Energy Lesson Plans

The following are designed to be stand-alone lesson plans and are not meant to be used in any particular order.

• Home Energy Audit: Students will describe the difference between power and energy by giving examples of high-power and high-energy devices. They will then compare the electrical demand from various in-home devices and calculate the cost-in terms of monthly electricity bills-of each.
• How Power Plants Work 1: Students learn about turbines by building their own water turbine.
• How Power Plants Work 2: Students build their own generators.
• How Power Plants Work 3: Students learn about power plants, and investigate turbines by using pinwheels.
• Nuclear Energy: Students will learn about nuclear power, and gain an appreciation for its risks compared to other daily activities.
• Natural gas and Pennsylvania’s future: Students will learn about the role natural gas in their lives, as well as why we frack and what it could mean for the future of Pennsylvania.
• Renewables Workshop: Students gain an appreciation of renewable energies through building their own wind turbine and a class discussion.
• Battery Workshop: Students will learn about batteries, and through a hands-on exercise will gain an appreciation through how much energy is actually stored in different types of batteries. Students will also learn the relationship between voltage, current, and power.