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...
Teach Engineering
The Grid
Upper graders form a "Presidential Task Force," and attempt to make recommendations concerning the future of the national power grid. After a teacher-led discussion which proves that our nation's energy consumption will soon outpace our...
WindWise Education
How Does Energy Affect Wildlife?
Is wildlife affected the same way by different electricity generation methods? Teams work together to research four electricity generation sources and their impacts on wildlife. The teams create a summary report and share their findings.
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,...
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...
Wind Wise Education
What is the Cost of Inefficiency?
What does it cost to keep the lights on? Through a hands-on activity, class members use a watt meter and determine the amount of energy different types of light bulbs use. The class then determines the financial and environmental cost of...
Teach Engineering
Air Pressure
Investigate what is pushing on us. An intriguing lesson has pupils calculate the amount of force on various squares due to air pressure. Using the data, individuals create a graph in the third lesson of the Up, Up and Away unit...
Wind Wise Education
Understanding Electric Power Generation
You mean the electricity does not come from the switch? As a class and in small groups, learners explore the sources of energy used to generate electric power. Worksheets guide groups into choosing a future electricity generating...
Curated OER
What Makes Airplanes Fly?
Students examine force and conduct activities that model parachutes and helicopters. In this airplanes activity students identify the forces that make airplanes fly higher and land.
Curated OER
Off the Grid
Students examine the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non renewable energy sources. In this engineering lesson students explain what it means for a house to be "off the grid".
Curated OER
Carbon Cycles
Middle schoolers examine the carbon cycle and how carbon atoms travel through it. In this energy cycles lesson students describe how human activities affect the carbon cycle.
Curated OER
Designing Windmills
Students study mechanical engineering and how it plays a part in the creation of windmills. They design and test their own windmills using various materials and sail designs.
Curated OER
Towers of Steel
This lesson starts with geometers discussing how to find the volume of a cone and pyramid, using what they know about the volume of a cylinder or prism. Then, using the formulas, they calculate the volume of cones and other conics using...
Curated OER
Move that Tower
Students investigate ways to find the density of irregular shaped objects. In this physics lesson, students calculate density using its mass and volume. They explain why some objects float or sink in water.
Curated OER
ESL/EFL Lesson Plan - Nuclear Power Plants
Students participate in ESL/EFL activities as they read an article about nuclear power plants. In this ESL/EFL lesson, students read an article entitled, "Germany To Close All Nuclear Power Plants." They work on building vocabulary,...
Curated OER
An Air-Powered Car
Youngsters read text about an environmentally-friendly car. They try to figure out the meaning of the vocabulary in the text and discuss issues related to alternative energy sources. This thoughtful, well-designed plan has all the...
Curated OER
Waste Watchers
Students recognize the importance of saving energy to save natural resources. In this saving energy lesson, students complete a worksheet to find types of electricity meters in their homes. Students use meter readings to calculate energy...
Carnegie Mellon University
Understanding Electricity Mix Tradeoffs
Use the accompanying presentation and colorful technology sheets to introduce your class to the 10 different energy technologies. Connect kids to an interactive computer tool that allows them to combine different types of power...
Curated OER
Tens! Hundreds! Thousands!!! of Tons
Fifth graders take a close look at the types of ships that travel through the Hudson River Valley on the Hudson River. They utilize worksheets embedded in the plan in order to answer questions about exactly what is being shipped, and how...
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...
Curated OER
Summarizing
Young scholars analyze and summarize the main aspects of a news story. They find the "Who, What, Where, When and Why in a particular news story.In addition, they answer six questions over a particular story and then write a news story...
Curated OER
Troublesome Towers
Students observe solids and identify parts that make up the surface area. In this geometry lesson, students calculate the surface are of solids and cones. They find polygons and solids in the real world.
Carnegie Mellon University
How Power Plants Work 2
In this second of three lessons on power plants, future engineers find out how we generate electricity and how coal-powered plants operate. They work in small groups to make electromagnet generators to light LED bulbs. A set of...
Curated OER
Big Boats Up The River
Using boats along in the Port of Albany as the focus, learners practice adding single-digit numbers and interpreting data. This lesson comes with the worksheets, resource links, and other materials to make it a worthwhile experience.