energy stories and more

Energy Stories and MoreA series of stories and hands-on activities that can be used to introduce basic energy concepts and the major energy sources to primary and elementary students.

eScience

Grade Levels:

Subject Areas:

Language Arts

Social Studies

Pri

Ele

IntSec

Primary Elementary

Public Speaking

Elem

2 Energy Stories and More

Teacher Advisory BoardConstance BeattyKankakee, IL

Amy Constant - SchottRaleigh, NC

James M. BrownSaratoga Springs, NY

Nina CorleyGalveston, TX

Linda FonnerNew Martinsville, WV

Shannon DonovanGreene, RI

Samantha Forbes

Vienna, VA

Michelle Garlick

Bob Hodash

DaNel HoganTucson, AZ

Greg HolmanParadise, CA

Barbara LazarAlbuquerque, NM

Robert LazarAlbuquerque, NM

Leslie LivelyPorters Falls, WV

Jennifer Mitchell - Winterbottom Pottstown, PA

Mollie MukhamedovPort St. Lucie, FL

Don Pruett Jr.Puyallup, WA

Judy ReevesLake Charles, LA

Tom SpencerChesapeake, VA

Jennifer Trochez MacLeanLos Angeles, CA

Wayne YonkelowitzFayetteville, WV

Robert GriegolietNaperville, IL

Erin GockelFarmington, NM

Long Grove, IL

Printed on Recycled Paper

NEED Mission StatementThe mission of The NEED Project is to promote an energy conscious and educated society by creating effective networks of students, educators, business, government and community leaders to design and deliver objective, multi-sided energy education programs.

Permission to CopyNEED curriculum is available for reproduction by classroom teachers only. NEED curriculum may only be reproduced for use outside the classroom setting when express written permission is obtained in advance from The NEED Project. Permission for use can be obtained by contacting [email protected].

Teacher Advisory Board In support of NEED, the national Teacher Advisory Board (TAB) is dedicated to developing and promoting standards-based energy curriculum and training.

Energy Data Used in NEED MaterialsNEED believes in providing teachers and students with the most recently reported, available, and accurate energy data. Most statistics and data contained within this guide are derived from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Data is compiled and updated annually where available. Where annual updates are not available, the most current, complete data year available at the time of updates is accessed and printed in NEED materials. To further research energy data, visit the EIA website at www.eia.gov.

1.800.875.5029www.NEED.org

© 2017

www.eia.gov

www.need.org

© 2017 The NEED Project 8408 Kao Circle, Manassas, VA 20110 1.800.875.5029 www.NEED.org 3

Energy Stories and More

Table of Contents¡ Standards Correlation Information 4

¡ Teacher Guide 5

¡ Hydropower When They Dammed the River 6 The Tale of Annie Soakley 9 Supplemental Activities 10

¡ Solar Where Do You Kids Get All That Energy? 11 The Tale of Johnny Energy Seed 14 Supplemental Activities 15

¡ Oil and Gas Under the Sea 17 The Tale of Little Big Fuel 20 Into Deep Water: Drilling for Oil and Gas 21 A Nice Natural Gas Story 25 An Offshore Oil Rig 27 Supplemental Activities 28

¡ Oil Embargo A Car Trip for Carlos? 31 Supplemental Activities 32

¡ Biomass Mai 33 Supplemental Activities 34

Biomass Bingo Instructions 35

Biomass Bingo 37

¡ Geothermal Who Am I? 38 Supplemental Activities 39

¡ Wind A Trip to the Farm 40 The Tale of Windy Wizard 43 Supplemental Activities 44

¡ Coal and Electricity A Cool Coal Story 46 The Tale of Fern Fossil 48 Supplemental Activities 49

¡ Electricity The Power of Conservation 51 Supplemental Activities 55

¡ Uranium Dear Sandy 59 Supplemental Activities 62

¡ Greenhouse Effect Every Move You Make 63 Supplemental Activities 65

¡ Evaluation Form 67

e


Standards Correlation Informationwww.NEED.org/curriculumcorrelations

Next Generation Science Standards � This guide effectively supports many Next Generation Science Standards. This material can satisfy performance expectations, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and cross cutting concepts within your required curriculum. For more details on these correlations, please visit NEED’s curriculum correlations website.

Common Core State Standards � This guide has been correlated to the Common Core State Standards in both language arts and mathematics. These correlations are broken down by grade level and guide title, and can be downloaded as a spreadsheet from the NEED curriculum correlations website.

Individual State Science Standards � This guide has been correlated to each state’s individual science standards. These correlations are broken down by grade level and guide title, and can be downloaded as a spreadsheet from the NEED website.

www.need.org/curriculumcorrelations


&BackgroundEnergy Stories and More is a series of stories and hands-on activities for teachers to use to introduce basic energy concepts and the major energy sources to elementary students.

The short stories, each with an energy theme, are designed so that older students can illustrate them and make them into story books to share with younger students. Alternately, primary students can illustrate them with assistance from student leaders or teachers. Each story is written to stand alone and has one or more activities to reinforce the energy information in it.

TimeApproximately one-half hour to one hour for each story. Hands-on activities require additional time as noted.

Materials � Construction paper

� Markers, crayons, etc.

� Binding materials—stapler or yarn

�Supplemental activities may require additional materials.

ProcedurePreparation

�Choose a story. Decide whether student leaders or all students will do the illustrations.

�If student leaders are planning and presenting the activity, assign committees to design and format the book, print the text, draw and color the illustrations, bind the finished product, gather the props for the supplemental activity, and present the activity to the students.

�If the whole group of students will illustrate the story, format the book and write or print the text on pages beforehand. If possible, format the pages so that each student is responsible for illustrating one page of the book.

Bookmaking and Reading �Introduce the activity to the students or student leaders. Read the story to the whole class. Lead a short class discussion to ensure that all the students understand the story.

�Give each student one page of the story, reading the text several times, if necessary. Allow each student to illustrate the page in any way desired, offering assistance only if asked.

�Collect the finished pages and bind the book with staples or colorful yarn. Read the finished story again, letting all students see the finished product. Display it prominently in the classroom, library, and at PTA meetings. Share it with other primary classrooms in the school.

Discussion and Supplemental Activities �Discuss the concepts in the stories with the students.

�At the end of each story are one or more supplemental activities to reinforce the basic energy theme of the story. Instructions for each reinforcement activity are included with the activity.

Teacher GuideeAdditional ResourcesCheck out the following resources for additional activities, information, and extensions to the materials presented in this guide.

�Elementary Energy Infobook �Primary Energy Infobook �Energy on Stage �NEED Songbook �Energy Live!

These resources and more are available for download at www.NEED.org.

www.need.org


Billy and his Grandpa were fishing in their favorite spot down river from the hydropower plant. They had caught many fish in this spot over the years. From where they were sitting they could see workers placing a new turbine into the plant.

“What are they doing, Grandpa?” Billy asked.

“They are replacing an old turbine with a new, more efficient turbine. The new turbine will be able to produce more electricity with the same amount of water,” Grandpa explained. “It sure is a lot different today than when I was your age.”

Billy was confused, “What do you mean?”

“When I was your age the dam and the hydropower plant weren’t here. It was a big change for our community when they decided to dam the river and put the hydropower plant in. I still remember the day I found out. I had heard at school that we were all going to have to move and I rushed home to look for my mom…

“Mom! Mom! Where are you, Mom?” I looked all around our little cabin, but my mother wasn’t there. I found a note on the kitchen table. It said:

“Fred, I went to town with Grandma. I’ll be back after supper. There is a sandwich in the refrigerator. Please do your homework before you go fishing. I love you.”

I wasn’t hungry, but I ate a sandwich anyway, then wandered aimlessly around the cabin. Finally, I picked up my fishing pole from behind the door. I had homework to finish, but I was too upset to read anything. I headed down the path to the fishing hole.

I climbed out on the low branch of my sycamore tree and dangled my feet in the water. This was my favorite place in the world, the place where I came whenever I needed to be alone to think. I’d spent all last summer here. Now I needed to think about the story I’d heard at school that day.

As the sun went down, I slowly reeled in my line. I hadn’t even checked the bait the whole evening. I’d had too much on my mind. As I walked back up the path, I heard my grandma’s old Ford coming up the hill. I ran to meet my mother.

When I saw her face, I knew that she’d heard the story, too. “Mom, is it true? Are we really going to have to move?”

When They Dammed the River


“Oh, Fred!” she said and pulled me close to her. “I’m so sorry!”

We stood silent, our tears shining in the moonlight. Finally my mother shook herself and said, “Let’s go inside and have some hot chocolate. I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Mom, we have to do something. We can’t just let them take this all away. Please, Mom, can’t we stop them?”

The lights in the cabin flickered off and on. I quickly lit the kerosene lantern that we kept on the table.

My mother pointed over to the city. “See those lights, Fred? That’s why. Everybody wants electricity—they want radios and refrigerators, all kinds of new things that run on electricity. That’s what the meeting was about in town tonight—building a dam to make enough power for everybody in the valley.”

“I know that, Mom. But why here? Why can’t they build it someplace else?”

“They’ve studied the whole river valley, Fred. They showed us the maps tonight. This is the best place. There’s always lots of water in the river here and the valley is shaped right.”

“But we’ll have to move. I love this place.”

“There isn’t one place on this river, Fred, where there isn’t a boy just like you who’s got a special place. Most of the towns in the valley are right on the river. You know that. This is the only place where a whole town won’t have to be moved.”

“Mom, isn’t there any other way to make electricity?” I asked.

“Yes, some places burn coal. The people at the meeting say the dam will be a lot cheaper and cleaner, though.”

My mom put her arm around my shoulder and said, “I don’t want to move either, Fred. But the dam will mean new industry. I’ll be able to get a job. They’ll pay us good money for this place, too. Enough to buy a nice house with a refrigerator and our own car.”

“This river is my life, Mom. What’ll I do without it?” I asked.

“Fred, the river isn’t going to disappear. They’re going to dam it up and make a big lake, but the river below the dam and above the lake will still be there. And the lake will be a great place to fish and swim. I won’t take you away from the water, Fred. I promise. Maybe we can get a new place right on the lake.”

I was quiet for a moment, then asked, “How does damming the river make electricity, anyway?”


“There will be big turbines and generators at the bottom of the dam to make the electricity. It takes a lot of force to spin the turbines, so they dam the river to raise the water level. The bigger the distance between the water level and the turbines, the larger the force of the water. The dam will have gates in it to let the water flow into big pipes that channel the water to the turbines. They say it’s a sight to see.”

Finally I smiled for the first time that day. “They ought to hire you, Mom, to do their talking for them.”

“Oh, Fred,” she said, “I know this is going to be hard. I just figure we should look for the good in things rather than the bad. Let’s take our hot chocolate down to the river and sit awhile.”

...We were able to move just a short distance away, and my mother did get a job at the hydropower plant, just like she said she could. And, we still have lots of good places for fishing, just like this one here.”

“Wow, Grandpa. Damming the river sounds like it was a big project, but I’m glad they did,” Billy said.

“I’m glad, too, Billy.”


