Energy Module Instructor’s Guide

Learning Goals and Objectives

Goals: Students will develop familiarity with the range of energy scales and energy transformations of daily life.

Objectives: Students will be able to

• estimate energy required for various simple activities• explain meaning of efficiency of a device in terms of useful energy output and required energy input• be able to carry out conversions between different energy units• review and interpret graphs on energy consumption• apply results of the Exponential Growth module to estimate doubling time for growth in world energy consumption and population

Module Outline• Lecture, discussion of homework and in-class exercises introduce work, kinetic and potential energy and energy conservation• Series of exercises where students estimate energies used in various processes• Exercises to be done as homework, brought to class for discussion

Main Concepts

• Work• Kinetic and potential (stored) energy• Efficiency• Energy transformations and conservation of energy• Energy consumption • Sense of amount of energy used by a sample of nations• Rate of growth of energy consumption and doubling time

Exercises• Exercises 1 and 2 – Examples of work and the energy source, stored chemical energy • Exercise 3 – Estimate kinetic energy of a running woman• Exercise 4 – Comparison of incandescent and fluorescent lighting and their efficiencies. Requires some web resources• Exercise 5 – Estimate kinetic energy of moving car. Then use gas mileage to estimate energy needed to maintain for one hour. Compare these energies. Requires web data search. • Exercise 6 – Review set of energy, population graphs as basis for national comparison of energy usage. Estimate energy consumption doubling time from Exponential Growth Module • Exercise 7 - Estimate total available solar energy per year, compare with current world usage. Critique estimates, discuss possible implications. Assigned later in term after discussing radiation in Thermo

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Math Benchmarks • Grades 5-7 Collect, organize, display, and interpret data for a specific purpose or need• Grades 5-7 Evaluate interpretations and conclusions as additional data are collected , modify conclusions and predictions, and justify new findings• Grades 8-10 Describe and interpret rates of change from graphical and numerical data • Grades 8-10 Data Analysis – Construct convincing arguments based on analysis of data and interpretations of graphs

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Science Benchmarks

• Grades 9-10 Demonstrate that energy can be considered to be either kinetic (motion) or potential (stored).• Grades 9-10 Explain how energy may change form or be redistributed but the total quantity of energy is conserved. • Grades 9-10 Demonstrate that waves (e.g., sound, seismic, water and light) have energy and waves can transfer energy when they interact with matter.