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Energy

Living on electricity made from solar energy

Mr. Solar
lives on solar energy and has done so for the last 18 years. It's something of a crusade to reduce energy consumption.
How does Mr Solar do it?

A really easy electric motor (age 10+)

Visit Beakman's Electric Motor:
to make yourself a simple electric motor using a dry cell, a magnet and some stiff wire.

How did you get on? Have you a better idea for a motor design?

Got your ideas about electricity sorted? (teachers/age 15+)

Browse around Misconceptions about electricity to find whether these ideas are true.

Does electricity exist?
Doesn't the electricity flowing inside of wires flow at the speed of light?
Isn't electric current a flow of energy?
Isn't static electricity, electricity which is static?
Isn't electricity made of electrons?

Electricity: light, sound and more (age 9-12)

Science in action is a class ready key stage two unit of work exploring domestic appliances. It includes practical projects and questions such as:

List any items in the room that use electricity.
List the advantages of using batteries, compared to using mains electricity.
Does it matter which way round you connect a LED?
How do light bulbs work?

Batteries / Ohm's Law (age 13-15)

Using a spreadsheet, you can look at figures to do with batteries and resistors in circuits. The two physics examples on Science Spreadsheets seem useful - although they are also in Clarisworks spreadsheet format. (Help! Can anyone convert this?)

The VandeGraaff Electrostatic Generator Page has ideas for the 'science hobbyist' who like how to make a VDG while the Static Electricity Page shows how to make a high voltage pop-bottle motor. Teachers will find ideas for demonstrations here.

Electromagnetic Radiation
An introduction to light and how it is produced. Continuous radiation, emission lines, absorption lines, and the Bohr model for the atom are discussed.
The JET Project
Follow a virtual tour of the JET project and all the basics of nuclear fusion. - Suitable for A-Level physics courses.
Fermilab is a high-energy physics laboratory, home of the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron. Scientists from across the U.S. and around the world use Fermilab's resources in experiments to explore the most fundamental particles and forces of nature.
If you want to know about the Top Quark or the science of high-energy physics this is the place to go.

Explore Internet link lists on energy resources (age 16+)

Energy Education Sites - US has links to bodies concerned with renewable energy sources. The National Energy Information Center has many links to resources on energy topics. Look here for links, and there are many, to information on:

Coal
Electricity
Natural Gas
Nuclear Energy
Petrol
Renewable energy
Energy
A site about energy from the OneWorld organisation providing possible backgound materials to a project comparing fuels. Includes facts and figures and statistics such as: An average Briton uses about eighty times more fuel than a Bangladeshi. British population growth creates over three times more demand for energy than Bangladesh's growth.

Renewable energy sources (Age 13+)

Take a fairly easy look at renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass. Click through the text and pictures in the Online Renewable Energy Education Module to find out:

Where does the energy of the wind come from?
What do wind turbines do?
How has wind power been used in the past?
What does a wind turbine look like?

The impact and economics of renewable energy sources are discussed alongside a number of case studies of renewables in use. Teachers might usefully 'capture' this for a network hard disk. See also example and quiz on Wind Power here at Schools OnLine.

Biomass as energy (age 14-16)

How can Biomass be used as energy?
Give examples of how it is being used?

Explore Biomass Energy to find out.

Energy flow (age 14-16)

An online tutorial to help understand energy flow, food chains and energy pyramids. This will be of interest to those that have heard of Success Maker, an Integrated Learning System (produced by CCC in the US and marketed by Research Machines in the UK). Parts of this, Energy Flow in Amazonia, require registration.

Worksheet on Electricity(Age 12-13 yrs)

This is a worksheet with 'hot' links. By following the worksheet, students will use the Internet ( and more usual resources ) to find out how electricity is made, why we need it, what the problems are, what fossil fuels are and the possibilties of using alternative sources of energy to generate electricity.

Electrical safety

These pages are aimed to teach year 8 students about how to wire a plug and electrical safety The pages include teacher's lesson plan, student's worksheet and links to related sites covering electrical safety. These include an excellent spot the electrical hazard game.

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Revised: August 26, 1998. (e-mail at [email protected])