It's Green Week, LabLearner style...Check out the helpful articles bellow and then join the discussion on Facebook and LinkedIn!
|
Obama Proposes Wave Energy...Here's How it Works!
President Obama chose Earth Day 2009 to announce the establishment of a U.S. program to develop renewable energy from harvesting the wind, waves and water off the continental shelf of the U.S. Each of these technologies differs in the specifics of their mechanics and equipment. Yet, together they illustrate one of the important concepts within science, the Law of Conservation of Energy. Simply put, the Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed in form.
Let's apply this concept to one of the technologies highlighted in the Obama plan, wave energy. From a conceptual perspective, the energy contained in rising and falling waves is "captured" and transformed ultimately into electrical energy. How does this happen? One of the devices used to capture wave energy is the oscillating water column (shown above), which would be found on shore or near the shore. This device combines the action of the rising and falling waves with the compressive power of air.
The device has air trapped within it. The opening to the device is below water level. As water enters the device, the action of the waves moves the water up and down. In turn, the water moves the air above it up and down. This moving compressed air then moves the rotors of a turbine, which ultimately generates electrical energy. Thus, the mechanical energy of moving waves, water and air is transformed into electrical energy.
The efficiency of that energy transfer or how much of a wave's mechanical energy is transformed into electrical energy versus heat energy as the parts of the device move over each other, is one of the challenges faced by this and any other technology. Another challenge of using oscillating water columns is how to maximize the energy from waves of different intensities so that differences in seasonal wave intensity do not produce significant differences in electricity or energy output.
Students and teachers often look for everyday or "real life" application of the Law of Conservation of Energy. This announcement during Green Week provides another opportunity for teachers to make real world connections with the concepts they highlight within their classrooms.
For questions or comments please visit Facebook or LinkedIn.
|
Green Week & LabLearner
As we've so often heard, our students and children are the future of our society. Their understanding and decisions will shape humanity's interaction with the environment and planet. What can we do to help ensure that we are helping to create environmentally literate children?
One of the ways is to help our children and students establish a solid conceptual foundation for understanding climate change and other environmental issues. This type of knowledge exists within LabLearner Program CELLs and GAP Units. CELLs such as the Solar System and Space, and GAP Units such as Geologic Time, present the basic science concepts that underlie an understanding of climate change. In these CELL and GAP Units students investigate the effect that changes in light intensity, tilt of the Earth, and revolution of the Earth around the Sun, have on the temperature and climate differences of Earth. With these concepts under their belt, they are then ready to integrate new information about global warming, and natural warming cycles into their knowledge base.
In celebration of Earth Day and Green Week, we invite you to take a moment to look at the CELL that your students or children are performing or what CELLs they will perform in the next school year and think about how you can incorporate the topics of this year's Earth Day or Green Week into the CELLs and share those ideas with us.
Not sure about how to do that? Post your comments and questions (Facebook and/or LinkedIn) for help from colleagues and LabLearner scientists.
To get you started, here's a list of the CELLs and GAP Units that would be terrific springboards for Earth Day and Green Week topics.
CELLs
Weather Changes
The Water Cycle
The Earth's Surface
Our Solar System
Ecosystems and Adaptations
Inheritance and Adaptations
Weathering and Erosion
Photosynthesis
Watersheds
Atmosphere
Chemical Reactions
Acids and Bases
Ecosystems
GAP Units
Earth's Changing Surface
Biomes
The Changing Earth
Clouds and Storms
Geologic Time
|
