Curated OER
Cooking With Solar
Identify how solar energy generates thermal energy by constructing solar cookers with your students. They will evaluate the factors that affect efficiency and the lesson can be adapted to capture data in a variety of ways.
Curated OER
Solar Kit Lesson #14 - Solar Cells as Control Devices
Given four suggested concepts, emerging electrical engineers research, design, and constuct a working device that willrespond to changes in the intesnisty or the direction of sunlight. This is a challenge for learners to rise to, as the...
IOP Institute of Physics
Physics in Concert
What do physicists and musicians have in common? A lot more than you might think. After first viewing a slide show presentation and completing a series of skills practice worksheets on the physics of light, sound, and electricity, young...
Curated OER
Capturing Renewable Energy
Students watch a video segment on the engineering design process, then design a storage system for renewable energy. Students brainstorm and research ways in which renewable energies such as solar and wind power can be stored.
Curated OER
Capturing Renewable Energy
Students watch a video segment on the engineering design process, then design a storage system for renewable energy. Students brainstorm and research ways in which renewable energies such as solar and wind power can be stored.
Curated OER
Capturing Renewable Energy
Students watch a video segment on the engineering design process, then design a storage system for renewable energy. Students brainstorm and research ways in which renewable energies such as solar and wind power can be stored.
Curated OER
The Sun: Earth's External Heat Engine Part 1 of the Astronomy Model
Students become familiar with the variables that control Earth's solar energy supply. They explore the source and nature of solar energy, the genesis of radiation, and the structrue of the Sun, gas spectra are observed and sample...
Curated OER
How Do Car Engines Work?
Students perform an experiment which simulates what happens inside an internal combustion engine. They explain how the chemical reaction they witnessed is similar to what happens inside the car engine.
Curated OER
The Mathematics of Ion Rocket Engines
In this ion rocket engines instructional activity, students read about how heavy atoms are used to create the thrust in rocket engines. They solve 5 problems including determining the speed of atoms in a satellite, finding the average...
California Academy of Science
Energy: A Day in My Life
If only we could harness the energy of fifth graders, our energy problems would be over! The class discusses where different forms of energy come from and how we use them. They complete a chart of the activities that they do daily that...
Kenan Fellows
Electricity: Sources, Usage, Challenges, and the Future
What does the future of energy look like? Junior engineers collaborate to discover a solution to the global energy crisis during a very hands-on lesson. The unit focuses on learning through collaboration to develop a deep understanding...
Teach Engineering
Swinging Pendulum
Get into the swing of things. Pupils use a pendulum to demonstrate the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy and back. After measuring the speed of a pendulum and compare it to the calculated theoretical speed, they determine...
Teach Engineering
The Temperature Effect
How temperature affects the efficiency of a solar panel is the focus of the third in a series of eight resources that presents how engineers are able to control the temperatures of photovoltaic panels. Class members find out how the...
Teach Engineering
Building a Piezoelectric Generator
In pairs, learners build a piezoelectric generator from readily available electric components in the second and final installment of the two-part series. Tapping the piezoelectric element produces enough electricity to light an LED....
Discovery Education
Wind Power
How do engineers turn something that is readily available, like wind, into energy? Scholars create a prototype of a wind turbine and attach it to a motor. They test out their prototypes and decide on their effectiveness. They also...
DiscoverE
Design a Folding Solar Panel
Solar energy is an amazing alternative ... but, not always particularly portable! Challenge young scientists to a folding solar panel build-off with an easy-to-execute activity. Scholars brainstorm around specific design needs, construct...
National Energy Education Development Project
Exploring Hydropower
In 2006, about 20 percent of the world's electricity was generated from hydroelectric power. In the presentation, scholars review the water cycle and gravitational energy to begin to understand how humans harness the power of water. They...
DiscoverE
Slinky® Science
Toys are great for learning about physics. Scholars use Slinky® toys to study Newton's laws of motion and types of energy. After a little play, they then model longitudinal and transverse waves with the Slinky® toys.
American Physiological Society
Feeling the Heat
How do the changing seasons affect the homes where we live? This question is at the forefront of engineering and design projects. Challenge your physical science class to step into the role of an architect to build a model home capable...
Curated OER
Thermal Energy and Heat Unit
Students explain that heat energy in a material consists of the disordered motions of its atoms or molecules. They know and explain that transformations of energy usually transform some energy into the form of heat, which dissipates by...
Curated OER
Energy Conversion
Students describe how energy can be transformed from one form to another. In this physics lesson, students calculate kinetic and potential energy using mathematical equations. They give real life applications of this lesson.
Curated OER
The Energy Task Force
High schoolers simulate a meeting of the President's energy task force in order to observe how energy policy may be developed with the input of various groups. Students will form groups with the following roles: lobbyists, members of the...
Curated OER
Energy, Work and Power
Young scholars examine the differences between potential and kinetic energy. In this physics instructional activity students view a video and apply what they learn about energy to apply it to real world situations.
Curated OER
Energy Efficiency: It really IS important!
Students compare the energy needed to produce new products versus recycling. For this physics lesson, students brainstorm ways to save energy. They create a presentation about the correlation between conserving energy and energy costs.