I’m Annie Soakley. I am a world traveler. Let me tell you about my last trip. It began in the Pacific Ocean. I was floating in the waves with my friends. We were bobbing up and down, watching the sun rise over the mountains. What a beautiful sight!

The sun climbed higher in the sky. I began to get warm. I got warmer and warmer. Suddenly, I rose out of the water. I floated toward the sky. I grew bigger. My molecules got farther and farther apart. I expanded.

I didn’t look like a drop of water anymore. I was invisible. I had turned into water vapor. I had evaporated! I rose high into the sky. Many of my friends came with me. They had evaporated, too. Together, we formed clouds.

The wind pushed us through the sky. We sailed over the ocean toward land. The people on the beach were sad to see us. We blocked the sun.

We passed over them and headed for the mountains. The wind kept pushing us. We reached the mountains as the sun set. The air over the mountains was cold. It made me cold. As I cooled, I grew smaller. My molecules got closer together. I turned into a drop of water again. I condensed.

I was too heavy for the cloud to hold me. I began falling toward the Earth. I was a rain drop! My friends condensed, too. As we fell through the air, we got colder and colder. Our molecules got closer together. We froze and became snowflakes. We all looked different and beautiful!

We fell on top of a tall mountain. When the wind pushed the clouds away, the sun came out. We began to get warmer. Our molecules pushed away from each other as they absorbed energy. We finally melted and began to trickle down the mountain. Gravity was pulling us down.

Soon, other drops of water joined us and we turned into a small creek. As we flowed down the mountain, more creeks joined us and we grew. We turned into a roaring river. We were moving very fast. We had a lot of energy.

Gradually, the land became flatter and we stopped moving so quickly. We flowed more slowly through farms and towns. Other rivers joined us until we turned into one big, wide river.

Boats and barges floated on top of us. Fish and other living things swam through us. Plants grew from our riverbed. Animals came down to our banks and drank from us.

We just kept flowing through it all, pulled by gravity. Finally, we reached the ocean. I floated out into the waves, glad to be home again. It had been an exciting trip through the water cycle.

The Tale of Annie Soakley


Experiment With Water Power Materials

ProcedureSmooth the surface of the sand. Begin by pouring water slowly onto the sand from a few inches above the surface. Observe the surface. Smooth the surface again and pour the water from increasing heights. Also experiment with the speed at which you pour the water. Discuss how the power of the water is proportional to both the height and the speed. Explain how a dam raises the water level and increases volume and then uses the power to make electricity. (See Elementary Hydropower Infosheet at www.NEED.org)

Build A Water Wheel Materials

ProcedureCut the top off one of the bottles at the point where it begins to widen. Poke two holes in the bottle for the pencil (about two inches from the top and on opposite sides). Cut four squares (two-by-two inches) from the sides of the other bottle. Wrap a piece of clay (about two inches long and one inch thick) around the middle of the pencil. Secure the plastic squares in the clay at regular intervals. These plastic squares will be the blades of your water wheel, so make sure that all curves are facing in the same direction.

Place the ends of the pencil through the holes in the bottle. You can add small pieces of clay to the pencil ends to prevent them from slipping. Pour water over the blades to turn the turbine. If you like, attach a three-inch circle of paper (half black and half white) to the eraser end of the pencil with a thumbtack. The circle of paper will allow students to count the revolutions of the water wheel.

Experiment with height and volume of water. Have students make simple graphs of the number of revolutions at different heights and volumes. Discuss how the water wheel was used to cut wood and grind grains in early times and how it is used today to produce electricity. (See Elementary Hydropower Infosheet at www.NEED.org)

Weather Watching Procedure

Keep a daily log of weather conditions throughout the school year. Discuss the water cycle and how hydropower depends on rain. In rainy years, hydropower provides much more electricity than in dry years.

Supplemental ActivitiesWhen They Dammed the River and The Tale of Annie Soakley

�Pitcher of water

�Pencil

�2 2L Plastic bottles

�Clay

�Scissors

�Optional—paper and thumbtack

�Sandbox �Pitcher of water


Soo Lee and Mandy tip-toed out of their tent. It was so early, the sun was just beginning to peek over the mountain behind them.

They sneaked over to the boys’ tent and slipped a paper bag inside. Then they ran all the way to the lake and hid behind the big rock. They laughed and laughed.

A few minutes later, they heard screaming from the boys’ tent. Carlos and Jeremy came flying out in their underwear, flapping their arms and yelling.

“Help! Help! Something’s crawling all over me!”

“Jake, get these bugs off of me! Yeow!”

The boys ran straight into the lake and dove under the water.

When their heads popped back up, they saw Soo Lee and Mandy standing on the shore, laughing.

Soo Lee yelled, “What’s the matter, boys? Got ants in your pants?”

“That’ll teach you to put frogs in our sleeping bags!” added Mandy.

A little while later, they were all back at camp, eating a big breakfast of hotcakes and sausage.

Jake, the boys’ counselor, said, “No more practical jokes, ladies and gentlemen.”

And Ellen, the girls’ counselor, just shook her head and asked, “Where do you kids get all that energy?”

After cleaning up, they packed a picnic lunch and headed for Lookout Mountain. It took them all morning to climb the steep, rocky path to the top.

While Jake and Ellen cut up fruit and made sandwiches, the kids explored the mountain top. They watched as an eagle swooped down to catch a field mouse caught out in the open.

Where Do You Kids Get All That Energy?e


After lunch, the counselors rested in the shade of the famous Lookout Tree.

“Let’s play King of the Mountain,” suggested Jeremy.

“You mean Queen of the Mountain, don’t you?” answered Mandy.

As the kids ran off, Ellen yelled after them, “Where do you kids get all that energy?”

After hiking back down the mountain, the whole group headed to the lake. The cool water felt so good. The counselors lost a ferocious water battle with the campers.

Carlos and Soo Lee grabbed fishing poles and walked to the pool where Lookout Creek emptied into the lake. It was their turn to catch dinner.

Mandy and Jeremy took a bucket and went looking for blackberries.

After a delicious dinner, everyone sat on the big rock by the lake, watching the sun go down.

“Let’s go for a moonlight canoe ride,” said Jeremy.

“Aren’t you kids tired yet?” said Jake. “You’ve sure worn me out today!”

“Where do you kids get all that energy?” asked Ellen, for the third time that day.

Soo Lee sat up. “Where do we get our energy, Ellen?” she asked.

Ellen pointed to the sun sinking into the horizon. “That’s where we get our energy—from the sun.”

“You mean we have to be out in the sun to get energy?”

“No, I don’t mean that. We get our energy from the food we eat. All the food we eat comes from plants—like wheat and corn, and fruits and vegetables. And the plants get their energy from the sun.”

“But, wait a minute! We ate sausage today—that comes from a pig,” said Carlos.

“Yeah,” said Mandy. “And we ate fish for dinner. Fish aren’t plants.”


“You’re right,” said Jake. “But those pigs and fish got their energy from the plants they ate. And those plants got their energy from the sun.”

“Oh! I see,” said Carlos. “I ate the sausage that’s made from a pig. The pig ate corn, and the corn got its energy from the sun.”

“Let’s do a sun dance!” said Jeremy, jumping up and waving his arms at the setting sun.

“You guys go ahead and I’ll watch. I’m too tired to dance,” said Ellen.

“Here, Ellen, eat these leaves,” laughed Mandy, as she handed a branch to the counselor. “You need some energy. You’d better eat the whole tree if you’re gonna try to keep up with us tomorrow!”


I’m Johnny Energy Seed. I plant energy seeds in a big field on my farm.

The sun shines. There is energy in the sun’s rays. It helps my seeds grow into tall plants. My plants store the sun’s energy in their roots, stalks, leaves, and ears. Soon my energy plants are tall and strong.

I can use the energy in my plants for many things. I can eat the seeds for energy for my body. This energy will help me grow and move and think.

I can feed my energy plants to my chickens, pigs, cows, and horses. The energy will make my animals grow big and strong.

I can hang my energy plants in my barn to dry. Then I can burn them in my fireplace. The energy in my plants can keep me warm on cold winter nights.

I can put my energy plants into a big container that keeps out the air. As my plants decay, they can make a gas that I can burn in my stove to cook my food.

I can also turn my energy plants into fuel for my tractor. I turn them into alcohol, like grapes are turned into wine. This alcohol fuel, called ethanol, can run my tractor.

As you can see, a seed of corn really is an energy seed. Why don’t you plant some corn seeds and explore the ways you can use the energy in the plants you grow?

The Tale of Johnny Energy Seed


Plants Need Sunlight to Grow Materials

Procedure � Have students examine, measure, and make scale drawings of two similar plants. Place one plant on the window sill and one in a dark closet. Water both every day. After a week, compare and discuss the results. Ask students which plant received more energy, and how they know.

Leaf Me Alone Materials

Procedure � Take a healthy plant and cover several leaves with black construction paper. Place the plant in the sun for several days. Remove the paper and examine the leaves. Discuss the results.

From Golden Arches To The Sun Materials

Procedure � Have students draw an energy chain from their favorite food back to the sun.

Food Chain Song Procedure

Sing this song with your class (to the tune of There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea):

There’s a plant at the bottom of the lake


There’s a plant

There’s a plant


There’s a leaf on the plant at the bottom of the lake

There’s a bug that eats the leaf on the plant at the bottom of the lake

There’s a fish that eats the bug that eats the leaf on the plant at the bottom of the lake

There’s a kid who eats the fish that eats the bug that eats the leaf on the plant at the bottom of the lakeThere’s a bear ... optional

e Supplemental ActivitiesWhere Do You Kids Get All That Energy? and The Tale of Johnny Energy Seed

�Two plants

�Paper

�Ruler or yardstick

�Crayons, markers, or colored pencils

�Plant �Black construction paper

�Paper �Crayons, markers, or colored pencils


Counting Calories Materials

Procedure � For homework, have students find the energy content (calories) from the package labels of common foods they eat (popcorn, candy bars, cereals, granola bars, etc.). As a class, look at the school lunch menu and determine the number of calories in the lunches provided each day.

Burning Calories Materials

Procedure �DO THIS OUTSIDE! Pour a small amount of water into the beaker and place it on the tripod. Record the temperature of the water.

�Place the bag of popped corn into a heavy metal pan. Place the pan under the tripod. Light the bag on fire and observe the popcorn. Record the temperature of the water in the beaker after the popcorn has burned.

�Show students the unpopped corn with the nutrition label. Explain that the paper bag is also made of plants. Discuss with students how the energy in plants can be released by their bodies to produce energy or burned by fire to produce heat. (See Elementary Introduction to Energy Infosheet and Elementary Biomass Infosheet at www.NEED.org)

From Light To Heat Materials

Procedure �Record the temperature of two identical glasses of water. Place one in the sun and one in the shade for an hour. Record the temperature of the water in both glasses and discuss the differences. For further exploration, cover the outside of the glasses with different colored paper and note any changes. Explain how dark colors absorb light energy while light colors reflect energy.

