Grade Level: 7th–12th Grade | Duration: 50 minutes (+ optional extension) This hands-on STEAM lesson combines electrical engineering, ecology, and creative design as students build a working solar-powered paper circuit and use it as the foundation for imagining an “agrivoltaic campus.” Students construct a closed-loop circuit connecting a small solar panel and LED with copper […]
Energy is in action around us – from our classrooms to our communities! Broken into 4 class sessions, with an optional activity at the end, Energy in Action is a collection of guided lessons and interactive activities to help your class discover where Alabama’s electricity comes from, how utilities are shaping our clean energy future, and what we can do to save energy at home and at school.
This comprehensive session explores renewable energy sources, sustainable urban design, and building science principles while connecting these concepts to Alabama’s energy landscape. Students learn the science behind solar, wind, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal energy, examine Birmingham’s sustainability scorecard, calculate their ecological footprint, and discover how cities can reduce energy burden through smart design and weatherization. The session culminates in a hands-on solar-powered car building activity that demonstrates renewable energy principles in action.
Energy Fundamentals for Middle School: Session 2 Read More »
This interactive session introduces middle school students to the fundamentals of energy history, nonrenewable resources, and electric vehicles. Students explore how humans have powered the world from fire to fossil fuels, examine Alabama’s unique energy landscape, and investigate the environmental impacts and solutions for our energy future. The session concludes with a hands-on energy audit activity where students use wattmeters and infrared cameras to identify “energy vampires” and energy leaks in their classroom.
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This immersive role-playing simulation places students in the roles of the Apollo 13 crew members who must manage their spacecraft’s limited battery power to survive the journey back to Earth. Following the famous 1970 mission where an oxygen tank explosion damaged the spacecraft’s power systems, students work collaboratively to solve real-world mathematical problems involving energy management, learning the critical difference between power (watts) and energy (watt-hours) while making life-or-death decisions about which systems to run and when. The lesson addresses Alabama College and Career Ready Standards in both mathematics and science, including solving multi-step problems with rational numbers and applying the law of conservation of energy.
This hands-on, station-based laboratory lesson explores static electricity through experimental investigation of electrostatic forces and fields. Students manipulate various materials to discover how static electricity can be conducted through fields existing between objects that exert force on each other, even when not physically touching. The lesson is structured with differentiated materials and learning objectives for three grade levels, aligning with Alabama College and Career Ready Science Standards addressing cause-and-effect relationships between objects not in contact (3rd grade), material properties including electrical conductivity (5th grade), and electromagnetic fields that exist between non-contacting objects (8th grade).