Scavenger Hunt Introducing Educational Technology Instructors to Energy Literacy
This Educational Technology Scavenger Hunt is intended to serve as an introduction to Energy Literacy. After all, energy powers technology. Without energy, instructors and students cannot power devices that allow them to use educational technology. And the training must begin with energy literacy—knowing what energy literacy is, knowing how to implement energy literacy, and developing a human philosophy around being an energy literate inhabitant of the planet Earth. So, let’s begin the scavenger hunt!
Who You Are:
You are
a 21st Century science teacher in search of the history of energy
and energy uses over time to make your students energy literate.
Mission:
Your mission is to complete four tasks, taking yourself on a journey through space and time to become literate about energy and
its uses from the earliest history of mankind to the present.
How Will You Travel:
You
will begin inside the video time capsule below then move through the four tasks as
directed.
Task One:
Video Time Capsule
Video Time Capsule
Watch - Movie
(Enlarge in YouTube) or
Read - Transcript
Principle 1 - Energy is a quantity that is transferred from system to system.
Principle - 5 Decisions
concerning the use of energy resources are made at many levels.
Chose - One Reason for teaching energy literacy to your students
Share - One Lesson from your scavenger hunt with your students
Conclusion:
Write - In comments below, one benefit of this Scavenger Hunt.
Use of "DOE Energy Literacy video and book" does not imply DOE's endorsement of "Scavenger Hunt," its "Author" or any party identified in the "Scavenger Hunt," which is part of "Author's" coursework toward a Graduate Educational Technology Award from the Professional Development Institute and the University of California, San Diego.
TRANSCRIPT ~ Energy
is everywhere. Since the beginning of the universe, 13.8 billion years ago,
energy has been the driver of everything we know. It has powered our dynamic
planet and its many processes. It was energy from the Sun interacting with
matter that caused all living things to evolve, resulting in the wide diversity
of life on Earth today, including humans.
Every sensation comes about because of some kind of energy.
Our
understanding and uses of energy—and its sources over time—have dramatically
changed human possibilities and activities. Yet when the power goes out it
focuses our attention on just how important a reliable energy supply is for our
daily lives. It’s a major event for everyone involved. One can even see it from
space! When this happens, we often revert to earlier forms of energy—fire to
see, keep us warm and for cooking.
Over
time, we have developed an understanding of energy that has allowed us to
harness it for uses well beyond basic survival. Mastery of fire came first,
more than 400,000 years ago, using wood as the fuel. That led us to build ovens
for making pottery, and refining of metals from ore. We learned to use energy
from wind, from water, and from animals for transportation, and agriculture. Through years of exploration and innovation,
humans developed technologies that harnessed energy in steam to do useful work.
In fact, the invention of the steam engine triggered the Industrial Revolution.
Steam engines powered railways, great ocean liners, industry, and even early
automobiles.
We have
also used the force of moving water for centuries to turn water wheels that
transfer energy, to make many kinds of machines work. Today we use water to
make electricity at large hydroelectric dams, which can power entire cities,
and in small-scale hydroelectric projects that provide electricity to
communities or even individual homes.
We can
transport electricity over vast distances on the electric power grid—one of our
major ways of distributing and accessing energy. In recent times we found new
ways to generate electricity—for example, with nuclear power plants, turbines
that harness wind energy, photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight into
electricity, geothermal power plants that use steam from beneath the Earth’s
surface, and with biofuels from materials like agricultural waste, and algae.
In addition, we can all save money by using energy more efficiently.
Understanding
energy helps us manage our lives. It also helps organizations to promote
economic development, and improve national security. As we develop sustainable
energy sources and we improve the efficiency of how we use energy, we will
reduce our environmental risks, like climate change, and avoid negative impacts
now and in the future. Learning about energy is important. It helps us make
informed decisions about energy use, and may lead to a career path in energy
related fields, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM). Everyone, however, needs to know enough to make good energy choices.
Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and
Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education can help us
understand the role energy plays in all our lives. It explores the seven
essential principles of energy education that everyone should know. This energy
Literacy framework is not just available in a printed booklet, you can also
download it from the web, and it has online videos that highlight each of the
seven energy literacy principles.
Energy is everywhere! And we all make energy
decisions many times each day that have an impact on our communities, and our
planet. Becoming more Energy Literate enables us all to make these decisions wisely.
Question 1. Where is energy?
Question 1. Where is energy?
Task Two:
Read - Descriptions
of Seven Principles of Energy
Literacy below.
Visit - Links and answer questions provided. |
| Page Six--Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education Optional Download Instructions Provided at the End of Task Two. |
Principle 1 - Energy is a quantity that is transferred from system to system.
Energy is the ability of a
system to do work. A system has done work if it has exerted a force on another
system over some distance. When this happens, energy is transferred from one system
to another. At least some of the energy is also transformed from one type to
another during this process. One can keep track of how much energy transfers
into or out of a system.
Site 1 Energy Kids
This site answers simple questions and defines forms of energy.
Question 2. What type of energy is light?
Question 3. What type of energy is motion?
This site answers simple questions and defines forms of energy.
Question 2. What type of energy is light?
Question 3. What type of energy is motion?
