Grade Level: 4th
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A Study of Alternative Fuels
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The Farmer’s Dilemma
Over the course of the previous six labs, the students are exposed to alternative power systems focusing on hydrogen and electricity. This last structure combines all the knowledge students armed themselves with into a comprehensive presentation regarding the future of farming in our area… specifically that of fuels the farm tractor will use to harvest…
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The Cycle Analyst
Students will use a Cycle Analyst to collect data from an electric go-kart and measure the efficiency of the system. The Cycle Analyst can be used on other small electric vehicles such as electric bicycles, scooters and golf carts.
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Hydrogen Cars
Students will discover some properties of Hydrogen and how a PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) operates. They will work to create their own hydrogen kit car and experiment by measuring its gas production, power output if the fuel cell, and the power requirements for operating the vehicle for one minute.
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Creating an Hydrogen Generator
Students will discover some properties of Hydrogen. They will work to create their own hydrogen generator and experiment by measuring its gas production and amperage used for production.
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Creating an Electric Motor
Students will discover some properties of electromagnets. They will create their own electric motor and measuring its torque by picking up a weight over a given distance and time. With this motor, they will learn how an electric motor works and to troubleshoot for optimum operation.
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Creating an Electromagnetic Field
Student teams will work together to discover properties of electromagnets. They will work together to create their own electromagnets and experiment its strength to pick up paperclips using batteries of varying voltages. With this experiment, they will also learn about series and parallel circuits. Later lessons will require the use of these electromagnets to create…
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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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Community Project
Students decide on a community project they’d like to do to personally help with climate change or energy justice.
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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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Offshore Wind Turbines Renewable Energy
Students are introduced to offshore wind. They learn how offshore turbines are different, the challenges and benefits of building in the ocean, and how offshore wind turbines are built.
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Battleship Windfarms
Wind power is a renewable resource that provides humans with an alternative to fossil fuels. However, wind farms cannot be built everywhere and when they are in the path of migratory birds, they can kill or injure these birds.
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Understanding Science and Engineering Through Solar Power
Students learn about electricity from solar power through building simple circuits, exploring how solar calculators get their electricity, and from designing and testing a solar water pump.
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Designing A Faster Water Pump
Students use available tools to design and test a solar water pump and apply the engineering design process to refine, test and evaluate their design.
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Solar Powered Water Pumping
Students make observations and record data about how different materials affect the speed of a solar powered water pump.
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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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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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Making Observations and Recording Data for Solar Powered Water Pumping
Students observe a solar water pump and follow sensemaking prompts to develop an understanding of the system. Students then make observations and record data about how quickly a solar module will drive a pump to move water.
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A Simple Circuit
Students observe a simple circuit and follow sensemaking prompts to develop an understanding of the circuit as a class. Students then draw and label the parts of a simple circuit as well as the direction/path that current is flowing.
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Solar Boats
Students are led through a comprehensive unit leading them from the basics of energy through to a culminating solar boat engineering design project (9 lessons).
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Analyze Data and Develop Conclusions
Students have performed the investigation. They will now analyze their data, refer to their initial predictions, and develop their conclusions. Students will have the opportunity to discuss the usefulness of both quantitative and qualitative data forms, determining where each is most useful in drawing specific types of conclusions. This discussion will be used as a…
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Energy Carousel: Collaborative Sensemaking on Energy and How We Measure It
This lesson aims to help students investigate answers to the questions: “What is Energy?” and “How can we see or measure energy?”. The lesson serves as a first step in understanding energy as a phenomenon and will help scaffold students’ abilities to comprehend renewable resources better later. Students observe and measure energy at 3 carousel…
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What is Energy?
In this lesson students will focus solely on the concept of what energy is. The very first thing will be to hand students a blank piece of paper and ask the students, “What is energy?” Give students a silent minute or two to write what they think energy is. Struggling students can draw what they…
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Exploring Electromagnets
Students build and test an electromagnet that will build foundational understandings into the generation of electricity and basis of our energy system.
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Activity Guide
Learners will be inspired to put their own learning and imagination into action after reading the true story of, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”. This is a teacher recommended lesson from Centre of Excellence for Energy.
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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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Building Wind Turbines with the Engineering Design Process
Students will use kits to build their own model wind turbines, exploring how different variables affect the operation of the turbine and developing blueprints for designs that reflect their findings.
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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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Exploring the Impacts of Wind Turbines on Tribal Lands/Seas
Students will apply their existing knowledge of how turbines work and their environmental impact to a discussion of human impacts. This will focus specifically on Tribal lands and discussions taking place around energy development.
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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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Tragedy of the Commons
In this lesson, students will engage in a simple game in order to model and understand Tragedy of the Commons. During the game, students discuss their ideas about sustainability.
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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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Exploring Renewable Energy Resources: Offshore Wind
Students will build wind turbines in a variety of forms to develop a deep understanding of the function of wind turbines as well as variables that affect how successful a particular design is.
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Socratic Circle and Climate Change Phenomena
Students analyze their own ideas about climate change and sustainability using a Socratic Circle discussion then investigate a phenomenon to further make sense of climate change. Students’ ideas help shape their understanding of climate challenges and give space for discussion around what an equitable, sustainable community looks like.
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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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How Do Solar Panels Work?
Students will learn the basics of how a solar cell generates electricity and observe the effects on a small electrical load attached to a solar module under a variety of conditions. They will build upon knowledge gained in previous lessons dealing with energy transformations in order to build an understanding of how the sun’s energy…
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Solar Powered Calculator
Students develop an understanding of how light energy is transformed into electrical energy to power a solar calculator.
