion of each technology's pros and cons follows. ...
Curated OER
Aurora Borealis
Students discuss what causes the northern lights and the folklore attached to them. They discuss magnetic fields, and use various common materials to discover if ions conduct electricity.
Curated OER
Auditing the Energy-Guzzlers in Your Home
Students identify the energy sources in their community as renewable or non-renewable resources. Using their homes, they identify the types of energy they use to heat and power it. They calculate the amount of electricity used by each...
Curated OER
Unplugged!
Pupils consider several things: the importance of electricity and energy in their lives, the costs of that energy, and the importance of conserving energy.
Curated OER
Energy Transfer
Students investigate the properties of heated air. They make predictions about what they think makes the wind blow on a worksheet, and conduct two experiments to demonstrate the properties of heated air. Students heat a bottle until a...
Curated OER
Wonderful Waves - Ocean Waves and Erosion
Students examine how waves are generated by wind, create a model that uses wind to create waves and conduct an experiment that demonstrates the effect that waves have on the coastline.
Curated OER
Nuclear Waste
Students identify pros and cons of nuclear power, and analyze problems surrounding nuclear waste and how to make decisions regarding its disposal.
Curated OER
Energy Is Everywhere
Students determine the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources and identify the different forms of energy. They discuss life without energy and where energy comes from before reading an article about the different...
Curated OER
Spin the Saltine!
Students investigate chemical energy. In this physical science lesson, students blow on saltine crackers to demonstrate how chemical energy in food can be converted to motion. Students compare the saltine cracker experiment to how...
Curated OER
The Aurora
Students study the Aurora Borealis lights known commonly as the Northern and Southern lights. In this space science lesson, students study pictures of the Auroras for Jupiter and Saturn. Students visit the given website for an...
Curated OER
Making Energy "trails"
Students explore ten different stations that demonstrate either chemical, kinetic, or mechanical energy. They examine the way energy is transferred during each station's hands-on activity. Stations include vinegar and baking soda,...
Curated OER
Blast's Cosmic Carnival
Students, after analyzing the history of a concentrator, model how a Genesis spacecraft concentrator works by playing a game. In groups of three or four, after being given materials to work with, are challenged to roll the rubber balls...
Curated OER
Storms and Extreme Weather
Students explore hurricanes and tornadoes by conducting an experiment. In this weather pattern lesson, students define many extreme weather vocabulary terms and discuss the relationship with static electricity. Students utilize plastic...
Curated OER
Sources of Energy
Fifth graders take a close look at how energy changes from one form to another within their surroundings. They also study the ten different sources of energy and determine which are renewable and which are non-renewable. This seven-page...
National Wildlife Federation
Power Pellets! Nuclear Energy in the United States
Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the energy generated in the United States. The seventh activity in the series of 12 tackles nuclear power. After sharing what they know about nuclear energy, scholars complete a WebQuest make a...
Wind Wise Education
Understanding Forms and Sources of Energy
What is the difference between a form of energy and a source of energy? This first activity in a series of 19 lessons uses demonstrations and discussions to introduce energy to the class. Through using hand-generator flashlights,...
Curated OER
Losing Ground
Students examine how effects of farming practices in the early 20th Century contributed to severe soil erosion of a large portion of the North American grasslands.
NASA
Photons in the Radiative Zone: Which Way Is Out? An A-Maz-ing Model
Can you move like a photon? Young scholars use a maze to reproduce the straight line motion of a photon. The second in a six-part series of lessons on the sun has learners measure angle of incidence and refraction to determine the path...
Curated OER
Our Earth
In this Earth's environment worksheet, students complete a crossword puzzle given 35 clues about a variety of topics related to our Earth. Topics include ecosystems, precipitation, biomes, energy transfer, soil, weathering and rocks.
Wild BC
Greenhouse Gas Line-Up
Discuss different sources of energy and how much greenhouse gas each might emit. The six sources are then ranked according to emissions from greatest to least. Finally, the true cumulative emissions are revealed to show the class how...
Curated OER
Understanding Power using Kirchhoff’s Rules
Twelfth graders cite real life applications of Kirchhoff's rules. In this physics lesson, 12th graders calculate current, power and voltage using Kirchhoff and Ohm's laws. They explain the different components and uses of transformers.
Curated OER
Blade Design Challenge
Learners identify the differences between non-renewable and renewable energy sources. They construct a PVC wind turbine and design a set of blades to extract as much energy as possible from low and high wind conditions.