Clean Energy Topic: Water Power
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A Study of Alternative Fuels
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When and Why Do We Build Dams?
Students will demonstrate basic understanding of electricity generation and basic components of a hydroelectric dam. They will research, design and test turbines for hydroelectric generation. Students will research and defend(opinion stance) various people groups and social justice factors(tribal rights, salmon protection & energy access) connected with water storage, flood/irrigation support and electricity production/distribution.
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Renewable City
This Renewable City Unit aims to help students dive in and actively explore sustainability, renewable resources, and how they might personally help solve our climate change problem. As students use multiple methods for investigating, creating, and thinking about these critical issues, they will be encouraged to develop pliable minds and action-oriented skills to address climate…
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Understanding Energy Through Wind Turbines
In this unit students will be building knowledge on what energy is and how it is harnessed, students will interact with a variety of energy stations to build an understanding on what energy is. From there students will learn about renewable energy and the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy. Students will learn how to…
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Future Needs of the PNW Hydropower System
Students will evaluate the arguments for breaching the snake river dams, and the arguments against the breach. They will assess cost/benefit assessments, stakeholder positions, and possible solutions.
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Electrical Engineering: Why Does the Electrical System Break Down?
This unit, developed through the Ambitious Science Teaching framework, attempts to create cohesive, model-based learning experience for high school level physics students to explore these concepts through the anchoring event of a power outages. They will explore our electrical system from simple circuits and the function of a switch, tracing the electrical energy back through…
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How Does Energy Affect Wildlife?
In this lesson, students learn that different electricity generation sources have very different effects on wildlife. This is a teacher recommended lesson by KidWind.
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Clean Water Power: Wind, Waves, and Moving Water
This unit strives to answer the question: “How can the power of moving help communities by generating electricity?” Through a variety of lessons centered on the phenomena of the power of moving water, students will develop skills in circuits, model building, and testing. Students will explore issues surrounding clean water, energy, and careers.
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Careers in Renewable Energy
Students create a trading card about a career in renewable energy that interests them. Students can also explore different careers in Hydropower through a “Hydropower Careers Guess Who” game.
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Exploring Different Forms of Water Power
Students will build a model of a Marine Wave Generator (Kidwind Offshore Floating Wind Buoy, NEED’s Model Wav Generator Buoy, or Air Buoy) and test it to collect data and observe how water power is converted into electricity.
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Where is the Clean Water Around Me?
This lesson has students use hydropower, wave power, and wind power mapping tools to map the renewable resources around them on a large classroom map of their region, state, or North America.
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Social, Emotional, and Equity Discussions in Clean Water Power
This lesson has students jigsaw a bank of readings on the social, environmental, and equity issues with clean water power in order to make sense of how water power impacts the environment and people. Additionally, students will explore energy sovereignty and tribal energy independence in the Pacific Northwest to learn about how hydropower has impacted…
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How Do Variables Affect Power Generation in a Hydroelectric Dam?
This lesson has students make a claim on which configuration will generate the most power in an in-class water power demonstration: Height of water in a bucket (reserve), Length of Penstock, or Height difference between penstock and inline generator. Students then test the variables and collect data. Finally, students compare results with classmates’ and develop…
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Moving Water Into Moving Electrons
Students explore the power of water phenomena through videos of moving water then create a driving question board around how the power of moving water can be used to generate electricity. Students are introduced to the concept of hydroelectric power through content exploration and discussion.
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Does this Dam Pass or Fail?
Students conduct Internet research to investigate the purpose and current functioning status of some of the largest dams throughout the world. They investigate the success or failure of eight dams and complete a worksheet. While researching the dams, they also gain an understanding of the scale of these structures by recording and comparing their reservoir…
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Who Makes Decisions About Dams? Stakeholder Role Play
This lesson empowers students to explore the roles of the stakeholders who are at play. Through role-playing, students will learn about the varied opinions regarding the dam removal and will ultimately have to reach a compromise as a class after a mock public forum.
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Evaluating River Restoration Projects
This lesson will introduce the role of the Snake River dams and the impacts they have on the Chinook population. Students will examine the pros and cons of various scenarios that have been presented by research scientists.
