Renewable Energy Education in the Classroom

Every year teachers across the country search for new and exciting ways to introduce their students to hot science concepts. One of the science concepts that is currently receiving a lot of press is renewable energy. This topic is not only important as a basic scientific concept that students need to understand, but it also is a popular topic for science fair projects. With science fair season quickly approaching, now is the time for teachers to develop lesson plans that introduce topics that can be developed into great science fair projects.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is not a new concept. In fact, renewable energy sources were the first to be exploited by humans. Wood, grasses, peat and dried manure were all renewable energy sources that were used to cook food and heat shelters. When petroleum products were discovered they gradually replaced renewable energy sources as the primary energy source used by humans. Today, humans are over-dependent on petroleum products and this dependency has led to wars, conflicts and economic problems. This is why it is so important for people to start looking into the development of alternative, renewable energy sources.

Renewable Energy Education in the Classroom

As a science teacher you are responsible for teaching kids concepts that will help them understand their world better. This is why it is so important to keep your science lesson plans current and topical. Renewable energy education in the classroom is a great way to tie in current events with science lessons. This process of relating science lessons to contemporary events will help your students relate to the topics you are teaching.

Renewable Energy Topics

There are several renewable energy topics that you can design your science lesson plans around. Geothermal energy is a very exciting energy topic that can be used to supplement lessons on volcanoes, tectonic plate movement and general energy lessons. Wind power lessons can be used to supplement weather lessons and energy lessons. Solar power demonstrations can be used to supplement biology lesson plans, energy cycle lesson plans and solar system lesson plans.

Resources for Renewable Energy Lesson Plans

When you are developing your renewable energy lesson plan you will want to take advantage of the thousands of resources on this topic. The government provides thousands of pages of free information and resources that you can download from the Internet. This information can be used to develop lectures and to set up experiments and demonstrations. Multimedia files can also be downloaded to help spice up your presentations. Science kits can also be purchased to improve the quality of your renewable energy science project demonstrations.