Curricular Unit: Energy Systems and Solutions

 Winner - 2009 Premier Curriculum Award for K-12 Engineering 

Grade: 8 (7-8)

Summary

The Energy Systems and Solutions Unit brings students through the exploration of science and engineering concepts as they relate to energy issues in everyday life. Issues surrounding energy production and energy consumption provide a relevant theme for learning basic science, math and engineering concepts, and also provide a convenient platform for introducing current scientific and technological developments into the curriculum. Energy-related issues touch on the lives of each and every student. This project-based curriculum follows an engineering problem solving approach; students simultaneously learn and use scientific and mathematical content and processes as they solve an energy-related problem that is meaningful to them. By challenging them with a problem to solve, students are engaged in scientific and engineering processes, thereby reinforcing subject matter retention and targeting a wide range of learning styles in the classroom. The Energy Systems and Solutions Unit can be broken into three main sections. The first section includes various activities designed to help students understand the problem at hand - namely, the issues surrounding our energy situation - so that they can realize the importance of what they will be studying and the significance of their proposed solutions. An understanding of the problem will form the basis for the student learning that takes place in the second section, which includes basic energy concepts (forms, states, conversions, efficiency, etc.), content that is required by state and federal science educational standards, but they will learn these concepts by participating in a variety of engaging activities that intend to show the relevance of the science material to the real world as well as to the solution of their assigned problem. Finally, in the last section of the unit students apply the concepts they have learned as they complete a culminating project that requires students to consider what action they can take to reduce our dependence of fossil fuels or otherwise provide a positive solution for our current energy crisis.

Engineering Connection

In a broad sense, engineers solve problems, and through their participation in the Energy Systems and Solutions Unit students are modeling what engineers "do." Engineering brings science and math to life, largely through applications toward problem solving. Students apply scientific concepts (forms/states of energy; relationship between energy, work and power; units of energy and power; energy conversions; efficiency; systems and system boundaries, inputs and outputs) and mathematical tools (basic grade-level appropriate math skills such as unit conversions, algebraic equations; graphing) to analyze information and results. Students discuss the pros and cons of their various energy-related decisions, helping them learn to evaluate the impact of their choices in a logical, systematic manner. The Energy Systems and Solutions Unit follows a widely accepted problem solving method that is based on a fundamental process used by practicing engineers. Students start by defining their problem, brainstorming and exploring potential solutions, they test and evaluate their ideas, and ultimately choose the optimum solution which they then implement. The final stage is communication of their results, a skill that is of ultimate importance to practicing engineers and scientists. Through every step of the problem solving process students are applying the math skills and science content that they are learning. Moreover, through the interconnections with societal, political, environmental, and economic themes, the material demonstrates that engineering problem solving is indeed not just a technical or mathematical endeavor, but does relate significantly to socially relevant issues (renewable vs. nonrenewable resources; fossil fuel resource depletion; global climate change; rising energy costs; environmental and economic impacts related to alternative energy resource development). This "humanitarian side" of engineering, which tends to appeal to a wider range of students, is often lost in more technology-based programs.

Keywords: Energy, Conservation, Efficiency, Renewable energy, Engineering problem solving

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