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Optimal and Sustainable: Renewable Energy Revamp
In this lesson, students will be challenged with an optimization problem. The fictitious town of Solutionville has decided to replace coal, their current source for electricity, with more sustainable energy sources. In designing Solutionville’s sustainable energy future, students must consider not only the geographic constraints of various renewable energy options–wind energy, hydroelectric power, geothermal energy,…
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The PowerWheel
The PowerWheel is a micro hydro generator—an amazing tool for teaching lessons about energy, hydro-power, and other renewable sources of energy. Students from kindergarten through college can use this tool to charge cell phones, power laptops and more… all from the power of a water faucet! This is a teacher recommended lesson from Educational Innovations.
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Creating a Hydroelectric Powerplant
Students will discover a relationship between amperes and voltage to Watts as a hydro-electric powerplant produces electricity. They will work as a team to create a powerplant and measure the flow and force of electricity. The variables of air pressure will simulate different head pressures as it pertain to simple water dam design. They will…
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Energy and How We Harness it: Virtual Field Trip
In a virtual format, students will explore how energy is generated in different forms.
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Exploring Energy Stations
Students explore various forms of energy in order to distinguish between potential, kinetic, and their subcategories in order to look at the concept of transformations.
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Exploring Renewable Energy Resources: Water Power
Prior to undergoing their own engineering design process, students build background understanding through testing a waterwheel, observing the functionality of hydropower turbines, and developing context around regional and national hydropower resources.
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Falling Water
Students will use mathematical calculations to apply the concept of of energy transformation to a water power context. They will explore how height impacts the amount of energy generated within hydropower systems. This is a teacher recommended lesson from Teach Engineering.
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Introduction to Water Power
After discovering ways to harness the power of wind, learning how water can also generate electricity is a logical next step. This lesson allows students to understand why water is a renewable resource and how it can do work to create energy. Before creating their own hydropower model, students also observe, make predictions and test…
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Waterwheel Work: Energy Transformations and Rotational Rates
Students will use the engineering design cycle to build their own device that transfers the energy from moving water so that it can be used for a different purpose. They will then relate this to how a hydroelectric power plant works. This is a teacher recommended lesson from Teach Engineering.
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The Basics of Energy, Electricity, and Water
Students develop foundational knowledge around the functionality of hydropower generation, providing presentations on their assigned subject matter.
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How Variables Impact Hydroelectric Output
Students will interact with a hydroelectric model, testing how different variables connected to real-world design features affect the power output of the generation source.
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Turbine Blade Design Engineering
Students test the effects of manipulating variables in wind turbine design on the overall power output and effectiveness of the turbine design.
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How Can a Dam Change the Land Around It?
Students investigate the environmental and social impacts of dams on communities around them, and consider options for addressing these conditions.
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Salmon and Dams
Students receive introductory information to the challenges facing salmon in the Pacific Northwest, including the unique solutions humans are developing to address the challenges. This is a teacher recommended lesson from PBS Learning Media.
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Hydropower Dams: Learning Through Stakeholder Research
Students will take on the perspective of different stakeholders that are involved in hydropower development. They will use their scientific understanding and the needs of that stakeholder to communicate varying positions on the development of new dams.
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History of Hydroelectric Power/What Does a Dam Do?
Students will engage with history of dams using a famous case study.
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Future Water Power Technologies
Students will explore new technologies being designed to generate electricity as our grid continues to modernize.
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Designing a Renewable City Model
Students will use their collective understandings built throughout an entire unit of sustainability topics to develop their own sustainable city. This lesson uses a variety of visual and physical hands on tools for students to make their ideas and climate solutions come to life. Students will wrap up their development by presenting their “Renewable City”…
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Career Profiles in Hydropower
This collection of introductory videos will allow students to explore real careers in the hydropower industry. While not necessarily a lesson plan, these tools fit into any unit emphasizing career-connected learning, with all careers having direct connections to scientific and/or professional expertise. This is a teacher recommended resource.
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Spark Squad Comics
These comics use a fictional set of middle school characters to engage students in hydropower and marine renewable energy topics, with activities included in each comic for students to track their learning. This is a teacher recommended resource from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
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Informative Writing: Where Does Energy Come From?
This lesson is a non-fiction research and writing project, which includes a differentiated choice menu and list of ideas for publishing the completed project. Each student will choose one of ten energy sources to research, including coal, natural gas, petroleum, propane, uranium, biomass, wind, geothermal, hydropower and solar. They will write a report on the…
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Modeling a Wave Energy Converter
This teacher-designed hands-on engineering activity for grades 7-8 walks you through building a wave energy converter to explore how waves can be used for energy.