ENERGY INTRODUCTION
The United States Office of Nuclear Energy offers a middle school science curriculum that focuses on nuclear science and energy, entitled The Harnessed Atom. It offers a student guide, as well as a teacher book with lesson plans and activities. It is a great resources that can be accessed at http://energy.gov/ne/services/harnessed-atom.
For the introduction to my Energy unit, follow chapter one of The Harnessed Atom.
For student guide, click here.
For teacher guide with lesson plan, activities, and assessment, click here.
For power point presentation, click here.
As stated in the teacher lesson plan, upon completion of the lesson the students should be able to:
CLASS ACTIVITY FOLLOWING LESSON PLAN
Following the lesson and assessment questions, divide the students into groups of four or five.
Each team will be responsible for researching one of the following:
Each group should research their energy source and present their findings on the class. Their presentations should include:
Online resources for students are:
After each group presentation, have the groups do the lab in lesson one of The Harnessed Atom, teacher edition, entitled Future Energy Graphs. In this activity, the students will look at the usage percentage of each energy source for our country and determine their ideal energy usage percentage. To determine their ideal usage, they will consider the availability, cost, and impact of each source.
After the completion of the lab, inform the class that, for their final project, they will research the energy usage of the city/suburbs of their school and make recommendations for more efficient energy usage, including how and why the city should make these changes. These recommendations will be sent to the city officials, on behalf of their class.
For the introduction to my Energy unit, follow chapter one of The Harnessed Atom.
For student guide, click here.
For teacher guide with lesson plan, activities, and assessment, click here.
For power point presentation, click here.
As stated in the teacher lesson plan, upon completion of the lesson the students should be able to:
- Give real life examples of energy use
- Define and contrast potential energy and kinetic energy
- Identify primary energy forms (fossil fuels, nuclear, geothermal, solar, wind, water, biomass, and tidal)
- Contrast renewable (wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro) and non-renewable (coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium) energy source
- Explain how we convert energy into usable forms
- Plan specific actions to save energy in daily activities
- Identify environmental costs of energy use (greenhouse gas emissions, mining and drilling risks, resource depletion)
CLASS ACTIVITY FOLLOWING LESSON PLAN
Following the lesson and assessment questions, divide the students into groups of four or five.
Each team will be responsible for researching one of the following:
- Solar
- Wind
- Fossil Fuel
- Nuclear Energy
Each group should research their energy source and present their findings on the class. Their presentations should include:
- How does this energy get its power? Explain the source of this energy form.
- How is this energy transformed into usable energy?
- List and describe the advantages to using this source of energy.
- List the disadvantages to using this energy.
- Where is this source of energy commonly used?
Online resources for students are:
- The Energy Kids page from the US Department of Energy provides a basic introduction to each energy source
- The Energy Story has a chapter on each energy source
- Another educational website on energy resources for students
After each group presentation, have the groups do the lab in lesson one of The Harnessed Atom, teacher edition, entitled Future Energy Graphs. In this activity, the students will look at the usage percentage of each energy source for our country and determine their ideal energy usage percentage. To determine their ideal usage, they will consider the availability, cost, and impact of each source.
After the completion of the lab, inform the class that, for their final project, they will research the energy usage of the city/suburbs of their school and make recommendations for more efficient energy usage, including how and why the city should make these changes. These recommendations will be sent to the city officials, on behalf of their class.