Principle 2 - Earth
is constantly changing as energy flows through the system.
Geologic, fossil, and ice
records provide evidence of significant changes throughout Earth’s history.
These changes are always associated with changes in the flow of energy through
the Earth system. Both living and non-living processes have contributed to this
change.
Question 4. How do greenhouse gases affect Earth?
Question 5. What causes weather?
Principle 3 - The Sun is
the major source of energy for organisms and the ecosystems of which they are a
part.
Producers such as plants,
algae, and cyanobacteria
use the energy from sunlight to make organic matter from carbon dioxide and
water. This establishes the beginning of energy flow through almost all food
webs.
This site is designed for science teachers and explores energy in biological processes.
Question 6. What fuels life on earth?
Principle 4 - Humans
transfer and transform energy from the environment into forms useful for human
endeavors.
The primary sources of
energy in the environment include fuels like coal, oil, natural gas, uranium,
and biomass. All primary source fuels except biomass are non-renewable. Primary
sources also include renewable sources such as sunlight, wind, moving water,
and geothermal energy.
Site 4 Science Course
This site features a short course on sources of energy.
Question 7. What was one use of energy by early humans?
Humans make individual,
community, national, and international energy decisions. Each of these levels
of decision making has some common and some unique aspects. Decisions made
beyond the individual level often involve a formally established process of
decision-making.
Site 5 National Geographic
This site explores how energy choices should be made.
Question 8. What is one modern energy choice?
Question 9. Does all electricity reach its destination?
Principle - 6 Conservation
of energy has two very different meanings.
There is the physical law of
conservation of energy. This law says that the total amount of energy in the
universe is constant. Conserving energy is also commonly used to mean the
decreased societal consumption of energy resources. When speaking of people
conserving energy, this second meaning is always intended.
Site 6 Conservation of Energy
This site is devoted to energy conservation.
Question 10. What is a popular meaning of conservation?
Principle - 7 Economic
security is impacted by energy choices.
Individuals and society
continually make energy choices that have economic consequences. These
consequences come in the form of monetary cost in general and in the form of
price fluctuation and instability specifically.
This is a scientific journal article describing an environmental sustainability study.
Question 11. On what country is the PMC study based?
Optional Download Below (Complete PDF Book)
Task Three:
Chose - One Reason for teaching energy literacy to your students
Task Four:
Share - One Lesson from your scavenger hunt with your students
Conclusion:
Write - In comments below, one benefit of this Scavenger Hunt.
Credits & Disclaimer:
Energy Literacy Handbook and Videos were Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which began in the fall of 2010 as a guide at a workshop, sponsored by DOE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Multiple federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and numerous individuals contributed to the development through an extensive review and comment process. Discussion and information gathered at AAAS, WestEd, and DOE-sponsored Energy Literacy workshops in the spring of 2011 contributed substantially to the refinement of the guide.
For more information:
U.S. Dept. of Energy
1000 Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20585
202-586-5000
energy.gov/eere/energyliteracy
U.S. Copyright Law and the TEACH Act (Technology, Education And Copyright Harmonization Act) allow use for educational purposes without written permission of the DOE book, Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education and DOE video, Energy Everywhere - An Introduction to Energy Literacy ("DOE Energy Literacy video and book").
Sunny Nash, "Author" of Scavenger Hunt Introducing Educational Technology Instructors to Energy Literacy ("Scavenger Hunt"), claims no copyright ownership in "DOE Energy Literacy video and book." "Author" claims copyright ownership in her creative work of research, documentation, transcription, module development, composition, web design and layout of "Scavenger Hunt." "Author" transcribed DOE audio into text, identified relevant parts of the publication, located graphics and wrote accompanying text.
Energy Literacy Handbook and Videos were Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which began in the fall of 2010 as a guide at a workshop, sponsored by DOE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Multiple federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and numerous individuals contributed to the development through an extensive review and comment process. Discussion and information gathered at AAAS, WestEd, and DOE-sponsored Energy Literacy workshops in the spring of 2011 contributed substantially to the refinement of the guide.
For more information:
U.S. Dept. of Energy
1000 Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20585
202-586-5000
energy.gov/eere/energyliteracy
U.S. Copyright Law and the TEACH Act (Technology, Education And Copyright Harmonization Act) allow use for educational purposes without written permission of the DOE book, Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education and DOE video, Energy Everywhere - An Introduction to Energy Literacy ("DOE Energy Literacy video and book").
Sunny Nash, "Author" of Scavenger Hunt Introducing Educational Technology Instructors to Energy Literacy ("Scavenger Hunt"), claims no copyright ownership in "DOE Energy Literacy video and book." "Author" claims copyright ownership in her creative work of research, documentation, transcription, module development, composition, web design and layout of "Scavenger Hunt." "Author" transcribed DOE audio into text, identified relevant parts of the publication, located graphics and wrote accompanying text.
Use of "DOE Energy Literacy video and book" does not imply DOE's endorsement of "Scavenger Hunt," its "Author" or any party identified in the "Scavenger Hunt," which is part of "Author's" coursework toward a Graduate Educational Technology Award from the Professional Development Institute and the University of California, San Diego.
