Module 4: We Love Our Energy
We Love
Our Energy
LOVE
Objective: to hold space for the children to form an opinion on what kind of energy we can use to make power
Vocabulary: (recap) energy, power, renewable, pollution
Reading: Earth Hour
Science Activity: Water Wonder
Earth Friends Lesson
Module 4: Lesson 5
Begin Lesson
move & discover: 5 minutes
Earth’s Energies
This is a repeated activity the children can do at the beginning of the lesson each week. This will help familiarize them with the different sources of energy that Earth provides.
We get energy to make and move and change things from Earth through our land, water, air, and sun.
LAND: Stomp your feet. Feel the land. We can dig up fossil fuels, like coal and oil, that we find buried deep down underground and burn them to make energy from fossil fuels. We can also pump up very hot water or steam that we find deep underground to make what is called geothermal energy.
WATER: Can you move your body like a wave? Throw your hands up in the air like a big, tall wave. Now let your hands come down like a wave crashing. That's called hydropower energy and that comes from moving water. Water move from up to down, like waves on the ocean or falling down a waterfall. There is a lot of water all over Earth that can give us energy.
AIR: Can you blow on your hand in front of you? Can you feel the air move on your fingers? The air is full of wind, and wind makes energy that we call wind power. Changes in Earth’s air temperature make wind.
SUN: Close your eyes. Can you see? The sun gives Earth a lot of light. We need light to see, and light also gives us energy. It's such a bright light we can't look right at it, but it can light up our world and we can make that sunlight into energy through solar power.
Curious Question
I wonder where we can get energy that is safe for humans and Earth.
Allow the children to share what energy they feel is safe and clean for humans and animals. It's okay if they share the source (water) or the type of energy (hydropower) or if they make something up like "sun power" or "light fuel" or "working energy." It's also okay if they say something incorrect. The objective here is to help them start to recognize different sources and types of energy and how they affect life.
Main Lesson
Earth gives humans all kinds of energy. We get energy from food for our bodies, and we also get energy for power to make things move, go, and grow. Renewable energy from the sun, water, wind, and land never runs out. When we dig up fossil fuels to make energy, we can't use them again, and fossil fuels make pollution.
sit & engage: 7 minutes
Water Wonder
This experiment is an opportunity for the children to experience hydropower in action.
Materials Needed: A spool of thread, a ruler, a straight straw, a plastic bottle, glue gun, string, cardboard, funnel, tape, play dough, skewer, toy car
Preparation: Watch this video, thanks to IMechE.
At home, practice running water through your wheel (turbine) to make sure it works. Then, once it works well, you can add a toy car on a string so that you can see the wheel turned by water + pulling a car.
Once you have the children sitting at a table or in a circle, set up your preassembled water wheel. Do a couple runs without the toy car. What do you see? What is the water doing? What is moving? Now, set up the string to pull the car. What do you see moving? How is the car moving?
Closing Sentiment
We need energy for all our Earth Friends to live, but humans also need energy for power, to make our things move, go, and grow. Energy from the sun, the water, the land, and the air is renewable, safe, and clean for all our Earth Friends. Renewable energy doesn't make Earth's blanket thicker and it doesn’t make as much pollution.
We know we need energy to make things and move our things, and next we're going to learn about where our things come from and where they go when we are done using them.
move & learn: 8 minutes
Use the photo book to show the children the different kinds of energy we get from land, water, air, and sun.
End Lesson
Teachers in the Classroom
Teacher Activity
Watch Our Water Wheel
Make a selection of water wheel patterns, on circles 1-2 inches wider than the spool of thread (such as shown in the video) and have each child color one. Take turns placing the colored patterns on the water wheel to see how the water moves the wheel and makes different art with everyone's pattern.
Throughout the Week
Discuss: the different ways the school uses energy. What does the school need to power? Where does our power come trom?
Explore: different sources of water for the water wheel. Can you use water from the rain barrel? Can you use water from a can? How much water do you need to make the wheel spin? Will rain make the wheel spin?
Create: Using any drawing medium, ask the children to draw pictures of energy. This can be anything they consider energy, from sun power to food to oil in water. How has their interpretation of energy changed in a few weeks?
Reading: Earth Hour
Vocabulary: (recap) energy, power, renewable, pollution
Good Choices
I can learn where buildings, like my school and my home get their power.
I can ask an adult where renewable energy comes from where
live.I can turn things off when I am doing using the to save energy.
Vocabulary:
energy: Energy makes things move, change, and grow.
power: Humans use energy every day. We need energy to make things move and go and work. We call this power.
renewable: Some of the energy Earth gives us can be used again and again like light from the sun, movement from water, and wind in the air. When we use these energies, we won't run out of energy. Energy that we can't run out of or use all up is called renewable.
pollution: When we dig up fossil fuels and burn them, they give us energy, but they also make pollution. Pollution makes Earth's blanket thicker and makes the land, water, and air dirty and unsafe.
Families at Home
Create: a world of renewable energy. Get out anything your child can draw or paint with and some blank pieces of paper. Ask them to draw what renewable energy looks like. See what they draw. You can draw what renewable energy looks like too.
Explore: hydropower. This week we learned how water energy can power a wheel. You can make your own waterwheel at home too. What do you want your water wheel to do? We made colors spin to make art. We also used energy to tow a car.
Discover: What else you can heat up in your solar stove? Nachos? Toast? Eggs?