Powering the World with Solar Energy
A great lesson for middle schoolers would be to go over renewable energy and, more so, solar power. The article below describes how much land would be necessary to cover in solar panels to run the world solely on solar energy. The lesson would start by discussing renewable energy and going over any misconceptions about the information. After introducing solar energy we would read the article with the students and have them study the map and area that would be required to power the world. I would also use the helpful information and experiment that I linked to the article to help kids understand solar power. This allows them to have hands on leaning so they can further understand solar energy.
The students could then design a diorama of the solar panels that would cover the area of land, or the students could create and color a map of the area required for the solar panels. The students, instead of doing either or those options, could also write a short essay on the complications of this feat.
Standards:
-obtain and combine information from various sources about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources, environment
-use evidence or models to support the claim that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from Earth
Link to article:
