UTEP/EPISD Border Air Quality Educationwww.BAQed.utep.edu

Grade 5 – Alternative Energies

Roxanne Ramos, Theresa Turner, Blanche Herrera, Amy Canales

Objectives

TEKS Timeline

5.7(C) identify alternative energy resources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biofuels;

• Wind – 2-3 class periods• Solar – 1 class period• Biofuel – 1 class period• Action Plan – 1 class period

• Introduce activities that allow students to experience generating electricity from alternative energy sources

• Develop a plan of action to reduce energy use at school in order to improve our border air quality

Activity 1The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by

William Kamkwamba and Bryan MealerMoving Windmills (6:07)

http://youtu.be/arD374MFk4w

Activity 2How Electricity is

Made• Electricity is the flow of

electrons• Michael Faraday• Magnet moving in a coil of

wire causes electrons to line up and generate an electrical current

Activity 2 – How Electricity is Made

Activity 3

Energy from the WindHow to assemble wind lift video:

http://teachergeek.com/products/teachergeek-wind-lift

Printed instruction guide:http://www.teachergeek.org/wind_lift.pdf

How many marbles can the wind lift pick up?

The winner: 20 marbles in 5.5 sec at fan speed 1

Use wind to generate electricity

Use wind to generate electricity

Use wind to generate electricity

Only generated about 5 milliamps.

Add gears to increase rotations

Add gears to increase rotations

15-20 milliamps of electricity generated

Activity 4Solar Cells Capture the Sun's Energy

10 minutes to find the best angle for the solar cell and the best 2 meter path to travel.

Solar cars raced against each other

How much electricity can the solar panel generate at different angles?

12:35 pm facing south

Angle Milliamps0 520 740 360 0Kids Do Science -- Solar Car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXcPFuAhvkk

Activity 5The Basics of Biofuels: Corn Power•Corn is a natural resource that is

renewable•Uses of corn

Ethanol from Corn video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsROhOMIYdU

Biomass Pollution Demonstration•Peanut Power (because of allergies, we don’t use peanuts, we use corn

chips.

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/peanut.html

Biomass Pollution DemonstrationCorn Chip

• Solid• Fast burn• Lots of smoke• Burnt remains

Corn Oil

• Liquid• Slower burn• Smoke• No residue

(except wick)

Ethanol

• Liquid• Long burn• No smoke• No residue

Activity 6Reducing Energy Use at Our School•Learning about energy use by the district

and by campus•Making energy reduction posters•Sending energy announcements across

the school’s PA system

•Check your district’s facilities website. Most districts have the energy consumption charted by school.

•For EPISD, see the next slides

How to find energy usage reports by campus

Click here to get to the Energy Management page

Log on to my episd main page

District Energy Home Page

Select the “Energy Mgmt.” tab

Click on “Energy Management Reports” to see the energy reports

Most recent month

Last 4 years

Individual years (including current year)

February 2014 Energy Use

August 2013 Energy Use

Electricity Usage Over Four Years

Electricity Usage Over Four Years

Electricity Usage Over Four Years

Energy Saving PostersStudents brainstorm ideas before using

poster board

Student Samples