Eden Education:
Power of the Sun
Power of the Sun is a set of 7 lessons designed to form half a term's work including a visit to your nearby solar farm. It covers Grade 3-5 science topics including: electricity and circuits, conductors and insulators, renewable energy, the sun, light and shadow.
POWER OF THE SUN: ELECTRIC OR NOT
Grade level: 3-5
Curriculum areas: Science
Materials: Construction paper, Batteries, Bulbs, Wire, Science notebook, pencil
Students are introduced to energy conservation, renewable and nonrenewable energy. They engage in various activities to help them understand the transformation of solar and chemical energy into electricity, and observe how they can harness renewable resources to create electicity for use in our everyday lives.
POWER OF THE SUN: SOLAR CIRCUITS
Grade level: 3-5
Curriculum areas: Science
Materials: Wires, bulbs, battery, buzzer, solar panel, pen, paper
This lesson discusses the basic principles of circuit making: that there must be a power source, the circuit must not be broken, and the parts of a circuit can be drawn using certain symbols. Students observe how they can harness renewable resources to create electricity.
POWER OF THE SUN: CIRCUIT EXPERIMENTS
Grade level: 3-5
Curriculum areas: Science
Materials: Wires, bulbs, battery, buzzer, solar panel, pen, paper or science notebook
Students will observe and explain what will happen if more power is added or subtracted from a circuit. They will investigate how to alter bulb brightness and discuss voltage. Findings will be presented on a combination of bulbs and batteries.
POWER OF THE SUN: CONDUCTORS
Grade level: 3-5
Curriculum areas: Science
Materials: Wires, bulbs, battery, solar panels, a range of insulators and conductors, notebooks, pencil
Students will investigate conductors and insulators. They will bring in a variety of items from home and predict whether the materials will conduct electricity or not.
POWER OF THE SUN: ENERGY PRODUCTION
Grade level: 3-8
Curriculum areas: Science
Materials: Energy cards: (Prep prior to lesson) Fossil Fuel Production - Pictures of fossil fuel, boiler, turbine, power lines, generator, furnace, and light bulb; Solar Production - Pictures of the Sun, solar panel, inverter, and breaker box; Index cards, Markers, crayons or colored pencils
Students will explore the question, “Where does our energy come from?” This activity begins to piece together the key components of our energy story and asks the question, “how could this story be improved?”
POWER OF THE SUN: THE SUN AND THE EARTH
Grade level: 3-5
Curriculum areas: Science
Materials: SmartBoard or projector, earth, sun and moon animation, globe, flashlight, science notebooks, pencil
Students explore the position of the sun and earth through animations, making predictions and observations, and creating a model.
POWER OF THE SUN: SUN SHADOW
Grade level: 3-5
Curriculum areas: Science
Materials: Graph paper, chalk, ruler, Appendix 2, science notebooks, pencil, sunny day
In this lesson, movement of the sun will be recorded by observing, measuring, and marking the changing position of a shadow. Note: This activity will need to be planned choosing a sunny day and when students have the opportunity to go outside more than once on the same day.
POWER OF THE SUN: APPENDICES
Supplemental documents to go with the lesson plans.