21st Century Answers to Today's Energy Questions

One of the topics that most fascinates me and that I find I can easily get my students interested in is energy. The students always seem to have a number of ideas on how to either conserve energy or how to use different materials, some renewable and some not, as a source of energy. With the increase in the number of car manufacturers who are producing electric cars, advances in solar cell technology and its usage in neighborhoods across the county, and increasing government support of energy conserving efforts the students are very well aware of the concerns that many Americans have about the long term sustainability of fossil fuels at our rate of usage.

One of the 21st century tools that the students can use to gain more insight and facilitates the students learning of the concepts surrounding the topic and also provide an avenue for them to investigate on their own is the website http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=2. The site has valuable resources on all sources of energy as well as basic information on energy itself. It also provides charts and graphs for each topic area as well as games and activities for all grade levels including science fair experiments that the students can complete that relate to energy.

Another tool to use is http://www.neok12.com/Energy-Sources.htm. This site provides information about energy sources as well as alternative energy sources. The rather cool thing about this site is that it also includes videos on the different types of energy sources as well as the ability to create presentations for school and quizzes to share with friends as well. This will intrigue the more andvanced student and the videos will allow the strongly visual learner to fully grasp the many concepts covered in the discussion/debate about energy.