Powering the Future

Pam Dugdale

Cronton Campus, Riverside College

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

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Author Profile

Initial Publication Date: May 28, 2013 | Reviewed: July 21, 2015 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This paper introduces a card exercise which allows students to make decisions about how best to provide electrical power to their country. Students must make choices between renewable and non-renewable electricity generation to balance supply and demand.

Nuclear Energy, Renewable & Alternative Energy, Fossil Fuels, Energy ...(more) | Middle - 8, High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14) | Public Policy and STEM

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Topics

Nuclear Energy, Renewable & Alternative Energy, Fossil Fuels, Energy Policy , Energy, Energy Policy

Grade Level

Middle - 8, High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14)

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

Public Policy and STEM: STEM disciplines can strengthen data-based decision making in the public sphere.

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Context

Audience

This activity is a good fit for high school environmental science students, but can be adapted above or below that audience level.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Understanding of basic principles of energy, and correct use of units.

How the activity is situated in the course

Stand alone exercise.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Develop problem solving skills.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

This activity is highly differentiated and can provide challenges to all participants from high school to graduate engineers.

Other skills goals for this activity

Team work. Engineering decision making.

Description of the activity/assignment

This paper introduces a card exercise which allows students to make decisions about how best to provide electrical power to their country. The work presented emphasizes the use in the classroom of real data to solve real problems, in this case balancing electrical power supply and demand in the UK. With some additional research the task may be easily adapted for use in other countries. Whilst completing the activity, the students are required to make important choices between renewable and non-renewable electricity generation. It is a highly differentiated task ranging from simple addition to quite challenging calculations taking into account the availability and variability of natural resources. This means that it can be used with classes from Year 9 through to Year 13.