This video reviews how photovoltaic (PV) cells work, noting that technological innovations are decreasing costs and allowing PV use to expand.

This activity is an opportunity for students to explore civil government and to present what they have learned about electric power generation in a persuasive manner

In this short activity, students or groups are tasked to make concept sketches that track the source of electrical power as far back as they can conceive. The concept sketches reveal students' prior conceptions of the power grid and energy mix, and lead naturally into a lesson or discussion about energy resources and power production.

This is a hands-on activity students design, build, and test. They compare the energy-generating capacities of vertical- and horizontal- axis wind turbine prototypes they have built as potential sources for power in a home.

This paper introduces a card exercise which allows students to make decisions about how best to provide electrical power to their country. The work presented emphasizes the use in the classroom of real data to solve real problems, in this case balancing electrical power supply and demand in the UK. With some additional research the task may be easily adapted for use in other countries. Whilst completing the activity, the students are required to make important choices between renewable and non-renewable electricity generation. It is a highly differentiated task ranging from simple addition to quite challenging calculations taking into account the availability and variability of natural resources. This means that it can be used with classes from Year 9 through to Year 13.

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Students work in pairs to pick black and white beads out of a bag to represent the percent of renewable and nonrenewable resources used in different countries, and then graph the information.

This is a National Geographic video that defines renewable energy and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of different examples.

In this activity, students explore real data about renewable energy potential in their state using a mapping tool developed by NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) to investigate the best locations for wind energy, solar energy, hydropower, geothermal energy, and biomass.

In this activity, students become familiar with the online Renewable Energy Living Lab interface and access its real-world solar energy data to evaluate the potential for solar generation in various U.S. locations.

In this activity, students work through the process of evaluating the feasibility of photovoltaic solar power in 4 different US cities.

In this activity, students play the role of energy consultants to a CEO, assessing and documenting the feasibility, cost, and environmental impact of installing solar power on 4 company facilities with the same design but in different geographical locations.

In this eight-lesson unit, students explore cultural connections with the sun, learn about light and discover how light interacts with other materials through hands-on activities, literacy integration, and engineering.

In this lesson, students discuss and evaluate artwork by Jill Pelto, investigate renewable and nonrenewable energy, and demonstrate their learning through writing or drawing.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students discuss and evaluate artwork by Jill Pelto and learn more about her career.

Step 2 - Investigate: Students learn the definitions of renewable and nonrenewable energy, read Sven's Search for Clean Energy, and take notes on renewable and nonrenewable energy.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students write a paragraph or draw a comic to demonstrate their new knowledge.

This video segment explores whether, in principle, renewable energy resources could meet today's global energy needs of about 15.7 terawatts.

This activity requires students to research, design, construct, and test a solar oven. Students will collect data from their own individual oven to combine with research of "real-life" solar ovens in an activity ending scientific paper.

In this activity, students use Google Earth to investigate a variety of renewable energy sources and select sites within the United States that would be appropriate for projects based on those sources.

Students use Google Earth to investigate appropriate locations for a variety of renewable energy projects in the United States. These include projects that use solar energy, bioenergy, hydroelectricity, tidal power, wind energy, wave energy, and geothermal energy.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This activity comes at the beginning of a sequence of activities in an energy module. Students observe the transfer of solar energy to different appliances with a solar cell and then they investigate the effect of using different solar sources to supply energy to appliances.

This video segment from 'What's Up in the Environment,' shares how an entire home can be constructed using green energy sources (solar and geothermal energy). Video is narrated by young boy whose father is the chief engineer on the project.

In this video segment from NOVA's Saved By the Sun hour-long video, students learn about photovoltaics and see how two families are using solar technologies in their homes. The video introduces the ideas of state incentives and net metering benefits.