Climate Literacy
Clean: Solar House
Students in teams of architects are challenged to build a solar house, containing both active and passive solar components. They design the house, build a model, and test it to determine its ability to use solar energy efficiently.
Energy for Sustainable Development
Esd Bulgaria: Kids & Energy: Energy Smart Inventions
Describes the use of electricity and of solar energy to power a vehicle.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Biodiesels: Converting Oil Into Clean Fuel
Experiment making biodiesel from different types of oil and determine which oils give the best result. This science fair project from Science Buddies, although in an abbreviated format compared to other Science Buddies experiments, gives...
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: What Are the Non Wind and Non Solar Renewable Resources in Texas?
An overview of renewable energy resources in Texas, aside from wind and solar energy. Covers hydropower, geothermal energy, and biomass.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Do Solar Panels Work?
The Earth intercepts a lot of solar power: 173,000 terawatts. That's 10,000 times more power than the planet's population uses. So is it possible that one day the world could be completely reliant on solar energy? Richard Komp examines...
Smithsonian Institution
Lemelson Centre: Spark!lab: Make Your Own Wind Turbine
A wind turbine is a machine that captures the force of the wind to produce electricity. Learn how to make a wind turbine as a student or as a teacher. An experiment can be downloaded.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mn Step: Researching, Constructing, and Testing (Student Made) Solar Ovens
For this science investigation, learners will research models of solar ovens, choose one design, and create it. Once built, they will test it outside and record the internal temperature at intervals. Next, they are to change on variable...
Other
Engineering Your Future Ohio: Della Steam Plant Case Study
This lesson gives a real world example of challenges and choices engineers face in their careers. The Della Steam Plant Case Study allows students to analyze and present finding about a problem found in the power plant's turbine system....
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Antimatter Matters
Antimatter, the charge reversed equivalent of matter, has captured the imaginations of science fiction fans for years as a perfectly efficient form of energy. While normal matter consists of atoms with negatively charged electrons...
King's Centre for Visualization in Science
Explaining Climate Change: What Now? Responding to Climate Change
This is the ninth lesson in a series of learning modules on the topic of climate change. It examines what humans can do to lessen the impact of climate change. Students will look at global data for carbon dioxide emissions now and...
Other
Seeds Foundation: Energy Literacy Series: Wind Energy
Explains all about wind energy, what it is, how it is produced, potential benefits and costs, etc.
Discovery Education
Discovery Education: Science of Everyday Life: Drive It Green [Pdf]
For this lesson, plan students design greener transportation solutions for their community. Lesson contains three parts that ask students to look at their impact on the environment.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Hydrogen Oxygen Reaction Lab
This lab exercise exposes students to a potentially new alternative energy source-hydrogen gas. Student teams are given a hydrogen generator and an oxygen generator. They balance the chemical equation for the combustion of hydrogen gas...
Climate Literacy
Clean: Solar Water Heater
Student teams design and build solar water heaters to capture energy in the form of solar radiation and convert it to thermal energy. Once the model devices are constructed, students perform efficiency calculations and compare designs.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power to the People
Students read and evaluate descriptions of how people live "off the grid" using solar power and come to understand better the degree to which that lifestyle is or is not truly independent of technological, economic and cultural...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Form vs. Function
Students take a closer look at cars and learn about some characteristics that affect their energy efficiency, including rolling resistance and the aerodynamics of shape and size. They come to see how vehicles are one example of a product...
Other
Kid Wind Project: Wind Turbine Blade Design
Learn how blade design affects the power output of a wind turbine. This is a short description but links to extensive information, a PowerPoint, and a lesson on designing your own turbine blades.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Corn for Fuel?!
In this activity, students examine how to grow plants the most efficiently. They imagine that they are designing a biofuels production facility and need to know how to efficiently grow plants to use in this facility. As a means of...
Energy4Me
Energy4me: Hydropower
Learn the history of the use of hydroelectricity, and find out how it works to convert water power into electrical power.
Other
Peak Oil: Non Renewable Resources Depletion Effects
A collection of graphs, tables, and diagrams that illustrate the global impact of natural resource depletion. (Published 2014)
Other
Advanced Thermoelectric: Fundamental Thermoelectrics
Discusses the scientific principles (the Peltier effect) and the reliability and operation of thermoelectric modules. Includes a link to several other pages, one of which contains an animation of their operation.
Other
Fuel Our Future Now: Grade 9 12 Module: Vehicle Design Virtual Lab [Pdf]
Students act as a community of STEM research professionals, working together to solve energy efficiency problems in today's vehicles. Students then design and test vehicles that are suitable for different consumer needs based on...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Greenewables
Students form expert engineering teams working for the (fictional) alternative energy consulting firm, Greenewables, Inc. Each team specializes in a form of renewable energy used to generate electrical power: passive solar, solar...
Seeker
Discovery News: Weather & Extreme Events: Wind Farms Warming Texas
This article looks at findings by researchers in Texas that wind farms actually warm the ground beneath them at night, leading to increased night-time temperatures. A cautious approach to implementing alternative energy strategies is...