This activity is a framework for general chemistry students to explore the costs, ethics and alternatives to coal-fired electricity.

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During this activity, students learn how oil is formed and where in the Earth we find it. Students take a core sample to look for oil in a model of the Earth. They analyze their sample and make an informed decision as to whether or not they should "drill for oil" in a specific location.

With the help of simple, teacher-led demonstration activities, students 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 stove tops to car radiators, that they encounter everyday in their homes, schools, and modes of transportation. Since in our everyday lives there are many times that we want to prevent heat transfer, students also consider ways that conduction, convection, and radiation can be reduced or prevented from occurring.

Students act as food science engineers as they explore and apply their understanding of cooling rate and specific heat capacity by completing two separate, but interconnected, tasks. In Part 1, student groups conduct an experiment to explore the cooling rate of a cup of hot chocolate. They collect and graph data to create a mathematical model that represents the cooling rate, and use an exponential decay regression to determine how long a person should wait to drink the cup of hot chocolate at an optimal temperature. In Part 2, students investigate the specific heat capacity of the hot chocolate. They determine how much energy is needed to heat the hot chocolate to an optimal temperature after it has cooled to room temperature. Two activity-guiding worksheets are included.

In this activity students trace the sources of their electricity, heating and cooling, and other components of their energy use though the use of their family's utility bills and information from utility and government websites.

In this learning activity, students analyze various sources of information to determine the best location for a new wind farm.

Students are introduced to the concept of a dam and its potential benefits, which include water supply, electricity generation, flood control, recreation and irrigation. This lesson begins an ongoing classroom scenario in which student engineering teams working for the Splash Engineering firm design dams for a fictitious client, Thirsty County.

This lesson uses a hands-on approach to teach about renewable energy with a case study in wind turbines. This lesson also uses engineering design to help situate renewable energy within a practical human society.

Students will learn the difference between global, prevailing and local winds. In this activity, students will make a wind vane out of paper, a straw and a soda bottle and use it to measure wind direction over time. Finally, they will analyze their data to draw conclusions about the prevailing winds in their area.

SYNOPSIS: This lesson introduces students to climate change and the idea that renewable energy sources are a better choice for the planet.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson introduces students to climate change and provides an excellent resource that illustrates how climate change impacts life in New Jersey. The energy independent island Samsø, Denmark is presented through a reading of Energy Island by Alan Drummond, and a Venn diagram is provided so students can compare Samsø to their hometown. Students are tasked with designing a zero emission ferry for Samsø and are challenged to see how climate change affects them and how an 8-12 year old can make a difference. This lesson is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson allows for a collaborative learning environment for students as it builds on understanding of climate change.
-This lesson features a problem-based approach to learning where students are immersed in solving a real-world problem.
-Students connect a real idealistic community to their own to see what is possible.
-This lesson follows the engineering design process.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should have a basic understanding of climate change.
-Students should have an understanding of the engineering design process.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students can think-pair-share during the read aloud where students can make predictions or answer questions.
-You can pause the read aloud for students to make observations and predictions about the story.
-Groups of students with mixed abilities can collaborate on their ferry design challenge project.

Students learn about wind energy by making a pinwheel to model a wind turbine. Just like engineers, they decide where and how their turbine works best by testing it in different areas of the playground.

Video introduces wind energy research at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and provides an overview of the NREL Wind Technology Center near Boulder, Colorado.

In this activity, students use Google Earth to investigate ideal features of wind farms.

Windmills have been used for hundreds of years to collect energy from the wind in order to pump water, grind grain, and more recently generate electricity. There are many possible designs for the blades of a wind generator and engineers are always trying new ones. Design and test your own wind generator, then try to improve it by running a small electric motor connected to a voltage sensor.

This animated map shows prevailing surface wind direction and strength across the lower 48 states of the US.

This is a utility-scale, land-based map of the mean annual wind speed 80 meters above the ground. This map can be used to evaluate the potential for wind energy in the US. State maps and more information are linked from the main map.

In this activity, students develop an understanding of how engineers use wind to generate electricity. They will build a model anemometer to better understand and measure wind speed.

This activity introduces wind energy concepts through a reading passage and by answering assessment questions. The main section of the activity involves constructing and testing a windmill to observe how design and position affect the electrical energy produced.

Students learn how engineers transform wind energy into electrical energy by building their own miniature wind turbines and measuring the electrical current it produces. They explore how design and position affect the electrical energy production.

Student pairs design and construct small, wind-powered sail cars using limited quantities of drinking straws, masking tape, paper and beads. Teams compete to see which sail car travels the farthest when pushed by the wind (simulated by the use of an electric fan). Students learn about wind and kinetic and renewable energy, and follow the steps of the engineering design process to imagine, create, test, evaluate and refine their sail cars. This activity is part of a unit in which multiple activities are brought together for an all-day school/multi-school concluding “engineering field day” competition.