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Lesson 5: Modeling Energy Efficiency

Overview

Students construct model water wheels using simple materials. Students test the water wheels and compare how efficiently each uses available energy.

Key Ideas

• Water can be used as an energy source. Water’s energy can make things happen.
• Humans have purposefully used (engineered) energy transfers and transformations to accomplish tasks that improve the quality of life.
• Technological design involves using scientific principles to solve problems.
• Predicting, observing, designing, building, testing, analyzing, and retesting are all parts of technological design.
• Things that are energy efficient use less energy to do the same task. Energy efficient devices minimize or redirect unintended energy transfers and/or transformations.

Lesson Goals

Students will:

• describe how water can be used as an energy source.
• describe examples of purposefully engineered energy transfers and transformations.
• describe an "intended” energy transformation and an “unintended” energy transformation using the context of a water wheel.
• recognize that energy efficient devices use less energy to do the same task.

Lesson Resources

Download Lesson Plan (13 pages, 1 MB)



Student Handout 5.1: Water Wheel Design Challenge (2 pages, 500 KB)

Links

• View examples of waterwheels.
   
• Build and design mousetrap racers as an alternative or in addition to building and designing the water wheels. Consider the ways the “efficiency” of a mousetrap racer could be determined. Guidelines and patterns for constructing mousetrap racers can be found on London’s Science Museum’s website.
  
  
• Build a solar car and compare its efficiency when its battery pack is used versus its solar panel. Consider comparing the efficiency of a solar car to that of the mousetrap drag racer. Maine Energy Education Program (MEEP)’s Junior Solar Sprint model car competition is a springtime activity involving middle school students across the state.
   
• Learn more about how water is used in hydroelectric power plants to generate electricity.
   
• Build a hydroelectric generator using plans and guidelines from the Re-Energy.ca renewable energy education project of the Pembina Institute. Extensive background information and step-by-step plans to build a working hydroelectric generator are available online.
   
• Virtually investigate the relationship between potential and kinetic energy during a roller coaster ride. A pie chart shows how energy is transformed back and forth between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy as the coaster cars go up and down the hills and around the loop of the track. 
   
• Take the Design Squad Challenge. Build a car that goes really far, really fast. The challenge: use a rubber band as the power source and the car can only have two wheels.
   
• Watch this Discovery News clip to learn more about how two businesses in New York City are getting their power from underwater turbines. Clip is approximately 2 ½ minutes.
   
• Read how scientists from Georgia Tech have harnessed hamster power.

Connections to Maine Agencies

A Maine Energy Education Representative Program (MEEP) representative will come to interested schools, free of charge, to guide and support the concepts in this lesson:

• Electricity and the Environment presentation: Students become aware of electricity in this session. They make electricity from an apple in the Apple Battery experiment and then learn how electricity is made in the real world. Next, with MEEP's PV Fan and Mini-Wind Turbine activities, they make electricity from renewable resources. These activities can be combined with the Great Energy Debate and Energy Jeopardy in a full day workshop. 
• Kid Wind: Students design and build their own mini wind turbine blades. They then compete to see whose design makes the most electricity.
• Junior Solar Sprint.

For schools in Aroostook County, a Maine Public Service (MPS) representative will come to interested schools, free of charge, to guide and support the concepts developed in this lesson.