Weather Watching Procedure

�Keep a daily log of weather conditions and note the amount of solar energy each day.

�Two glasses of water �Thermometer

�Two packages of microwave popcorn (one unpopped, one popped and allowed to dry for one week)

�Beaker or soup can of water on tripod

�Matches

�Heavy metal pan

�Thermometer

�Calorie counter booklet �Lunch menu


Hi, there! I’m Sue Ann. I’m a teeny, tiny sea animal.

At least, I used to be.

That was a long time ago—hundreds of millions of years ago.

Meet my friend Zeke. He was once a sea plant.

After all those years, I bet you’re surprised we’re still around.

We’ve seen dinosaurs come and go. And cave dwellers.

We’ve seen ice ages and floods and Earthquakes.

We’ve watched the Earth go through a lot of changes.

Can you see us buried in the rocks under the water?

I guess you don’t recognize us.

We’ve gone through a lot of changes, too.

I don’t look like a sea animal any more. And Zeke isn’t green.

When we died, we sank to the bottom of the sea.

We got buried under the sand with other plants and animals.

They all piled on top of us.

Do you know how it feels when you get stuck under a huge pile of covers?

You get hot and squished, right?

That’s what happened to us.

Under the Sea


We were trapped under all that stuff.

After a few million years, the pile on top of us turned to rock.

It got heavier and heavier and we got hotter and hotter.

Finally, I think we sort of melted.

That’s what it felt like anyway.

We turned into a pool of sticky oil with a natural gas bubble on top.

Can you see us yet? Look hard!

We’re trapped in a little pocket of rock.

One of these days, they’ll send out a search party for us.

They’ll study maps and bounce sound waves off the rocks.

They’ll drill a hole down through the rocks and find us.

They’ll pump us up to the surface—the oil and the natural gas.

They’ll clean us up and turn us into all kinds of things.

I can’t wait to see what happens to me.

Maybe I’ll be natural gas and travel in a pipeline to your house.

I’d keep you warm and cook your dinner.

Maybe I’ll be a fancy plastic toy to make your baby brother laugh.

Or the stuffing in your sleeping bag.

Maybe I’ll be the medicine that helps you feel better the next time you get sick.


Perhaps I’ll be the crayons you use to color a picture.

Or the ballpoint pen you use to write your name.

Maybe I’ll be gasoline and take you to school.

Or jet fuel and fly the President around.

Maybe I’ll be propane and cook your hot dogs on the grill.

There are so many things I might be. It’s so exciting to think about!


My name is Little Big Fuel. It’s a strange name, I know. Lots of people think I’m strange. I think I’m magical. This is my story.

I’ve been underground for hundreds of millions of years. No one knew I was there. I’m invisible – you can’t see me. You can’t smell me. You can’t feel me either; I’m a gas. I hide in rocks with petroleum and natural gas.

One hundred years ago, Dr. Snelling found me. He named me propane, but my friends call me Little Big Fuel. Here’s the reason why. When everything is normal, I’m a gas. You can’t see me, but I’m full of energy. You can burn me to make heat.

I can heat your house. I can cook your food. I can run lanterns and tractors. I can help make things you use everyday. I can run big machines inside buildings because I’m so clean. I can even take you for a ride in a hot air balloon.

All these things I do are very good, but they aren’t the thing that makes me special. This is my secret: you can turn me into a liquid and make me very, very small. If you squeeze me—compress me—I turn into a liquid.

See the big picture of me? That’s my size as a gas. The little guy is my size as a liquid. I’m 270 times smaller! I still have the same number of molecules and the same amount of energy, I’m just squeezed together.

People squeeze me into small bottles so they can carry me with them. They take me camping to cook their food and light their lanterns. People put me into tanks on their barbecue grills.

Farmers fill big tanks with me as a liquid. I can heat their barns and houses for a long time. Big trucks take me to farms to fill the tanks. When I leave the tanks, I’m not under pressure anymore. I turn into a gas again and get big; I expand. Then I am burned to make heat.

That’s why I’m called Little Big Fuel. I am amazing, don’t you think?

The Tale of Little Big Fuel


Stacey has trouble falling asleep. She’s so excited. Tomorrow is a very special day for all the kids at school. They are going to work with their parents.

Her friend, Susie, is helping her mom at the bakery. Her friend, Tanya, is going to the office with her dad. Stacey is going to work with her dad, too. But not to an office!

Stacey’s going out into the Gulf of Mexico on a boat. Her dad works on an oil rig. He looks for oil buried deep in the rocks under the water.

Before daylight, her dad wakes her. They drive to the dock in the early morning darkness. A crew boat is waiting. Stacey and her dad jump onto the boat. Other people climb aboard carrying suitcases.

“Dad,” asks Stacey, “are all these people going to stay on the rig for three weeks like you do?”

“Most of them will. But not us. We’ll ride back this evening with the workers going home.”

The crew boat takes off and Stacey watches the sun rise over the water. It’s a beautiful sight. The workers tell her stories about life on the rig, watching movies and playing cards. Last year, Stacey had Thanksgiving a week late because her dad was working.

“How deep is the water?” she asks. “All I see is water everywhere I look.”

“Under the rig, the water is about 300 feet deep. It’s a shallow rig. Some rigs are in water almost a mile deep. Those are called floating rigs and they’re tied to the bottom by big cables.”

Suddenly, her dad points to a tower on the horizon. “There she is, Stacey. There’s my office.”

At first, the rig looks tiny. It grows and grows as they get closer.

“Dad, how did you build the rig way out here?” Stacey wants to know.

Her dad laughs. “We didn’t build it out here, Stacey. We built it on shore, then towed it out here on a big barge. It took almost a year to build.”

The crew boat pulls up to the rig. A big basket drops down from the deck above them.

Into Deep Water: Drilling for Oil and Gas


“Jump into the basket, Stacey,” says her dad, giving her a hand, “and hold on tight. The air tugger lifts us up fast.”

“Is this the only way to get up there, Dad?”

“Yep, this is the only way when you come by boat. The helicopters can land right on the deck. I hope the tugger operator is in a good mood today. Sometimes he dips new people into the water before he lifts them up.”

“Dad, he won’t do that, will he? I didn’t bring extra clothes!”

“Don’t worry, Stacey, we’ve got a laundry room on the rig.”

Stacey holds on as the basket sways in the wind. The ride up takes only a minute. They climb out of the basket onto the deck. Ladders and machines are everywhere. The drilling unit towers above her.

“Let’s go see the kitchen first, Stacey,” says her dad. “I’m hungry.”

“Me, too!” answers Stacey. “I didn’t get any breakfast.” They climb down a ladder to a lower deck.

Stacey can’t wait to eat on the rig. Her dad has told her about the food—four meals a day. She’d eat macaroni and cheese at every meal.

After they eat, her dad shows her the bunk room where he sleeps. There are bunks for four people in the room.

He shows her the recreation room where the workers play pool and watch movies. He shows her the laundry room and the bathroom and the showers.

“Dad, where does the waste go? You don’t dump it in the water, do you?”

“Oh, no, we’d never do that. It all goes into a big tank and a boat takes it to shore. Some of the really big rigs have their own waste treatment plants.”

Her dad grabs her hand and pulls her up a ladder. “We’ve got a neat machine up here. It takes the salt out of the sea water. It makes clean water for us to use, so we don’t have to ship it from shore.”

“This is just like a city out here,” says Stacey. “You’ve got everything.”


“Well, not everything. I hate not being able to call you every day when I’m gone so long.”

“I know,” answers Stacey, “but, when you do come home, you’re home for three weeks. Now show me how you drill for oil. That’s what I really want to see!”

Stacey and her dad climb back up to the rig deck. He shows her a map of the sea floor under the rig. There are twenty X’s on the map. They plan to drill a well on each X to look for oil.

Stacey’s dad shows her the pipes where the drills go down into the water. He shows her the machines that run the drills. He shows her the X where they are drilling today.

“What happens when you find oil, Dad?” asks Stacey.

“We pump it out of the rock into a pipe. Then an oil tanker takes it to a refinery on shore.”

“Doesn’t any of the oil leak into the water?”

“We’re very careful, Stacey. We know that oil can pollute the water and hurt the fish and plants. We try to do everything we can to keep any oil from leaking into the water. Let me show you what I do.”

Her dad leads Stacey into a room filled with lots of control panels.

“Wow, Dad! This is where you work? It’s so cool!”

“This is it. I use these control panels to run the wells. I make sure the oil and natural gas don’t come out too fast. I’m called a blow-out specialist.”

“A blow-out specialist. I like that. What’s next?”

“Let’s swing by the kitchen and grab a snack. Then I want to take you back up on deck. I’ve got one more thing to show you.”

“Sounds good to me, Dad. I’m getting hungry.”

Stacey and Dad have a snack and climb up to the deck. They walk to the railing. Way down below, Stacey sees two people fishing.

“I’ve caught some great fish down there, Stacey,” says her dad.


Stacey smiles. “I’m glad you take care of the water, Dad. You know how important that is to me.”

Suddenly her smile turns into a frown. “What do you do when a storm comes? Couldn’t that make the oil spill?”

“Storms can be dangerous, Stacey. The first thing we do is shut the wells and stop drilling. Then, if the storm looks bad, we send most of the workers to shore. Only a few people stay on the rig.”

“You always stay, don’t you, Dad?”

“It’s part of my job.”

“Do you ever get scared?”

“Excited maybe, but not really scared. I would leave if I thought there was a real danger. Don’t worry.”

All of a sudden, a siren begins to blow. Stacey jumps. “What’s that, Dad? Is something wrong?”

Not a thing, Stacey. That’s the siren to let us know the crew boat is about to leave for shore. Anybody who misses the boat will have to stay on the rig for two days, until the next crew boat comes.”

“Let’s miss it, Dad. I love it out here. I want to work on a rig, too. Maybe I’ll be a blow-out specialist, just like you.”

“You can be anything you want to be, Stacey, when you grow up. But right now, we’re getting back into the basket.”

Stacey and her dad climb in and wave good-bye to the crew. As they near the boat, the operator dips the basket into the water.

Stacey shakes her fist at him and laughs. As the crew boat heads into the sunset, Stacey’s hand slips into her father’s. It has been a perfect day, even if her feet are wet.


Over 300 million years ago, the ocean covered most of the Earth. Tiny plants and animals lived in the ocean.

The sun gave them energy to grow. They stored the sun’s energy in their bodies as chemical energy.

When they died, they sank to the ocean floor. Every day, more plants and animals died and covered the ocean floor.

Over the years, layers of dead plants, animals, and sand built up. Each layer turned into sedimentary rock. The plant and animal remains were buried deeper and deeper. The sedimentary rock grew thousands of feet thick. In some places, the ocean disappeared.

It was hot deep down in the Earth. The plant and animal remains were squished under the pressure of the layers of rock above them. They changed into petroleum and natural gas.

Bits of petroleum and natural gas were trapped in small holes in the rock layers. Here they waited for a 100 million years. That’s a very long time.

Since natural gas is made from the remains of plants and animals, it is called a fossil fuel. Since we have a limited supply, it is a nonrenewable energy source.

