Powering the Planet: Renewable Energy

Grades3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8Biology, Engineering, Spanish

Provided by The Nature Conservancy

What it is

This Nature Lab lesson accompanies a 40-minute video that takes students on a virtual field trip to the Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and the Mojave Desert in North America to learn about renewable energy.
The video features a mixture of background information on the two locations and information about solar and wind energy.
The teaching guide features background information, relevant Next Generation Science Standards, student worksheets, discussion questions, and a game called Nature Spy.

Positives

The teacher's guide is easy to follow.
The discussion questions in the teacher's guide have answers for the teacher to reference while facilitating discussions.

Prerequisites

Students should have a basic understanding of the importance of implementing renewable energy.
Here is the link to the video.

Differentiation & Implementation

Students can answer questions during the field trip or after they have watched the video.
This virtual field trip can be used as a starting point for students to further research renewable energy options.
Vocabulary lists can be prefilled to help students understand the video or for students to research definitions as they watch.
One activity is available in both English and Spanish.

The resource is suitable and recommended for teaching renewable energy sources and opportunities and options to transition to clean energy.

Hosted on nature.org

Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.

Standards alignment · MS-LS2-5. + 5 more

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

MS-LS2-5.Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.

World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (ACTFL)

3.1Making Connections: Learners build, reinforce, and expand their knowledge of other disciplines while using the language to develop critical thinking and to solve problems creatively.

Science

3-LS4-4.Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
4-ESS3-1.Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment.
5-ESS3-1.Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
MS-LS2-4.Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.