Eighth Grade, Energy & Power Projects, Lessons, Activities (33 results)

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal near Falkirk in central Scotland. It consists of two diametrically opposed caissons which rotate to lift boats between the two canals through a height of 35 meters. The wheel is always perfectly balanced and, despite its enormous mass, rotates through 180° in less than four minutes, using just 1.5 kilowatt-hours (Wikipedia contributors, 2006). Do background research… Read more

What happens when solar panels get covered in snow in winter? Does some sunlight make it through the snow? Does the power output of the panels drop considerably? Is it worth it to go scrape the snow off the panels if temperatures will remain below freezing? How hard is this to do for rooftop solar panels or a large solar farm? These are all questions you can answer yourself in a science project using a small solar panel and a multimeter (Figure 1). You can follow a procedure similar to those… Read more

How can technology and the internet help us solve some of the world's most pressing problems? Your students might not be ready to tackle global poverty or world peace, but they can start small by identifying a social problem in their local community. In this lesson plan they will design a solution to a problem of their choice that uses technology. It could be anything from a GPS-enabled dog collar to track lost pets, to an app that notifies local food banks when people have extra fruits and… Read more