California Academy of Science
Optimal and Sustainable: Renewable Energy Revamp
More than 100 cities around the world have shifted from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Scholars investigate a city wanting to make this switch, but needs help determining how to make the shift. Groups consider all options,...
Curated OER
Potato Power
Learners light a LED clock or light bulb using potatoes. They examine how a battery works in a simple circuit. They determine how chemical energy changes to electrical energy while experimenting with potato powered circuits.
Science Matters
Energy from Water Wheels
Historians believe the first vertical water wheel was invented in Rome during the Augustan Age. The sixth lesson in the series of 10 has scholars experiment with designing their own water wheels. Through testing various pastas and...
Curated OER
Research Projects in Renewable Energy for High School Students
Thirty-eight pages of information prepares you to assign middle or high schoolers a project on sustainable energy. They take a pretest, review the scientific method, conduct background research, and finally choose an experiment to carry...
Curated OER
Harnessing the Wind for Electricity
Ninth graders explain how wind can produce electricity. For this geometry lesson, 9th graders construct their own pin wheel turbine and calculate its power. They discuss the pros and cons of using wind generator.
Government of South Australia
Don't Waste Your Energy
Don't lift another finger, this physical and environmental science unit has everything you need to begin teaching your class about energy. Starting with a look at the greenhouse effect, these lessons and activities take young scientists...
Curated OER
Windmills: Putting Wind Energy to Work
Students review engineering design process and discuss how wind can be used to help get work done. They look at a variety of windmills, focusing on different materials used in construction of windmills.
Curated OER
Blade Design Challenge
Students 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.
Curated OER
The Art of "Green" Flying
Students create an airship that doesn't use fossil fuel. In this flying instructional activity, students research different types of flying machines that only use wind power. They discuss invention designs by Alexander Graham Bell and...
Curated OER
Design Project: Stepper Motor Driver
In this electronics activity, students design and build a stepper motor drive circuit. They answer 1 short answer question about the design.
Curated OER
ENERGY, Design Competition: Energy Systems of the Future!
Students examine energy, where it comes from and the different fuels that are used. In this energy lesson students design an energy infrastructure using a renewable energy source.
Curated OER
Exploring Nature: Powerful Forces
Young scholars observe samples of artwork which use line, shape, and form to show movement and depict natural forces of nature. They create their own piece of artwork that shows a natural force and movement and then write a descriptive...
National Energy Education Development Project
Great Energy Debate
If someone yelled for eight years and eight months, they could produce enough energy to heat one cup of coffee. A lesson plan on energy encourages scholars to research 10 different energy sources in groups before playing a game. Twenty...
Curated OER
Power In The Wind
Students experiment designing graphs of selected readings from the Nebraska sites from the Power in the Wind study. They choose whether or not to put their data in a spreadsheet program to make a computer-generated graph or to complete...
Curated OER
Clean, Green Power
Students explore and discuss alternative energy sources, and identify disadvantages of current fossil fuels.
WindWise Education
How Does a Generator Work?
I get a charge out of this. In order to learn how a generator works, groups build and test one in this ninth lesson of the series. The generators are tested at low speed and high speed to determine the watt output and whether they have...
Curated OER
Playful Pinwheels
Students examine the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy. As a class, they follow specific instructions to make their own pinwheel. They decorate pinwheel as they choose and practice using art supplies correctly.
Curated OER
A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By
Young scholars create a water transportation device powered by wind. In this wind power lesson, students research transportation concepts after reading the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield. Young scholars design the fastest sailboat...
Curated OER
Two Rivers Ran Through It
Sixth graders discover the problems that early Mesototamian farmers faced while developing agriculture in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They design a working model that solves those unique challenges.
Curated OER
Fracking: Positive or Negative Impact?
Your teenagers may have heard of fracking, but do they really know what it is? And could they debate the benefits and risks? Educate your environmental science class with a lesson about hydraulic fracturing, non-renewable energy sources,...
Curated OER
Flowing From Here to There
Sixth graders discover how humans modify their environment. They work together to design their own simple machine to transport materials. They record observations and suggest modifications.
Curated OER
Farming in Ancient Mesopotamia: An Ancient Civil Engineering Problem
Sixth graders identify the major obstacles in farming in Mesopotamia. They work together to design and build a model that solves these problems. They write a short essay that describes the problems and their possible solutions.
Curated OER
Design Project: Sensitive Audio Detector
In this physics worksheet, students answer 5 conceptual questions about the sensitive audio detector they built. They analyze the component of their circuit.
Curated OER
Thunderstorms and Lightning
Middle schoolers, in groups, investigate and demonstrate the science behind the development of lightning and thunderstorms.