Today, geologists use science to hunt for natural gas deposits deep underground. When they find a promising spot, they drill an exploratory well. The well is about 6,000 feet deep. That’s more than a mile underground! About half of the time they find natural gas deposits. Drilling deep underground is very expensive, so geologists need to carefully predict where to drill.

At the well, natural gas is pumped out of the ground.

It flows through a pipeline to a processing plant. There it is cleaned and water is removed. Natural gas leaves the processing plant and flows through a pipeline to your local gas utility company.

You can’t see or smell natural gas. It is colorless and odorless. For safety, the utility company adds mercaptan—a stinky smell like rotten eggs—to the natural gas. If any natural gas leaks from a pipe, you will smell it!

Small pipelines carry natural gas from the utility company to factories and homes.

A Nice Natural Gas Story


Factories burn natural gas to make products like paper and cement. Natural gas is an ingredient in paint, glue, fertilizer, plastic, medicine, laundry detergent, insect repellent, and many other products.

Many homes use natural gas for heat. So do schools, hospitals, and businesses. Your home may have a water heater, clothes dryer, or stove powered by natural gas.

Some cars, trucks, and buses run on natural gas, too.

Natural gas power plants burn natural gas to make electricity. Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel. It is a good fuel for heating our homes and making electricity.


On the picture, label the different parts of an oil rig. Read the story, Into Deep Water: Drilling for Oil and Gas, to find the answers.

� Air Tugger

� Helicopter Landing Pad

� Platform

� Crew Boat

� Drilling Unit

An Offshore Oil Rig


Let’s Drill For Oil And Gas Materials

Procedure �Prepare the 3 cupcake mixes as directed.

�Make cupcakes with three or more different colored layers, hiding one M&M® between two of the layers. Bake the cupcakes and allow to cool. Decorate the cupcakes with blue icing (representing water) and green icing (representing land/plants).

�Give each student a cupcake and a clear plastic straw. Use the straw to drill for oil (M&M ®), slowly pushing the straw straight down into the cupcake. When the straw is removed, there will be a core sample of the layers. How many students struck oil? Compare core samples. Slice the cupcakes in half to compare core samples to layers. Eat and enjoy!

�OPTIONAL: Make one multi-layer, deep-dish cake with pockets of oil (M&M’s®) scattered throughout. Have each student take one or two core samples to look for fuel.

�Discuss how the Earth is formed in layers, how fossil fuels were formed, how they are found, etc. (See Elementary Petroleum, Natural Gas, Propane, and Coal Infosheets at www.NEED.org)

I’m Made From Oil And Gas Materials

Procedure �Pour the contents of the bag out onto the table. Give students a few minutes to look at the objects.

�Put the objects away. Have each student write down as many of the objects in the grab bag as he/she can remember.

�Discuss with the class the many different things that are made from oil and gas. Look around the room and make a list of other items students see that are made from petroleum.

Drilling for Oil in the Ocean Materials

Supplemental ActivitiesUnder the Sea, The Tale of Little Big Fuel, Into Deep Water: Drilling for Oil and Gas, and A Nice Natural Gas Story

�One white cake mix

�One yellow cake mix

�Icing, dyed blue and green

�Cupcake papers (one for each student)

�One chocolate cake mix

�One package of M&M’s® minis

�Cupcake pans

�Clear plastic straws (one for each student)

�Grab bag of 20-30 objects made from oil and gas (plastic objects, vinyl objects, cosmetics, clothes, etc.)

�6” x 6” Piece of foam board

�Clear plastic straws for each student

�2 Cups of dark sand

�Clear tape

�4 Sharpened pencils

�10 Gallon aquarium

�Large bag of light sand

�Paper


ProcedureStep One- Preparation

�Pour three mounds of dark sand randomly on the bottom of the aquarium to serve as oil deposits.

�Draw a map marking the locations of the three deposits with Xs and hang it on the wall.

�Cover entire bottom of aquarium with several inches of light sand to resemble the ocean floor.

�Carefully and slowly fill aquarium with five inches of water, taking care not to disturb the sand.

�Cut a 1-inch hole in the middle of the foam board.

�Insert one sharpened pencil into each corner of the foam board, as legs for the rig.

�Carefully place the rig in the water. The deck (foam board) should be slightly above water level.

Step Two- Procedure �Give each student two straws and a piece of tape. Have each student tape the straws together end to end so that the juncture is completely sealed.

�Explain to the students that the straws are their drills. They will drill for oil using your map as a guide.

�Give each student one chance to strike oil by inserting his/her drill through the hole in the platform and into the sand until it hits the bottom of the aquarium. Tell the students to cover the end of the straw tightly with one finger and remove the straw. Is there any dark sand in the end of the straws? Did the students strike oil?

Build a Stationary Oil RigAn oil rig is built on shore, then floated out to the drilling site on huge barges. In shallow water, a rig rests on the ocean floor on long, hollow legs. While the rig is being towed to the site, the legs are filled with air. Once the rig reaches the site, the legs are slowly filled with water, so that they sink to the bottom.

Materials

Procedure �Cut two half-inch slits near the bottom of each straw. The slits will act as valves.

�Make a 1-inch hole in the middle of your foam board.

�Create pencil holes in the corner of the foam board so that the tops of the straws can be inserted.

�Seal both ends of the straws with modeling clay. Mold the clay on the bottom ends into square feet.*

�Float the foam board platform in the aquarium.

�Use toothpicks to hold open the slits in the straws (opening the valves in the legs of the rig).

�Remove the clay from the top of the straws or break the seal so that the air can escape.

�As water fills the legs, the feet should sink to the bottom and the rig should right itself.

*Experiment with the amount of clay to use on each foot for the demonstration to proceed smoothly.

�10 Gallon aquarium

�4 Clear plastic straws

�4 Toothpicks

�6” x 6” Piece of foam board (same piece can be used from previous activity)

�Modeling clay

�Sharp scissors


Build A Floating Oil Rig

Materials

Procedure �Poke two holes near the bottom of each glue bottle.

�Run a piece of string through the holes so that 2 six-inch pieces are hanging from each bottle.

�Attach weights to the ends of the string.

�Cut a 1-inch hole in the center of the foam board.

�Create holes in the foam board so that the necks of the glue bottles fit through. Replace the tops.

�Place the rig in the aquarium.

�Spread the weights out to secure the rig.

�Adjust the water level in the aquarium if the weights don’t reach the bottom.

�By opening the tops of the glue bottles, you can regulate the amount of water in the bottles. This ballast mechanism is used to keep the platform flat and at the right distance from the water when heavy machinery is added or taken away from the rig. You can experiment by adding weight to the platform.

�10 Gallon aquarium filled with 8” of water

�4 Small empty glue bottles with twist-close tops

�8 Small weights such as sinkers

�6” x 6” Piece of foam board

�String or yarn

When drilling in deep water, a floating rig is used. Air-filled tanks support the rig, which is tethered to the bottom with huge cables.


Carlos pulled on his shorts and ran downstairs. He grabbed a crayon and crossed off another day on the calendar—December 8, 1973.

“Papa!” He shouted. “Only two more weeks! I can’t wait to see Pedro. I can’t wait to see winter. Do you think it might snow again this Christmas?”

Carlos loved snow and his cousin Pedro. Here in Miami, it was hot all the time. It never snowed. He liked swimming in the winter, but nothing was as good as sledding with Pedro.

He had friends in Miami, but no one like Pedro. He could tell Pedro anything. They’d been best friends since they were born.

Now, he only got to see Pedro once a year—at Christmas. He and his father would drive all day and all night to get to New York. They would stay for ten days! And he would get to be with Pedro every minute.

Mario Diaz looked at his son. He looked at the news on TV. He looked worried.

“Papa, aren’t you excited? You’ll get to see Tia Rosa in two weeks!”

Mario patted the couch. “Come sit here beside me, Carlos. Watch the news,” he said.

On the screen, there was a long line of cars, hundreds of cars. They were waiting in line to get gas. Then a man came out of the gas station and put up a sign. It said, “Out of Gas.”

The people in the cars were angry. They honked their horns. They had been waiting a long time.

“What’s happening, Papa?” asked Carlos. “Why are those people so mad? Why is there no gas?”

“It’s a long story, Carlos. The United States doesn’t have enough gasoline. Gasoline is made from oil, you know. We buy a lot of our oil from other countries. Some of those countries are mad at the United States. They won’t sell us any oil, so we don’t have enough gas. The people are mad because they can’t get gas.”

Carlos stared at the TV. He was thinking. Finally, he asked, “Papa, are you saying we can’t go to see Pedro? Are you saying there won’t be gas for our car?”

“I don’t know, Carlos,” answered Mario. “That gas station on TV is in New York. In some places, people can only buy a few gallons at a time. In other places, they can only buy gas on certain days. We’ll just have to wait and see. Maybe by Christmas, things will be better.”

A Car Trip for Carlos?


Finish the Story Procedure

Discuss the story with your students. Explain an oil embargo is. If you don’t have a personal recollection of the situation, ask someone who does to speak to the class. Ask students if they can remember seeing something similar on the news. Discuss possible alternative modes of transportation to New York. Would planes, buses, or trains have been affected by the gasoline shortage? Have each student write an ending to the story. Have the students read their endings to the class.

Interview an Adult About the Oil Embargo Procedure

Have your students interview an adult relative or neighbor who is old enough to remember the embargo, using the interview questions listed below or questions the students design as a class. Summarize and analyze the responses with the class. Have the students make pie charts or bar graphs of the results.

Interview Questions

�Do you remember the oil embargo of 1973? yes no

�Did you ever waste gasoline before the embargo? never sometimes often

�Did you ever have a problem buying gasoline? never sometimes often

�Did you ever NOT go somewhere because there wasn’t gas? never sometimes often

�Do you ever waste gasoline now? never sometimes often

�Could the U.S. have another gasoline shortage? yes no

Supplemental ActivitiesA Car Trip for Carlos?


Mai lives on a farm in rural China with her mother and father. They raise pigs on their farm. They grow corn to feed the pigs.

Every morning, Mai helps her mother feed the pigs. Every evening after school, Mai helps her father feed the pigs.

On Saturday, they pick out the biggest pig and butcher it.

On Sunday, they go to the outdoor market in the village. They sell the meat. They buy things they need.

Mai’s farm is in the country. There is no electricity in her house, but Mai’s house has lights and a stove. They run on a special kind of gas, called biogas. Mai’s family makes the biogas on their farm.

Every day, Mai and her parents gather corn stalks from the fields. They gather the corn cobs that the pigs don’t eat. They collect the manure from the pig pens. They save their own waste.

In Mai’s backyard, there is a big container. They put all of the waste into it. They are careful not to let in any air.

As the waste decays, it makes biogas. The biogas flows through a pipe into Mai’s house. It flows to the lights to keep the house bright. It flows to the stove. Mai’s mother uses it to cook food and keep the house warm. The biogas is clean. It doesn’t make any smoke.

Mai’s father empties the container when the waste has decayed. The waste that is left makes good fertilizer. He spreads it on his fields. The corn grows tall to feed the pigs.