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Probes of Prior Knowledge
Students are guided through formative assessments (probes) of their prior knowledge about electricity
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Setting Expectations for Science and Engineering Projects
Students explore the ground rules for science discourse and how they will share their thinking about science concepts
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Solar Updraft Towers
Students will combine research, direct observations, and hands on investigation to lead them into an engineering design project involving the construction of a solar updraft tower (5 lessons).
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Learning About Solar Updraft Towers
This lesson helps students learn about solar updraft towers being planned and built around the world to help solve the energy crisis by using unlimited power from the sun. This will provide real world context to the engineering challenge they engaged in during the previous lesson. A video is shown to the class; then students…
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Let’s Build Our Wind and Solar Energy Toy
Students will combine what they learned in previous lessons using their investigations of convection-related phenomena to design a device that will convert light energy from the sun into thermal energy and utilize the resulting convection currents. Their primary objective will be to design a device that uses energy from the sun when placed on a…
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Wind Power: A Hands-on Experience
This lesson challenges students to work in teams to design successful turbine blades for the “KidWind Firefly”. The firefly has an LED light that lights up when the students have designed turbine blades that spin effectively. This lesson provides students with hands-on experience in designing turbine blades. This will scaffold them nicely into Let’s Build…
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Where Does Energy Go?
This lesson consists of six demonstration activities that show examples of ways in which water and air absorb heat to transfer energy from one place to another. These demonstration activities act as unique phenomena in which students can generate questions to lead subsequent investigations with each activity in learning centers. Through gaining content from investigations…
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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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Collect Data and Compare Performances of Different Boat Designs
Students will race the solar speedboats, airboats, and surface submarines and then compare the performance results and of the various types of solar boats made by the class. Students will compare and contrast forces acting on the system by examining the results of the airboat, speedboat and surface submarine races.
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Solar Boat Science Investigation & Building Solar Boats
Design a science investigation to test a solar speedboat, airboat, and surface submarine. Students will use the “Planning an Investigation Template” in order to determine their motivations for designing a solar boat, make predictions about the outcomes with this design, plan the construction by determining materials to be used in the design, diagram their plans,…
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How to Measure Output of Solar Modules?
Students will measure output from a solar module before a load is attached and relate it to real world output. They will make these measurements using a multimeter and be able to determine the optimal angle at which their module generates a current flow. This process is meant to reveal to students some of the…
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What is Force?
Students will build a barge out of tin foil and describe the forces acting it. The barge itself is designed only with the constraints that passengers within the barge will not get wet, allowing for students to experiment with different shapes and densities as they construct their boats. This simple design challenge has a competition…
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What is Energy Transfer?
Students will continue to build an understanding of the fundamentals of energy through observing and describing a variety of energy transformations and build on their foundational vocabulary for identifying and discussing energy concepts. In this stage of the lesson, students will engage more with examples of electrical energy, both stored and kinetic in order to…
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What is Energy?
Students will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of energy through observing a variety of energy transformations and develop a foundational vocabulary for identifying and discussing energy concepts. Students will make observations about how energy is converted between stored and kinetic forms through interacting with these changes in a station-based format. Students have the opportunity…
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Simple Solar Tracker Activity
Students will be shown a working example of a solar tracker and asked to replicate the design based on their observations (1-2 lessons).
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Designing a Sustainable City of the Future
The concept for this unit is to teach students about natural resources and renewable energy in the context of how these things impact people, communities, and the environment. They will study the actions of current and past environmental activists, learn to look critically at current energy systems, and possible solutions. The final outcome of the…
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Designing a City That Addresses Energy Needs
Students work collaboratively to design a sustainable city of the future with attention to water, energy, carbon footprint, waste, and city layout needs.
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What Are Some Possible Solutions To Current Energy Challenges?
Students explore possible solutions to current energy challenges, focusing on methane collection.
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Who Is An Activist?
This lesson introduces students to youth environmental activists involved in the work in creating an awareness about climate change issues. Students will begin to consider how they can use critical thinking to identify issues and their voice to address issues in their communities.
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What are Current Energy Systems and Challenges?
Students research and present different energy sources and challenges.
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How Does Human Use of Resources Impact the Environment?
Students learn about how human use of natural resources can impact the environment. Students create a fog catcher to make sense of the phenomenon. Students assess the impact of their actions on the environment through an ecological footprint/handprint activity.
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Natural Resources
This lesson introduces students to natural resources and creates a foundational understanding of how people use natural resources. Students will begin to understand the different forms of energy and how human activity and use of resources can impact the environment.
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Engineering with Renewable Energy: Solar Water Pumping Activity
Students will learn that energy from the sun can be converted to electrical energy to do work by engineering a solar water pump system and collect and graph data in their investigations.
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Understanding E-Waste Through Battery Design
In this unit of multi-day lessons, students will further their understanding of energy, electricity, and basic circuits by focusing on batteries and e-waste. Students will build on their existing knowledge of energy, exploring how it is stored and used in everyday life, as well as the role of batteries in energy systems. Hands-on experiments with…
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Exploring Eco-Friendly Battery Design
Students will design multiple batteries using potatoes, lemons, pennies, and cola. They will use qualitative analysis to understand the voltage of each battery type. Based on their hands on experience students will understand methods to increase voltage and what makes a good battery design.
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Engineering Clean Energy For Our Community
Students will explore how different clean energy methods can power a motor. Using the engineering design process students will evaluate each energy source and relate it to e-waste concepts from previous lessons. They will learn about wind turbines and design a wind turbine. They will learn about solar power and design a solar boat. They…
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How Might We Design A Battery That Reduces E-Waste
Students explore the guiding phenomenon to understand e-waste and connect it to battery design. Students will research to ask questions, define problems and communicate information about e-waste to prepare for further exploration into electronics and battery design for the next lesson portion.