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Lesson 6: Energy Transfers and Efficiency in Large-Scale Energy Generation

Overview

Students analyze the way they personally use energy and begin to examine energy use on a much larger scale. Students discover how reliant all sectors (residential, commercial, industrial, transportation) are on electricity and fossil fuels as energy sources. As they investigate the energy transfers involved in the generation of electricity, students consider the efficiency of the transfers involved in the process.

Key Ideas

• In order to meet increasing energy demands, people in Maine must utilize the potential energy in various sources in the most efficient ways they can.
• Examining the efficiency of the transfers and transformations involved in electrical generation methods further supports the notion that the energy decisions people make have benefits and drawbacks.

Lesson Goals

Students will:

• analyze and determine energy use trends for themselves, on Maine, and for the nation.
• examine the efficiency of the energy transfers and transformations common to prominent electrical generation methods.
• begin to consider the cumulative effects of the energy decisions people make every day.

Lesson Resources

Download Lesson Plan (14 pages,664 KB)



Palmer Putnam Podcast



Pie Graph of Maine Energy Consumption by Sector 2007



Student Handout 6.1: Advance Organizer for Energy Consumption Article (1 page, 396 KB)


Student Handout 6.2: Calculating the Efficiency of (Selected) Components of an Electrical Power Plant (2 pages, 492 KB)



Teacher Resource 6.1: PowerSleuth puzzle sets (without lines)



Teacher Resource 6.2: PowerSleuth puzzle descriptions (2 pages, 1.1 MB)

Links

• U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), Maine Energy Profile. Maine is the only New England State in which industry is the leading energy-consuming sector.

• Maine Energy Consumption 2007 by End-Use Sectors in BTU from U.S. Energy Information Administration State Energy Data System (SEDS)
   
• “Energy Consumption” article Energy Consumption from NEED (National Energy Education Project)
   
• Video clip describing the increasing energy demands of modern society (6 minutes)

• US DOE Electric Power and Renewable Energy in Maine. Charts and statistics that show historical trends for electricity consumption in Maine and the growing production of electricity from renewable energy resources.
   
• Investigate “efficiency” in the transportation sector. Find out how the automobile industry is working to improve the efficiency of vehicles. Examine trends in efficiency in this sector.  (Additional classroom exploration ideas can be found at this Energy Matters website of the Wisconsin K-12 Energy Education Program.)
   
• Examine a satellite “photo” of the Earth at night. The “photo” is actually a compiled image using data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and shows the location of permanent lights on Earth's surface. 
   
• Learn more about Climate Change by visiting the EPA’s Climate Change for Kids site.

Connections to Maine Agencies

A Maine Energy Education Representative Program (MEEP) representative will come to interested schools, free of charge, to guide and support the concepts in this lesson.

For schools in Aroostook County, a Maine Public Service (MPS) representative will come to interested schools, free of charge, to guide and support the concepts developed in this lesson.