Mai


Supplemental ActivitiesMai

It’s a Gas Materials

Procedure �Have students fill their bags with leaves, leftovers from lunch, and a pinch of yeast.

�Add a little water, if necessary, so that the mixture is moist. Force out as much air as possible by flattening the bag before closing.

�Put the bags in a warm place. Watch the bags for a week or two and have students keep a journal about what happens. The mixture should begin to decay. The bags should begin to expand and fill with biogas.

(See Elementary Biomass Infosheet at www.NEED.org)

The School House Still Materials

Procedure �Open the bottle of juice and add a pinch of yeast. Recap the bottle and set it on a windowsill. Observe and explain the fermentation process. After several weeks, allow the students to smell the juice. Explain that the juice is turning into alcohol.

�Pour a small amount of the rubbing alcohol into the metal dish. Carefully light the alcohol to show that it can be burned as fuel. Discuss how alcohol from corn and other grains is mixed with gasoline for fuel.

�Have students experiment with other types of juices and their fermentation.

Wood Energy Materials

Procedure �Weigh out identical amounts (a few grams) of the different types of wood and wood-products.

�Measure a small amount (~25mL) of water into a beaker and record the temperature.

�Burn each product separately, heating the water and measuring the increase in temperature.

�Make a graph of the results. Discuss the results and the different amounts of energy in the products. (If you don’t have a lab, do this activity outside on a calm day.)

�Plastic ziplock bags (one for each student)

�Leaves and leftovers

�Yeast

�Bottle of grape juice

�Rubbing alcohol

�Metal dish

�Yeast

�Matches

�Digital scales

�Heavy metal pan

�Several types of easy-burning wood, cardboard, paper, etc.

�Thermometer

�Matches

�Beaker/can of water on tripod


Get ReadyDuplicate as many Biomass Bingo sheets (found on page 37) as needed for each person in your group. In addition, decide now if you want to give the winner of your game a prize and what the prize will be.

Get SetPass out one Biomass Bingo sheet to each member of the group.

GoPART ONE: FILLING IN THE BINGO SHEETSGive the group the following instructions to create bingo cards:

�This bingo activity is very similar to regular bingo. However, there are a few things you’ll need to know to play this game. First, please take a minute to look at your bingo sheet and read the 16 statements at the top of the page. Shortly, you’ll be going around the room trying to find 16 people about whom the statements are true so you can write their names in one of the 16 boxes.

�When I give you the signal, you’ll get up and ask a person if a statement at the top of your bingo sheet is true for them. If the person gives what you believe is a correct response, write the person’s name in the corresponding box on the lower part of the page. For example, if you ask a person question “D” and he or she gives you what you think is a correct response, then go ahead and write the person’s name in box D. A correct response is important because later on, if you get bingo, that person will be asked to answer the question correctly in front of the group. If he or she can’t answer the question correctly, then you lose bingo. So, if someone gives you an incorrect answer, ask someone else! Don’t use your name for one of the boxes or use the same person’s name twice.

�Try to fill all 16 boxes in the next 20 minutes. This will increase your chances of winning. After the 20 minutes are up, please sit down and I will begin asking players to stand up and give their names. Are there any questions? You’ll now have 20 minutes. Go!

�During the next 20 minutes, move around the room to assist the players. Every five minutes or so tell the players how many minutes are remaining in the game. Give the players a warning when just a minute or two remains. When the 20 minutes are up, stop the players and ask them to be seated.

PART TWO: PLAYING BINGOGive the class the following instructions to play the game:

�When I point to you, please stand up and in a LOUD and CLEAR voice give us your name. Now, if anyone has the name of the person I call on, put a big “X” in the box with that person’s name. When you get four names in a row—across, down, or diagonally—shout “Bingo!” Then I’ll ask you to come up front to verify your results.

�Let’s start off with you (point to a player in the group). Please stand and give us your name. (Player gives name. Let’s say the player’s name was “Joe.”) Okay, players, if any of you have Joe’s name in one of your boxes, go ahead and put an “X” through that box.

�When the first player shouts “Bingo,” ask him (or her) to come to the front of the room. Ask him to give his name. Then ask him to tell the group how his bingo run was made, e.g., down from A to M, across from E to H, and so on.

Instructions

Biomass Bingo is a great icebreaker for a NEED workshop or conference. As a classroom activity, it also makes a great introduction to an energy unit.

2Preparation �5 minutes

Time �45 minutes

BINGOBiomass

Bingos are available onseveral different topics.Check out these resources formore bingo options!

�Change a Light Bingo—Energy Conservation Contract

�Energy Bingo— Energy Games and Icebreakers

�Energy Efficiency Bingo— Monitoring and Mentoring and Learning and Conserving

�Hydrogen Bingo—H2 Educate

�Hydropower Bingo— Hydro Guides

�Nuclear Energy Bingo— Nuclear guides

�Oil and Natural Gas Bingo—Oil and Natural Gas guides

�Science of Energy Bingo— Science of Energy guides

�Solar Bingo—Solar guides

�Transportation Bingo — Transportation guides

�Wind Energy Bingo— Wind Energy Guides


�Now you need to verify the bingo winner’s results. Ask the bingo winner to call out the first person’s name on his bingo run. That player then stands and the bingo winner asks him the question which he previously answered during the 20-minute session. For example, if the statement was “can name two renewable sources of energy,” the player must now name two sources. If he can answer the question correctly, the bingo winner calls out the next person’s name on his bingo run. However, if he does not answer the question correctly, the bingo winner does not have bingo after all and must sit down with the rest of the players. You should continue to point to players until another person yells “Bingo.”

ethanolbiodiesel

chemical energy is transformed into: thermal, sound, and

motion

requiring the presence of oxygen

the absence of oxygen

About 50%

methane is odorless

Around 5%

Diesel is petroleum based. Biodiesel is a blend of diesel

and biofuels.

wood

methane

carbon and hydrogen

whale oil from blubber

The fuel is 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline.

A

E

I

M

B

F

J

N

C

G

K

O

D

H

L

P

A. Can name two biomass fuelsB. Knows what anaerobic meansC. Can explain the difference between diesel

and biodieselD. Knows two chemical elements present in

all biofuelsE. Knows the energy transformation when

ethanol is used in an internal combustion engine

F. Knows what percentage of total U.S. renewable energy needs come from biomass

G. Has used a form of biomass for cookingH. Knows what biofuel was once used to

light lamps and came from the oceanI. Can point to something in this room that

could be used as a biofuelJ. Knows what pure methane smells like

K. Knows a source of biomass in use for thousands of years

L. Has used a form of biomass for home heating

M. Knows what aerobic meansN. Knows what percentage of total U.S.

energy need is met by biomassO. Knows the chemical name for CH4

P. Knows what the 85 in E85 stands for

wood or charcoal cooking fire/grill

wood, paper, alcoholwood stove or fireplaceethanol fireplace insert

BIOMASS BINGO ANSWERS


BIOMASS

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

A

E

I

M

B

F

J

N

C

G

K

O

D

H

L

P

A. Can name two biomass fuelsB. Knows what anaerobic meansC. Can explain the difference between diesel

and biodieselD. Knows two chemical elements present in

all biofuelsE. Knows the energy transformation when

ethanol is used in an internal combustion engine

F. Knows what percentage of total U.S. renewable energy needs come from biomass

G. Has used a form of biomass for cookingH. Knows what biofuel was once used to

light lamps and came from the oceanI. Can point to something in this room that

could be used as a biofuelJ. Knows what pure methane smells like

K. Knows a source of biomass in use for thousands of years

L. Has used a form of biomass for home heating

M. Knows what aerobic meansN. Knows what percentage of total U.S.

energy need is met by biomassO. Knows the chemical name for CH4

P. Knows what the 85 in E85 stands for

BINGO


Hello! You know me—you walk on my skin every day. Trucks and trains ride all over me. Rivers run down my back. Big machines dig holes in me. Ouch!

I bet you think I’m pretty tough. I stand so still—a giant rock—while you move all over me. But I’ve got a secret—I move, too. I’m moving all the time. You can’t feel it, but I am.

I’m not a solid rock, you know. Deep inside, I’m very hot—so hot my rocks are melted. My skin floats on a huge ocean of melted rock. I call my melted rock magma.

My skin is different from yours, too. Your skin is all one piece—mine’s not. Mine is cracked into pieces—sort of like a hard-boiled egg that’s dropped on the floor. I call my pieces of skin my plates.

My plates float around on my magma. Sometimes they pull away from each other. Sometimes they bang into each other. Usually they move very, very slowly—only an inch or two a year. You can’t feel that.

Once in a while, my plates bang against each other fast. Watch out! That’s an Earthquake.

And, sometimes, my insides come bubbling out around the cracks. Watch out! Those are my volcanoes.

In most places, my skin is pretty thick. My hot magma is miles underground, but along my cracks, it comes close to the surface. It can really heat up the rocks and water in my skin.

You can use all this heat. I make more all the time. You can take a bath in my hot water. You can heat your house with it and use it to make electricity.

Who am I?

Who Am I?


Supplemental ActivitiesWho Am I?

Let’s Look Inside (Make a Cross-Section of the Earth) Materials

Procedure �Have each student make a small ball of yellow clay (representing the Earth’s inner core). Cover the yellow layer with a layer of red, a layer of orange, then a layer of brown clay (representing the outer core, magma, and mantle). Have the students cover the Earth with blue and green clay (representing water and land). Make mountains, valleys, etc.

�Have each student cut his/her Earth in half to examine the layered structure. Discuss how the crust is thin in some places and thicker in others. Try to find places where the magma in the mantle (orange) comes close to the surface. (See Elementary Geothermal Energy Infosheet)

�Several colors of clay (yellow, red, orange, brown, blue, and green)

�Plastic knife

(LAND)

(WATER)

(INNER CORE)

(OUTER CORE)

(MAGMA)

(MANTLE)


Where are we going?

We’re going to a farm.

Will we see pigs and horses? Can we pet the baby lambs?

No, not today. This farm doesn’t have any animals.

Can we pick strawberries? Can we play hide-n-seek in the corn?

No, not today. This farm doesn’t grow any fruits or vegetables.

Then what kind of farm is it?

It’s a special kind of farm. Look up there on the hill. What do you see?

Windmills! Windmills everywhere! Hundreds of them!

Those are called wind turbines, not windmills. We’re visiting a wind farm.

A what? A wind farm? I’ve never heard of that! Is this where they make wind? Is that what wind turbines do?

No, wind turbines don’t make wind. They catch the wind. The sun makes the wind.

The sun? How can that be? It’s far away. And what about night? The wind blows at night too, when the sun’s gone away.

The sun doesn’t blow; it makes wind in another way. Do you want me to tell you how?

Yes, but hurry, if you can. I want to climb up there to see the wind turbines.

Let’s climb together. It will make more sense from the top of the hill. What do you see over there?

Wow! A lake! I’d like to swim there some time. But, tell me now, how does the sun make the wind?

A Trip To The Farm


When the sun shines, it warms up the land and the lake too. Which gets warmer, do you think?

