A Look Underseas

• This short, animated video explains how the construction of offshore wind turbines not only generates clean energy, but it could add marine habitat as well.
• Students will learn that careful selection of erosion protection materials for offshore wind turbine construction could be an expansion of underwater habitat, creating many more spaces for marine life to live, eat, and reproduce.

Positives

• This video is succinct and includes engaging graphics.
• The graphics, maps, diagrams, and text directly support the content to help younger learners comprehend new concepts.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students may benefit from background information on wind energy, focusing on offshore wind turbines.
• It may be helpful for students to understand the impacts of disturbing the ocean floor and erosion.

Differentiation

• Differentiate this lesson by providing some students with access to this digital book about the basics of wind energy written at a beginning reading level.
• Consider showing this video more than once and pre-teaching vocabulary to students as a comprehension support.
• This resource would best be used as a supplement to a more comprehensive lesson on renewable energy resources or the advantages and disadvantages of different renewable energy sources.
• This video could supplement lessons at upper grade levels, possibly offering a different perspective when learning about how much land it might take to power the world, engineering courses, ecosystem lessons, or renewable energy sources.
• For extension, have students read the article about turbine reefs that is linked below the video and write about how marine habitat and clean energy could be optimized during the construction of these wind turbines.
• Have advanced students come up with a plan to make sure there is the least disturbance possible when installing these turbines, including what is required for this type of project. Also include an investigation about other artificial reefs that could support solar energy.
  

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.