Students discuss affordable energy and create a working definition of the concept. They discuss factors that could affect future energy supplies, conduct research, and then debate the topic: Will there be enough affordable energy in the United States in the near future? They create a multimedia presentation to support their position.

In this lesson, students compare alternative energy sources to traditional energy sources and evaluate alternative energy options available from NC coastal resources.

Students will determine the sources of energy that are utilized to power their schools (i.e., conventional and/or alternative). They will then explore the economic and environmental benefits of changing over a portion of this energy to renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal. Depending on area-specific factors such as available funding (funding by state) and climate, this can involve the purchase of alternative energy credits and/or the creation of an on-site system such as a wind-turbine or solar panels.

This short video introduces the alternative energy sources of biofuel and wind turbine energy.

This series of activities is designed to give students the opportunity to create their own investigation and test alternative fuels and their relation to transportation.

This video shows how Biltmore uses renewable energy through solar and biodiesel processes, in addition to sustainable forestry.

Students will identify the environmental transportation issues occurring in their present day community and society. They will conduct resarch on fuels, emissions, and alternative transportation and then report their findings in an oral presentation.

In this series of inquiry-based activities, students research and investigate energy sources and the ways we use energy.

This blog is designed for North Carolina's K-12 teachers and students who are interested in the topic of energy and alternative energy (nuclear and renewables). This blog is maintained by Dana Haine, K-12 Science Education Manager for UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute for the Environment, with funding provided by Progress Energy.

In this lesson, students will come to understand the different types of energy sources and how they affect the people living around them by looking at energy use in Japan and the United States. Students will also compare and contrast the nuclear events at Fukushima and Three Mile Island. Then, students will write essays on energy options and effects.

This guide was developed to support teachers in teaching topics with real-world context, and provide them with the background to feel competent and comfortable when teaching about the climate change. The guide includes numerous education features, such as teaching tips and student thinking, that help to connect the content to classroom practice.

Students learn about the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel source. In an associated activity, students test a variety of substances to see which ones are easiest to ferment for fuel.

This brief video overview depicts how a single kernel of corn begins the transformation process that ends up in a car's gas tank. Links to lessons are included.

Students use an interactive computational model and real-world data to evaluate the environmental impact of extracting natural gas to generate electricity. Students explore some of the relative benefits of natural gas and some of the potential environmental costs of extracting natural gas.

Students analyze various energy sources, comparing the costs and benefits of natural gas, coal, biomass, nuclear, wind, hydropower, and solar power for generating electricity. Students use real-world data to evaluate the relative costs and benefits of using different fuel sources to generate electricity.

Students will use Google Earth to investigate ideal features of wind farms. Students will take a Google Earth tour of 5 large wind farms around the world. Students will use the Google Earth measurement tool to determine the estimated perimeter of each wind farm.

Students discover how geologists use the composition and location of rocks to find deposits of oil and natural gas. They use an interactive computational model to explore how hydraulic fracturing releases natural gas from deep shale formations.

Students will learn about the biofuels reactor that scientists in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park are using to create gasoline-like hydrocarbon fuels from plant material and learn the challenges of creating biofuels.

This three-part teacher guide encourages a multi-disciplinary approach to many issues and topics related to geothermal power development, including the scientific fundamentals as well as the social, economic, environmental and political aspects.