The land, for sure. The lake would still be cool on the hottest day.

You’re right. The lake stays cool. And the land gets hot. The air over the land gets hot too, and it rises into the sky.

Like a hot air balloon?

Like a hot air balloon. The air over the lake stays cool. The cool air rushes in to take the place of the hot air rising up to the sky. That’s what makes the wind.

But what about at night? Why does the wind blow at night?

When the wind blows at night, it’s because one place is cooling off faster than another. The cooler air moves in as the warmer air rises.

What do the wind turbines do?

The wind turbines are here to catch the wind. See the blades? The wind pushes against them and makes them turn.

But why? Why catch the wind? All the blades are turning, but what do they do?

They make electricity—that’s what they do. They make electricity so that we can have light and TVs and computers.

How do they make electricity?

Inside each wind turbine is a coil of wire—like a giant spool of thread. The blades of the wind turbine are connected to big magnets. When the wind blows, the blades turn and the magnets spin around the coil of wire. That makes electricity.

What happens when there isn’t any wind?


Then the turbine blades stop spinning. The turbines stop making electricity. They can’t make electricity all the time. Most wind turbines only work about 60 to 90% of the time.

But the wind is free and wind turbines don’t pollute the air, do they?

Only with sound. When they are spinning very fast, they sometimes make a swooshing sound. Some people also think they look ugly.

Well, I like this farm. I think the wind turbines are awesome. Can we come back again sometime?

Yes, of course we can.


Windy lived in a lighthouse with her father, who was a powerful wizard. Windy was his only child and he gave her whatever she wished. Windy loved the lighthouse, which stood on a high cliff above the ocean. She loved to play in the sun. She loved the seagulls flying in the sky. She loved to swim with the fish.

The only thing she didn’t like was the wind. On the cliff, the wind blew all the time. If Windy had a picnic, the wind blew away her napkin. It carried her potato chips up to the seagulls. It blew sand into her drink.

One day, Windy’s father gave her a new wizard hat. It was beautiful. Silver stars and moons glittered on it. Windy shouted for joy and ran outside to show the seagulls. Suddenly, a gust of wind grabbed the hat and blew it over the ocean. “Stop!” Windy cried, “Bring back my hat!” But the wind carried her hat away.

Windy ran inside. She was furious. “Father, Father, the wind took my new hat. I want you to make the wind stop forever!”

“Windy, I don’t think you understand what you are asking,” said her father.

“Yes, I do, Father! Make the wind go away! Do this if you love me!” And her father, the great wizard, could not deny his daughter. The next morning, it was cold and dark. There was no wind. Windy smiled, then shivered. Why was it so cold and dark? She ran to find her father.

“Thank you for stopping the wind, Father, but why is it so dark and cold? The sun should be up by now.”

“I had to send the sun away to grant your wish, child. A dark, cold world is the price you must pay to stop the wind,” explained the wizard.

“I love the sun, Father, I just wanted the wind to stop,” cried Windy, “Please bring back the sun!”

“But it is the sun that makes the wind. The sun warms the land and the air over the land rises. The cool air over the ocean rushes in to take its place. To stop the wind, I had to send away the sun. That was your wish.”

Windy looked at her father and grinned. “You did this to teach me a lesson, didn’t you? I needed to know about the sun and the wind. I needed to learn to respect all of nature’s energy. Now bring back the sun and the wind, and stop spoiling me!”

The Tale of Windy Wizard


Race The Wind (Make A Sailboat) Materials

Procedure �Have each student design a sailboat by placing the craft stick into the foam, cutting out a sail from the construction paper, and attaching the sail to the stick. Allow students to decorate their sails, if desired.

�Use a fan to provide wind power to race the sailboats across the water table in small groups. Discuss the designs of the fastest boats and how they managed to capture the wind. For further exploration, vary the shape of the foam blocks to observe the difference this makes in speed.

Capture The Wind (Make A Pinwheel) Materials

Procedure �Give each student (or have each student cut) an 8 x 8 inch square of construction paper. Decorate both sides of the paper, if desired. Fold the paper from corner to corner, then open and fold opposing corners. Flatten the paper and mark the intersection with a big black dot.

�Cut a little more than half-way up each crease. Turn the paper over and place big black dots on the left points of each corner about one-half inch from the ends. Carefully, place the straight pin through the dots of each point, through the center dot, then into the side of the pencil eraser.

�Use the fan to provide wind power for the pinwheels. Explore the relative speed of the pinwheels at different distances from the fan. Explain how wind turbines can produce electricity from wind power. (See Elementary Wind Energy Infosheet at www.NEED.org)

Supplemental ActivitiesA Trip To The Farm and The Tale of Windy Wizard

�Craft foam cut in 2”x 3”x 1” pieces (one for each student)

�Craft sticks (one for each student)

�Scissors

�Fan

�Glue

�Construction paper

�Large, flat water table

�Optional: crayons or markers

�Pencils with erasers (one for each student)

�Construction paper

�Fan

�Straight pins (one for each student)

�Scissors

�Optional: crayons or markers


Making Wind Materials

Procedure �Place the bowl of ice and water in one end of the aquarium. Place the bowl of white sand in the other end. Tape several thin, four inch strips of tissue paper to the middle of the plastic wrap. Cover the aquarium with the plastic wrap so that the tissue paper strips dangle down into the aquarium. Shine the heat lamp onto the aquarium so that both the sand and water are heated. Watch the tissue strips flutter in the breeze.

Weather Watching Materials

�Wind sock

�Weather vane

�Anemometer

Procedure �Hang a wind sock, weather vane, and/or anemometer outside the classroom window for daily discussions in relation to weather. Note with students the days that would provide lots of wind energy and the days that would not.

�Ten gallon aquarium

�Flat bowl of white sand

�Tape

�Heat lamp

�Flat bowl of ice cubes in water

�Tissue paper

�Plastic wrap (one sheet large enough to cover top of aquarium)


A long, long time ago before even the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the sun shone in the sky and giant plants grew in swampy forests. Like all living things, these plants died.

And more plants grew and died. This happened over and over for millions to hundreds of millions of years—plants grew and died and fell into the swamp.

The plants on the bottom got squished—really, really squished. After millions of years of being really squished those plants turned into COAL.

Now the coal is buried in the ground. Big machines—giant bulldozers and steam shovels— dig it up.

The machines load the coal onto trains and barges to take it to the power plant.

Inside the power plant there is a giant tub of water with a big oven in the middle. The coal is put into the big oven and burned.

The smoke from the fire is cleaned with big scrub brushes before it goes up the smokestack and into the air.

Inside the oven it gets really hot. So hot, the water in the tub boils and turns into steam. The oven is called a boiler because it boils the water and turns it into steam.

That steam comes roaring through a big pipe and turns a giant pinwheel, called a turbine.

The middle of the pinwheel has coils of wire wrapped around it. On the blades of the pinwheel are big magnets. When the magnets spin around the wire, it makes electricity. That is amazing!

Now, we can’t go down to the power plant to buy a bag of electricity. So, the electricity comes to us.

A wire from the turbine runs out of the power plant and up a tall, tall pole. The electricity flows up the wire to the top of the pole. It flows through high-power lines from pole to pole until it gets to our town.

A Cool Coal Story


Then it flows into lots of small wires to our houses. Inside our houses—hidden in the walls—are lots of wires. They go to all the switches and all the outlets all over our house and the electricity flows through them.

When we flip on a light switch, the electricity flows into the light bulb and makes light.

When we plug a radio into an outlet, we get music. The electricity flows through the cord to make it work. Electricity runs our washers and dryers, our TVs and video games.

Most of the electricity in our country is made by burning coal. The energy in the coal came from the sun.


Once upon a time, a beautiful fern tree grew in a swamp. All day, she soaked up sunlight and stored it in her fronds. The sun’s energy helped her grow tall.

The biggest frond was Fern Fossil. Every day she stretched closer to the sun. She was proud to be the tallest frond on the tree.

One day, the sky grew dark and a strong wind blew. The other fronds huddled together. They gave each other strength. But Fern was too high. She was all alone. There were no fronds tall enough to help her.

The wind blew harder and Fern’s stem snapped. She fell from the tree into the dark water. Fern sank to the bottom of the swamp. She thought her journey was over. Nature had a different plan for Fern. For a long time, she lay in the swamp. More plants fell into the water. They covered Fern like a blanket.

After many years, the water dried up and the swamp turned into land. Dinosaurs roamed over the Earth. Fern lay under the ground, buried deeper and deeper.

The weight of the dirt and the heat of the Earth changed Fern. She was no longer green. She lost her leafy shape, but she still had the sun’s energy stored in her.

Fern Fossil had turned into a shiny black rock full of energy. She was a piece of coal. Fern and many other plants were now a big seam of coal buried under the ground.

One day, a big machine dug into the Earth. It took away the dirt on top of the coal. It lifted Fern from the Earth and put her into a huge truck. She was taken to a building where she was washed, then put on a train. The train chugged through the night to a power plant. Fern was burned. Her energy produced a lot of heat.

The power plant used Fern’s energy to make electricity. It traveled through a power line to a house. A little boy turned on a light so that he could read. The energy that Fern had gotten from the sun millions and millions of years ago was lighting the night. Fern had traveled a long way.

The Tale of Fern Fossil


Supplemental ActivitiesA Cool Coal Story and The Tale of Fern Fossil

A Cool Coal Story in Pantomime Materials

ProcedureAs you narrate the coal story, have your students act it out using the props list on page 50. Upper elementary students can also perform the story for younger students.

Mining for Coal Materials

Procedure �Give each student a cookie, napkin, and toothpick. Have the students “mine” the coal as carefully as possible, trying not to disturb the land.

�Record the number of chips each student mines.

�Ask students if they could put their cookie back together.

�While the students eat their cookies, discuss the activity and coal mining. (See Elementary Coal Infosheet at www.NEED.org)

µ Points to Emphasize �Just as their bodies burn the chocolate chips for energy, power plants and factories burn coal for energy.

�Once coal is burned, we can’t use it again and we can’t make more coal.

�Some places (some cookies) have more coal than others.

�The coal (chips) on the surface is easier to mine than the coal buried underground.

�Reclaiming the land can be a difficult process.

�Materials for props

�Big soft chocolate chip cookies (one for each student)

�Napkins (one for each student)

�Toothpicks (one for each student)


A Cool Coal Story

Students will demonstrate the flow of energy to produce electricity using props. Depending on the audience, signs with the different forms of energy can be used by the students to identify the energy transformations. This activity can also be used to demonstrate other energy flows, like biodiesel, ethanol, natural gas, etc.

Sun Nuclear fusion—produces energy

Prop & Action Yellow Ball

Radiant Energy Nuclear energy in the sun is transformed to radiant energy and travels through space to Earth. Radiant energy travels in WAVES.

Prop & Action Long pieces of yellow ribbon, several students wave in the air

Chemical Energy Radiant energy is absorbed by green plans and through photosynthesis converts radiant energy to chemical energy.

