This lesson covers the states and forms of energy, where energy comes from, as well as how the way we live is tied to our energy supply and what that means for the future. It provides students with accurate, unbiased, and up-to-date information on the roles that energy science and technologies play in our lives.

This lesson demonstrates that the source of energy to run small motors can be the sun or chemical energy stored in a battery.

In this lesson, students learn about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources and discuss benefits and drawbacks.

In this lesson, students analyze the way they personally use energy and begin to examine energy use on a much larger scale. Students discover how reliant all sectors (residential, commercial, industrial, transportation) are on electricity and fossil fuels as energy sources. As they investigate the energy transfers involved in the generation of electricity, students consider the efficiency of the transfers involved in the process.

In this lesson, students investigate how electricity is generated on a wide scale basis. The major components of electric production: the turbine, the generator, and energy source are introduced in this lesson.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the five types of renewable energy resources by engaging in various activities to help them understand the transformation of energy (solar, water and wind) into electricity. Students explore the different roles engineers who work in renewable energy fields have in creating a sustainable environment – an environment that contributes to greater health, happiness and safety.

In this series of activities, students will design and build models of nine life support systems which are crucial to a successful settlement of the Moon. They will make plans based on their knowledge of how these systems work on Earth.

Students will work cooperatively to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the energy sources used to generate electricity by developing energy plans for a fictitious country and presenting the plans to the class.

Student participate in class activities which investigate energy and how it is produced, transmitted, conserved, and managed at local, national, and global levels. They will also analyze energy resources and examine ways to minimize human impacts on the environment, evaluate their personal use of energy and develop a plan for conservation, and explore modifications to improve energy efficiency by reducing energy transfer to the environment. Students will use research and reasoning to empower their communities (home, school, and local) to adopt energy and money-saving practices.

Students take on the roles of consumers, utility companies, and fuel companies to simulate the effect of a finite supply of non-renewable energy resources on our supply of electricity.

This video weighs the benefits and drawbacks of nuclear energy. A set of discussion questions and post-viewing activities are provided.

In this lesson, students will obtain, evaluate, and critically discuss information about the highly-debated topic of nuclear energy. As citizens of the fictitious town of Solutionville, students must decide whether or not they support building a nuclear power plant in the community to replace coal as their source of electricity.

In this multimedia lesson, students learn about energy resources that can be harvested from the oceans. Associated interactive activities include "Wave Power," where students view the wave-energy generation process, "Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion," where students examine and compare two diagrams of OTEC facilities, and "Methane Hydrates," where students investigate the conditions that affect the stability of methane hydrates.

This online informational resource provides background content and reference material about oil: formation, production, offshore drilling, the refining process, and impacts on the environment.

In this lesson, students will be challenged with an optimization problem. The fictitious town of Solutionville has decided to replace coal, their current source for electricity, with more sustainable energy sources. In designing Solutionville’s sustainable energy future, students must consider not only the geographic constraints of various renewable energy options–wind energy, hydroelectric power, geothermal energy, and solar energy–but they must also meet specific energy production requirements and budgetary constraints.

This article discusses the capability to be 100% green by 2050 through renewable energy sources.

This video explores some of the clean and green technologies that exist for generating renewable energy. A set of discussion questions and post-viewing activities are provided.

Students use Internet resources to investigate a variety of renewable energy resources, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of each.

In this lesson, students compare the availability of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, while illustrating the dilemma of searching for nonrenewable energy sources. They will also be Introduced to the concept of energy conservation at homes and in the community.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Science.