Students become “experts” and make creative presentations about the different ecological roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers at local and global scales.

After learning about food chains, students practice building food chains and design their own backyard food chains.

Students synthesize their understanding of energy flow and trophic relationships through “Food Chains Rummy,” a modified version of the classic card game using Species Cards.

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, describes the energy flow in a coral reef, including its food web.

Spreadsheets across the Curriculum module. Students build spreadsheets that allow them to calculate the different values needed to examine energy flow through agroecosystems.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe how organisms acquire energy in a food web and in associated food chainsExplain how the efficiency of energy transfers between trophic levels affects ecosystem structure and dynamicsDiscuss trophic levels and how ecological pyramids are used to model them

This classroom activity introduces students to energy flow through organisms, producers & photosynthesis, and consumers & respiration.

In this activity, students explore what types of energy resources exist in their state by examining a state map and data from the Energy Information Administration. Students identify the different energy sources in their state, including the state's renewable energy potential.

The students participate in many demonstrations during the first day of this lesson to learn basic concepts related to the forms and states of energy. This knowledge is then applied the second day as they assess various everyday objects to determine what forms of energy are transformed to accomplish the object's intended task. The students use block diagrams to illustrate the form and state of energy flowing into and out of the process.

This pair of interactive visualizations allows students to explore basic and more complex concepts around heat conduction, heat capacity and energy transfer. The basic simulation demonstrates how heating and cooling iron, brick, water, and olive oil adds or removes energy from a system and transfers between objects. At the more advanced level, the systems simulation allows students to see that energy takes various forms, as well as how energy flows and changes from one form of energy into another.

This simulation lets learners explore how heating and cooling adds or removes energy. Use a slider to heat blocks of iron or brick to see the energy flow. Next, build your own system to convert mechanical, light, or chemical energy into electrical or thermal energy. (Learners can choose sunlight, steam, flowing water, or mechanical energy to power their systems.) The simulation allows students to visualize energy transformation and describe how energy flows in various systems. Through examples from everyday life, it also bolsters understanding of conservation of energy. This item is part of a larger collection of simulations developed by the Physics Education Technology project (PhET).

Demonstrations explain the concepts of energy forms (sound, chemical, radiant [light], electrical, atomic [nuclear], mechanical, thermal [heat]) and states (potential, kinetic).

Each student has been given a packet of information on an energy topic. There are two articles that all the students will receive, on energy conservation and addiction to oil, and then several others on their specific topic. Each student will be instructed to become the classroom expert on their specific topic by reading the articles and being invited to look up more information.

These steps are modified from Step by Step Instructions for Gallery Walk

I learned this technique at a Cutting Edge workshop put on by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers called Designing Innovative and Effective Geoscience Courses in the summer of 2008.

The steps to this lesson are:

I have generated a list of questions around energy.
The questions will be written on poster-sized paper, one question to each sheet.
The questions will be posted in a foyer area.
The students have been given general directions in the previous class, and more specific directions will be given the day of the event.
The students have been prepared by reading packets of energy information, as described above in this document. They have also been advised on how the grading rubric and feedback will be used.
The students will be put into groups of two, because the class is so small. Each group will have a different colored marker. If the groups were larger, roles would be assigned, like recorder, speaker, emissary, etc... That won't work with this small class.
We will begin the gallery walk. Each team will start at a different chart, read the question, talk to each other, then document their response in their colored ink. They will be encouraged to write in a pithy bulleted format closest to the top of the chart.
The teams will rotate to a new station after a period of time (to be determined!) They will rotate clockwise. Arriving at a new station, the students will read the question, the responses of the other groups who posted before them, and add their comments, sort of like a BLOG. The groups can switch recorders at each station to keep all members involved.
I will monitor the students' progress. I may have to intervene to clarify a point or direct the students to think of something they may have overlooked. I will wander between groups, listening in, and asking "Socratic" guiding questions if needed.
Once all groups have responded to all the posters, they can return to posters to read the other postings, and even add to their own comments.
After the rotations and comment period, students will "report out", which each group synthesizes the comments for each question into a summary. The groups will then take turns making oral reports on the questions at hand. I may decide to have them do a written report instead, so that they create a document to refer to later in the course.
I will be gauging student understanding throughout the report stage, to reinforce correctly expressed concepts and correct for errors or misconceptions.

The questions my students had to answer were:

What sources of energy (conventional and alternative-yet-to-be-brought-to-market) are appropriate powering motor vehicles? In detail, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
What sources of energy (conventional and alternative) are appropriate for powering homes? (Heat, hot water, cooking, cooling, light, etc) In detail, what are the advantages and disadvantages?
What are the most polluting energy sources, and what type of pollution do they produce? What are the least polluting energy sources, and why aren't we using them more?
What are fifteen ways the average person can conserve energy?
Do we need to conserve energy? Do developing nations need to? Why or why not?
Should energy conservation be a legal mandate from the U.S. government for our citizens? Should the U.N. require international consensus on energy conservation? Would that be fair to developing nations?
What are the reasons we can no longer depend on fossil fuels (both domestic and imported) to power the United States of America? What are the great issues at stake?
Who will pay the price for energy decisions made (or not made) in the next few years? What do you anticipate that price might be?

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This energy game activity engages students in learning about energy sources. This game demonstrates that energy, the environment, and economics are closely tied together. During the course of the game and in the discussion afterward, students learn the concepts of scarcity, opportunity cost, net energy profit, law of diminishing returns, and that availability does not mean usefulness.

Students are asked to design a poster as an alternative to the Energy Hog ad campaign released by the DOE in 2004. Students are asked to address where our energy comes from how it is used and what might be involved in moving towards non-petroleum resources. They are directed to begin at the DOE and EIA Energy Information Agency websites but may pursue any other resources they deem necessary. This activity provides a real-world context for thermodynamic and electrochemical concepts presented in the second semester of general chemistry.

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Is Energy and GIS your passion? If so, Energy Industry Applications of GIS provides students with an in-depth exploration of the complexities of siting decisions in the electricity market. The course introduces a variety of siting challenges that confront the energy industry and its customers and neighbors but focuses on the siting of electrical transmission lines. The course also provides hands-on experience with a common decision support technology, ArcGIS, and considers how the technology may be used to facilitate public participation in siting decisions.

In an active way, students discover a few critical facts about how we use energy and how much energy we use. Each student has a "clue," some of which are pertinent energy facts and others are silly statements that are clearly unrelated to the topic. Students mingle and ask each other for clues until they have collected all the facts they need. This provides a more interactive way to communicate energy statistics, compared to a lecture and introduction with board work. The goal is to introduce students to some key terms and issues associated with energy as a necessary prerequisite for the remainder of the unit.

This lesson combines a powerpoint lecture and reading activity to help students learn about the theory and structure of molecules. 

This activity challenges students to try and meet the world's projected energy demand over the next century, decade by decade, by manipulating a menu of available energy sources in the online Energy lab simulator all while keeping atmospheric CO2 under a target 550ppm.

This online activity challenges students to design a renewable energy system for one of five different cities, each with different energy resource potential and budgets. Students can test their designs using real-time weather data in each city.