Prop & Action Green plants or silk plants, students bring up from floor

Stored Chemical Energy Green plants die and are compressed under extreme pressure over a LONG period of time and become COAL. Chemical energy is stored in the coal.

Prop & Action Green plants or silk plants, students step on leaves

Coal Coal is mined and taken to a power plant. (Additional details may be added if desired.)

Prop & Action Pieces of coal OR wads of black construction paper, students pick up coal from ground

Thermal Energy Coal is burned in the furnace. Stored chemical energy produces thermal energy.

Prop & Action Empty box, coal is put into "furnace" box

Thermal Energy The thermal energy heats the water. Water becomes steam.

Prop & Action Hot pot or bottled water, student lifts up hot pot

Steam Steam travels down pipes (plastic tubing) to the turbine.

Prop & Action Plastic hose or tubing, connect tube to hot pot used above

Motion/Mechanical Energy Steam causes the turbine blades to spin.

Prop & Action Student arms, student stands with arms outstretched and bent upwards at the elbow, student spins as steam touches them

Electrical Energy The turbine is connected to the generator causing the magnets to spin around the copper coils producing electrical energy.

Prop & Action Bar magnets, copper ribbons, three students hold bar magnets, one student is ‘wrapped’ in copper colored ribbon or wire, students with magnets ‘spin’ around copper wire

Electrical Energy Electrical energy travels down the power lines to our homes.

Prop & Action twisted rope, start with twisted rope then pull away the smaller pieces to designate the low voltage lines that come into our homes

Electrical Energy Electrical energy powers our homes.

Prop & Action ‘magic’ light bulb, and extension cord, student pulls chain on light bulb or switches it on

Variations Other energy flows can be demonstrated, substituting other sources for the coal (corn to ethanol; soybeans to biodiesel; decomposing garbage to methane, etc.)


It was hot, too hot for eight o’clock at night. The sun beat down on Bradley as he slowly climbed the steps to his apartment. He opened the door and threw his backpack on the table.

“Dad, I’m home,” he called. “Turn up the air conditioner. It’s an oven in here.”

“Hey, Brad, I’m in the kitchen,” his father answered. “We had to turn off the air. The President was on TV telling everybody to turn off everything we can. There’s not enough electricity with this heat wave.”

“But I’m burning up, Dad.”

“Everybody’s hot, son. Get a drink and go sit out back. It’ll be dark soon; maybe things will cool down a little.”

Suddenly, the light over the kitchen table flickered and went out. The apartment turned dark and gloomy.

“The power’s out, Dad. I guess I can’t do my homework,” said Bradley with a grin.

“Sure you can. You can use a candle just like Abe Lincoln did when he was a boy,” replied his father.

“What’s for dinner? I’m starving.”

“Well, I was cooking chicken, but the stove won’t work without electricity,” said his dad. “I guess we can eat sandwiches.”

“Why don’t we go out to eat? It’s always cool in restaurants.”

“They won’t have any power either, Brad. I bet this blackout is all over the area.”

“I’ll turn on the news and see what’s happening...oh, I can’t. The TV won’t work,” said Bradley.

“Get my cell phone. We can read the news that way,” replied his father.

The Power of ConservationOFF


Brad and his father sat in the backyard of the apartment building, as Brad’s father read him the news from his phone. It was darker than Brad had ever seen. No street lights, no lights anywhere, except for the headlights of cars trying to drive down streets with no signals. Horns were blasting everywhere. And the news said the power might be off for several days. There’d never been a heat wave all over the country like this.

“This is awful, Dad. It’s burning up inside and it’s dark and there’s nothing to do. I can’t watch TV or play my video games. And the traffic’s so bad, we couldn’t go anywhere if we wanted to. I’ll go nuts if this goes on for days,” whined Brad, in a terrible mood. “Can’t you do something?”

“Come on, Brad. I’ve got an idea. Let’s camp down by the river for a few days. It’ll be cooler there and we can get some fishing in,” answered his dad. “I’m sure school will be canceled with no power.”

“But the news report you saw told everybody to stay off the roads. The signals aren’t working and the gas pumps aren’t either. How are we going to get there?” asked Brad.

“Leg power, son. We’ll walk. Let’s get our backpacks and get out of here.”

Brad knew better than to argue with his dad when he’d set his mind to something. And it was so hot in the apartment that anything would be better than this. They packed by candlelight—a few clothes, their fishing poles, flashlights, sleeping bags, and a little food.

They started to walk. It was a long way to the river and Brad wasn’t happy. As they walked, though, his mood began to change. The city looked so different. People were out with flashlights and lanterns, talking to each other. Kids were playing hide and seek. The only people who were in a bad mood were the drivers stuck in traffic. Brad thought it was kind of funny watching them try to weave through the mess.

Brad’s father took him through parts of the city he’d never seen from a car window. His dad seemed to know all the shortcuts and back alleys. They got to the river just as the moon rose.

They weren’t alone, though. Lots of people had the same idea. Makeshift campsites dotted the whole area. Brad and his dad found a spot under a big sycamore tree and spread out their sleeping bags. They hung their lantern from one of the branches and looked around. The breeze from the river felt good.


“Go catch us some dinner, Brad,” said his father, “and I’ll round up some wood and start a fire.”

Brad grabbed his fishing pole and headed for a quiet spot upstream. In no time he was carrying back four squirming bass. His dad had a small fire going. They gutted and scaled the fish and his dad showed him how to cook the fish on a flat rock in the middle of the fire.

After a while, the people began to gather by the river. Someone started singing. Soon, everyone joined in. As one song ended, somebody would start another. They sang until after midnight. Brad was surprised at how many songs his dad knew. He was surprised, too, that he was having such a good time.

Slowly, as if there’d been a silent signal, people began drifting back to their campsites. Brad laid on top of his sleeping bag and watched the stars until he fell asleep.

The next two days dawned as hot as the first. Brad spent much of his time swimming and fishing in the river with several other boys his age. His dad seemed to know everything about the plants and animals that lived in the water and along the shore. He even made soup out of a turtle he’d caught.

They listened to the news on a neighbor’s hand-operated radio every evening during dinner since Brad’s dad’s cell phone died. The power outages were still widespread as the heat wave continued. There were reports of looting and other problems in the cities, but by the river people were having a good time. More people showed up every day.

On the evening of the fifth day Brad said, “You know, Dad, this isn’t so bad. How long do you think it’s gonna go on?”

“Well, son, I think the weather’s gonna break soon. The air feels different to me somehow. I think we’re in for a big storm tomorrow. We’ll head for home in the morning.”

The next day brought the same clear sky and hot air. Brad’s father insisted on packing up, even though the weather reporter on the radio wasn’t predicting a change in the weather. It was hot walking back into the city. Everyone was outside, searching for a little relief from the heat. Brad knew the apartment would be stifling and he wasn’t looking forward to it. His dad was wrong this time.


About a block from home, however, the sky began to darken. Lightning jumped from cloud to cloud. The low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. The still air began to move. Just as they reached the steps to their apartment, the sky seemed to open. The welcomed rain poured over the city. Brad and his father hurried inside to open the windows and let in the cool air.

“You were right, Dad. You were the only one who knew. How could you tell?” asked Brad, shaking his head in amazement.

“I could just sense it, son. I can’t explain it. It’s just a feeling,” replied his father.

Power was slowly restored to most of the area by morning. Brad was surprised that he felt a little disappointed. Brad looked around his apartment and realized he hadn’t missed electricity out by the river, but he sure would have if they’d stayed here. He had never realized how much everything depends on electricity.

“Thanks, Dad, for a great time. I hope we can do it again sometime. You know, I didn’t think about TV once!”


Primary Energy Surveys Materials

Procedure �Student Energy Survey

The Student Energy Survey is an activity to encourage students to think about energy and the ways that they use and misuse it. Have each student complete the survey. For each question, make a chart of the number of students who marked each answer, as well as a list of the ways students use, waste, and save energy. (See Elementary Saving Energy Infosheet at www.NEED.org)

�Home Energy Survey

The Home Energy Survey is an activity for students to complete with their parents. Send the survey home with the students with instructions for parents to answer the questions and to show the students the furnace, air conditioner, water heater, etc.

When students have returned the completed Home Energy Surveys, make a class summary of the answers, showing how many homes are heated by natural gas, oil, electricity, wood (biomass), etc.

�School Energy Survey

Once students have discussed how energy is used in their homes, take them on a mission through their school to answer the questions on the School Energy Survey. Talk to the cafeteria staff to learn how food is cooked. Visit the maintenance staff to learn about heating and cooling the school, heating the water, energy efficient lighting, etc. Talk to a bus driver about the type of fuel used in the school buses. Talk to the principal about the things that are recycled.

Have students brainstorm ways to save energy at school and present a list to the principal.

O Additional Resources �Most Wanted Energy Wasters from NEED’s Energy Games and Icebreakers

�Energy Live!

�Songs from the NEED Songbook

�Field trips to gas stations, power plants, coal mines, dams, wind farms, etc.

Supplemental ActivitiesOFF The Power of Conservation

�School Energy Survey (one copy per class)

�Home Energy Survey (one copy for each student)

�Student Energy Survey (one copy for each student)


1. I use solar energy: every day sometimes never

2. I use solar energy to _________________________________________

3. I use biomass energy: every day sometimes never

4. I use biomass energy to _________________________________________

5. I use petroleum: every day sometimes never

6. I use petroleum to ________________________________________

7. I use electricity: every day sometimes never

8. I use electricity to _________________________________________

9. I recycle: every day sometimes never

10. I recycle these things _________________________________________

11. I waste energy: every day sometimes never

12. I waste energy by _________________________________________

13. I save energy: every day sometimes never

14. I save energy by _________________________________________

15. I will do these things to save more energy:

Student Energy Survey


1. What kind of energy heats our home in winter?

2. What kind of energy cools our home in summer?

3. What kind of energy cooks our food?

4. What kind of energy heats our water?

5. What kind of energy runs our car?

6. What kind of energy powers our lights and our appliances?

7. What kinds of things do we recycle?

8. How do we waste energy?

9. How do we save energy?

10. What things can we do to save more energy?

Home Energy Survey


1. What kind of energy heats our school in winter?

2. What kind of energy cools our school in summer?

3. What kind of energy cooks our food?

4. What kind of energy heats our water?

5. What kind of energy runs our school buses?

6. What kind of energy powers our lights and our computers?

7. What kinds of things does the school recycle?

8. How do we waste energy?

9. How do we save energy?

10. What things can we do to save more energy?

School Energy Survey


Dear Sandy,

Mom told me you got a job at a nuclear power plant. I don’t want you to work there. Homer Simpson works there and it’s a bad place. They make bad things and use a lot of power and you might get hurt.

Please come home. I love you.

Your brother,

Josh

Dear Josh,

Thanks for the letter. I’m sorry you’re worried about me. You don’t have to be. You know, not everything you see on TV is true.

I’m really excited about my new job, Josh. Maybe if I tell you about it, you won’t worry anymore. You might even think it’s cool!

