TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Solar Water Heater
Student teams design and build solar water heating devices that mimic those used in residences to capture energy in the form of solar radiation and convert it to thermal energy. This thermal energy is next transferred to water (to be...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What's Hot and What's Not?
With the help of simple, teacher-led demonstration activities, young scholars learn the basic physics of heat transfer by means of conduction, convection, and radiation. They also learn about examples of heating and cooling devices, from...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Heat It Up!
Through a teacher demonstration using water, heat and food coloring, students see how convection moves the energy of the Sun from its core outwards. Students learn about the three different modes of heat transfer (convection, conduction,...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Cooking With the Sun Creating a Solar Oven
For this activity, students will be given a set of materials: cardboard, a set of insulating materials (i.e. foam, newspaper, etc.), aluminum foil, and Plexiglas. Students will then become engineers in building a solar oven from the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Using Heat From the Sun
In this lesson plan, students will first discuss where energy comes from, including sources such as fossil fuels, nuclear, and such renewable technologies as solar. After this initial exploration, students will investigate the three main...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Heat Transfer: No Magic About It
Heat transfer is an important concept that is a part of everyday life yet often misunderstood by students. In this lesson, students learn the scientific concepts of temperature, heat, and the transfer of heat through conduction,...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Puck Stops Here
After learning about transfer of energy, specifically the loss of kinetic energy to friction, students get a chance to test friction. In groups they are given a wooden block, different fabrics, and weights and asked to design the "best"...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Insulation Materials Investigation
Students test the insulation properties of different materials by timing how long it takes ice cubes to melt in the presence of various insulating materials. Students learn about the role that thermal insulation materials can play in...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What Is the Best Insulator: Air, Styrofoam, Foil, or Cotton?
That heat flows from hot to cold is an unfortunate truth of life. People have put a lot of effort into stopping this fact, however all they have been able to do is slow the process. Working in groups of three to four, students will...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Solar Water: Heat It Up!
Students explore energy efficiency, focusing on renewable energy, by designing and building flat-plate solar water heaters. They apply their understanding of the three forms of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation), as...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy Forms and States Demonstrations
Demonstrations explain the concepts of energy forms (sound, chemical, radiant [light], electrical, atomic [nuclear], mechanical, thermal [heat]) and states (potential, kinetic).
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Conduction, Convection, and Radiation
With the help of simple, teacher-led demonstration activities, students learn the basic concepts of heat transfer by means of conduction, convection, and radiation. Students then apply these concepts as they work in teams to solve two...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: You're in Hot Water
To explore different ways of using solar energy, students build a model solar water heater and determine how much it can heat water in a given amount of time. Solar water heaters work by solar radiation and convection.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Cooking With the Sun
Students learn about using renewable energy from the Sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. They explore the concepts of insulation, reflection, absorption, conduction and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Mice Rule! (Or Not)
Students explore the relationships between genetics, biodiversity, and evolution through a simple activity involving hypothetical wild mouse populations. First, students toss coins to determine what traits a set of mouse parents...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Imagine Life Without Friction
Students are introduced to the concept of inertia and its application to a world without the force of friction acting on moving objects. When an object is in motion, friction tends to be the force that acts on this object to slow it down...
Upper Canada District School Board
Tom Stretton's Chemistry Pages: Heat and Work Engines
Find out some history behind engines, and learn how thermal energy and work play a part in how engines run.
Science4Fun
Science4 Fun: Diesel Engine
Illustrated discussion on how the diesel engine was invented and how it works.
Colorado State University
Csu: Model of Basic Otto Cycle
This site from the Colorado State University discusses the Otto cycle of a car engine. Includes a highly mathematical treatment of the efficiency of such engines. Includes a link to a java applet investigating the efficiency of such...
Other
Rob's North York Moors Railway: The Steam Locomotive
A page describing the parts of a steam engine and explaining their operation. Thorough discussion of the parts.
Other
Taftan: Applied Thermodynamics
A definition of applied thermodynamics, the science of the relationship between heat, work, and systems that analyze energy processes. Related links.
National Inventors Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame: Rudolf Diesel
A short biographical sketch of Rudolf Diesel. Describes his personal and professional interests. Also discusses the details of the first diesel engine as invented by Rudolf Diesel.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: Count Rumford
A transcript, from a syndicated radio broadcast, that discusses the life and scientific accomplishments of Count Rumford. An anecdotal account of Rumford's contribution to our understanding of heat. Contains a good deal of biographical...
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Temperature Tactics
Students practice the engineering design process as they explore devices used to measure changes in temperature. They work in teams to design, build, test, and evaluate their own temperature gauge made from everyday materials.