Green Energy

Explain your opinion of green energy in your home, your school, and your community.

Read, or re-read, the text on the Green Energy Facts page. Discuss the main idea of green energy from that text. What do you think the author was trying to get across?

Create a scenario where green energy topics would be discussed, giving students the opportunity to argue the pros and cons of green energy. Specific facts need to be cited and addressed throughout the discussion.

Create a solar cooker using the instructions at solarcooking.org/plans or other printed instructions.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration “the energy in a 300 (food) calorie ice cream cone is about the same as the amount of electricity required to light a 100-watt incandescent bulb for 3¾ hours.” How much energy will it take in food calories to light that bulb for the duration of your school day? For a week of school? What foods can you find that will equal that amount? How is this information useful in the real world? Consult this Energy Kids site for additional information and a calculator.

Using measuring tools, create a scale model of a wind turbine.

Things that people do can affect the world around them. People can reduce their effects on the land, water, air, and other living things. Examples of human influence on the land could include planting trees after a burn, protecting farm fields from erosion, or keeping plastic trash out of waterways.

Plants and animals can change their environment. Examples of plants and animals changing their environment could include a squirrel digging in the ground to hide its food and that tree roots can break concrete.

Energy and fuels that are modified from natural sources affect the environment in multiple ways. Some resources are renewable over time, and others are not. Examples of renewable energy resources could include wind energy, water behind dams, and sunlight; non-renewable energy resources are fossil fuels and atomic energy. Examples of environmental effects could include biological effects from moving parts, erosion, change of habitat, and pollution.

Energy is present whenever there are moving objects, sound, light, or heat. When objects collide, energy can be transferred from one object to another, thereby changing their motion. In such collisions, some energy is typically also transferred to the surrounding air; as a result, the air gets heated and sound is produced. Light transfers energy from place to place. Energy can be transferred from place to place by electric currents, which can then be used locally to produce motion, sound, heat, or light. The currents may have been produced by transforming the energy of motion into electrical energy.

Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. Individuals and communities can often mitigate these effects through innovation and technology.

When the environment changes in ways that affect a place’s physical characteristics, temperature, or availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment, and some die.

Current scientific models indicate that human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion, can contribute to the present-day measured rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature. Natural activities, such as changes in incoming solar radiation, also contribute to changing global temperatures. Examples of factors include human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion and changes in land use) and natural processes (such as changes in incoming solar radiation and volcanic activity). Examples of evidence can include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures; atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane; and natural resource use.

Technology and engineering can potentially help us best manage natural resources as populations increase.Examples of evidence include grade-appropriate databases on human populations and the rates of consumption of food and natural resources (such as freshwater, mineral, and energy). Examples of effects can include changes made to the appearance, composition, and structure of Earth’s systems as well as the rates at which they change.

Human activities can positively and negatively influence the biosphere, sometimes altering natural habitats and ecosystems. Technology and engineering can potentially help us best manage natural resources as populations increase. Examples of the design process include examining human interactions and designing feasible solutions that promote stewardship. Examples can include water usage (such as stream and river use, aquifer recharge, or dams and levee construction); land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, wetland benefits, stream reclamation, or fire restoration); and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land).