First of all, a nuclear power plant doesn’t use a lot of power, it makes a lot of power—electric power. My power plant makes enough electricity to power 400,000 homes, including ours. So every time you watch TV or turn on the lights, I want you to say, “Thanks, Sandy! Good job!”

A nuclear power plant makes electricity with a special mineral called uranium. Uranium is buried under the ground. Miners dig it up with giant shovels.

Uranium looks like a normal rock, but it isn’t. Some of the uranium is special. It has a lot of energy in it. We use that energy to make electricity.

The energy in the special uranium is very powerful. It can fly out in invisible rays, like x-rays or light rays.

You know how the rays of energy from the sun can hurt you. You can get a sunburn if you stay out in the sun too long. You get hit by too many rays.

Dear Sandy


The sun’s rays can burn your skin, but they aren’t powerful enough to go through it.

You know about x-rays, too. They can go right through your skin, but they can’t go through your bones or teeth. X-rays are good at finding broken bones and cavities in your teeth.

Too many x-rays can be dangerous. They can hurt your insides and make you sick.

The rays from uranium fuel are a lot like x-rays. They are powerful, too. We call these rays radiation. Radiation can go all the way through your body. If you are hit by a lot of radiation, it can make you sick.

Things that give off radiation are called radioactive. Uranium fuel is radioactive. So are the tools and containers that touch the uranium fuel.

It’s important to keep radioactive things away from people. That’s my job. I’m a safety officer at the power plant. I make sure the plant and the people who work there are safe. I make sure the people who live near the plant are safe, too.

We do lots of things to keep people safe. Everyone who works at the plant goes to school to learn how to stay safe at the plant. Some people here go to school for eight years to learn their jobs. Everyone learns that safety is the most important thing.

We also have machines that check for radiation all over the plant. All the workers wear special monitors. I wear one, too. They keep us safe.

If one monitor breaks down, there are others to do the same job—like putting three smoke detectors in every room of your house. There are computers, too, that can shut down the plant if there is any sign of a problem.

Everything that is radioactive is kept away from the workers. The uranium fuel is made into pellets and put inside strong metal tubes. The tubes are put into a container with steel walls a foot thick.

The steel container is inside a concrete and steel building that has walls four feet thick. No radiation can get through all that steel and concrete.


The government has lots of rules to keep the plant safe. They send inspectors to make sure we follow all of the rules. They also make sure the buildings, containers, and machines are in good shape.

We do a lot more, Josh, but I think this letter gives you an idea of how safe my job is. I’ll bring you pictures of the plant when I come home next month. And I’ll tell you all about it.

I love my job and I’m proud to be helping make electricity for people. Especially for you.

I love you, little brother!

Sandy


Supplemental ActivitiesDear Sandy

Chain Reaction& Background

Uranium atoms have a lot of energy holding them together. When a neutron hits a uranium atom, it can split it into two lighter atoms. These lighter atoms don’t need as much energy to hold them together, so some of the energy from the uranium atom turns into heat that can be used to make electricity. The lighter atoms don’t have as many neutrons, either. Two extra neutrons are free to fly around. These neutrons hit other uranium atoms and split them. This makes more energy and more free neutrons. This is called a chain reaction. In a nuclear bomb, this reaction takes place very quickly, causing an explosion. In a nuclear power plant, the chain reaction is carefully controlled so that heat is produced, but not an explosion.

Procedure �Explain a chain reaction, using the diagram below. Have the students estimate the number of lighter atoms there would be after 30 seconds, if there is one reaction per second. Write some of the estimates on the board. Have one student at a time go to the board to add the numbers for each reaction, beginning with 1+1=2, then 2+2=4, 4+4=8, etc. The students will soon see how quickly the numbers become huge. Stop the exercise when the addition becomes too difficult. The actual number after 30 seconds is more than one billion atoms (1,073,741,824). You can also duplicate the diagram and have the students complete the next generation of the reaction.

�To demonstrate that a chain reaction is dependent on the amount of fuel and cannot go on forever, do the following activity. Have all of the students sit on the floor very close together, with a ball of paper in each hand. The students are uranium atoms, the paper balls are neutrons. Begin the reaction by tossing a paper ball neutron to one student - a uranium atom. When the neutron lands on an atom of uranium, that atom should toss its neutrons into the air, and so on. The reaction will proceed quickly for a few moments, then slow down as most of the uranium atoms have split and given off their neutrons and energy.


Every move you make—you change the world. Every breath you take—you change the world.

You change the world every day—and that’s okay. Just think of the many ways you change the world.

You eat plants and animals that eat plants. You wear clothes made out of plants, like cotton. You step on plants. You burn plants.

You use energy to get you places. You use energy to keep you warm and keep you cool. You use energy to light up the dark and run your TV and charge your electronics.

You drink water and take baths and swim. You wash your clothes and your dishes. You flush the toilet.

You buy toys and gum and soft drinks. You throw away lots of trash.

You breathe in air full of oxygen. You breathe out air full of carbon dioxide.

All day, every day, you change the air around you.

All of the animals breathe air, too. They breathe in oxygen. They breathe out carbon dioxide.

When we burn wood, or coal, or oil, or natural gas—we use up oxygen and make carbon dioxide.

Do you know that plants breathe, too?

They take in carbon dioxide. They put out oxygen. Just the opposite of you.

Today, we make a lot of carbon dioxide.

Lots of people are in the world and they all breathe. Lots of people, factories, vehicles, and power plants burn wood, coal, oil, and natural gas.

We make more carbon dioxide than the plants can use. We are changing the balance in the air.

Every Move You Make


Many scientists agree this will make the Earth warmer—not a lot warmer, but a little bit.

They call this climate change, or global warming. They think it is bad for the Earth. They think we should reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the air.

We can’t stop breathing, so we need to stop burning so much wood, coal, oil, and natural gas.

This might change the way we live. We might not be able to drive our cars as much as we do now. We might have to stop using so much energy every day.

What do you think? What could YOU do?


Change Is In The Air Procedure

Make a copy of the picture below for each student. Have the students chart the flow of carbon dioxide and oxygen to and from all of the objects in the picture. Use red arrows to show the flow of oxygen. Use blue arrows to show the flow of carbon dioxide.

Supplemental ActivitiesEvery Move You Make


Our Awesome Extras page contains PowerPoints, animations, and other great resources to compliment what you are teaching!

www.NEED.org/awesomeextras

www.need.org/awesomeextras


Energy Stories and MoreEvaluation Form

State: ___________ Grade Level: ___________ Number of Students: __________

1. Did you use the entire guide? Yes No

2. Were the instructions clear and easy to follow? Yes No

3. Did the activities meet your academic objectives? Yes No

4. Were the activities age appropriate? Yes No

5. Were the allotted times sufficient to conduct the activities? Yes No

6. Were the activities easy to use? Yes No

7. Was the preparation required acceptable for the activities? Yes No

8. Were the students interested and motivated? Yes No

9. Was the energy knowledge content age appropriate? Yes No

10. Would you use this guide again? Yes No Please explain any ‘no’ statement below.

How would you rate the guide overall? excellent good fair poor

How would your students rate the guide overall? excellent good fair poor

What would make the guide more useful to you?

Other Comments:

Please fax or mail to: The NEED Project 8408 Kao Circle Manassas, VA 20110 FAX: 1-800-847-1820

National Sponsors and Partners

Air Equipment CompanyAlaska Electric Light & Power CompanyAlbuquerque Public SchoolsAmerican Electric PowerAmerican Fuel & Petrochemical ManufacturersArizona Public ServiceArmstrong Energy CorporationBarnstable County, MassachusettsRobert L. Bayless, Producer, LLCBG Group/ShellBP America Inc.Blue Grass EnergyCape Light Compact–MassachusettsCentral Falls School DistrictChugach Electric Association, Inc. CITGOClean Energy CollectiveColonial PipelineColumbia Gas of MassachusettsComEdConEdison SolutionsConocoPhillipsConstellationCuesta College David Petroleum CorporationDesk and Derrick of Roswell, NMDirect EnergyDominion EnergyDonors ChooseDuke EnergyEast Kentucky PowerEnergy Market Authority – SingaporeEscambia County Public School Foundation EversourceExelon FoundationFoundation for Environmental EducationFPLThe Franklin InstituteGeorge Mason University – Environmental Science and PolicyGerald Harrington, GeologistGovernment of Thailand–Energy MinistryGreen Power EMCGuilford County Schools – North CarolinaGulf PowerHawaii EnergyIdaho National LaboratoryIllinois Clean Energy Community Foundation

Illinois Institute of TechnologyIndependent Petroleum Association of New MexicoJames Madison UniversityKentucky Department of Energy Development and IndependenceKentucky Power – An AEP CompanyKentucky Utilities CompanyLeague of United Latin American Citizens – National Educational Service CentersLeidosLinn County Rural Electric CooperativeLlano Land and ExplorationLouisville Gas and Electric CompanyMississippi Development Authority–Energy DivisionMississippi Gulf Coast Community Foundation Mojave Environmental Education ConsortiumMojave Uni�ed School DistrictMontana Energy Education CouncilThe Mountain InstituteNational FuelNational GridNational Hydropower AssociationNational Ocean Industries AssociationNational Renewable Energy LaboratoryNC Green PowerNew Mexico Oil CorporationNew Mexico Landman’s AssociationNextEra Energy ResourcesNEXTrackerNicor Gas Nisource Charitable FoundationNoble EnergyNolin Rural Electric CooperativeNorthern Rivers Family ServicesNorth Carolina Department of Environmental QualityNorth Shore GasO�shore Technology ConferenceOhio Energy ProjectOpterra EnergyPaci�c Gas and Electric CompanyPECOPecos Valley Energy CommitteePeoples GasPepcoPerformance Services, Inc. Petroleum Equipment and Services Association

Phillips 66PNMPowerSouth Energy CooperativeProvidence Public SchoolsQuarto Publishing GroupRead & Stevens, Inc. Renewable Energy Alaska ProjectRhode Island O�ce of Energy ResourcesRobert ArmstrongRoswell Geological SocietySalt River ProjectSalt River Rural Electric CooperativeSaudi AramcoSchlumbergerC.T. Seaver TrustSecure Futures, LLCShellShell ChemicalsSigora SolarSingapore Ministry of EducationSociety of Petroleum EngineersSociety of Petroleum Engineers – Middle East, North Africa and South AsiaSolar CityDavid SorensonSouth Orange County Community College DistrictTennessee Department of Economic and Community Development–Energy DivisionTeslaTesoro FoundationTri-State Generation and TransmissionTXU EnergyUnited Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New JerseyUniversity of KentuckyUniversity of MaineUniversity of North CarolinaUniversity of TennesseeU.S. Department of EnergyU.S. Department of Energy–O�ce of Energy E�ciency and Renewable EnergyU.S. Department of Energy–Wind for SchoolsU.S. Energy Information AdministrationUnited States Virgin Islands Energy O�ceWayne County Sustainable EnergyWestern Massachusetts Electric CompanyYates Petroleum Corporation

©2017 The NEED Project 8408 Kao Circle, Manassas, VA 20110 1.800.875.5029 www.NEED.org

energy stories and more

Documents