Hipp to be Green

The presentations are going wonderfully. The second team did their presentation on Global Warming. They discussed the different types of hydrocarbons; the effects of using hydrocarbons on the earth’s atmosphere; the things that would help us save energy; which areas of the world have the most pollution; and how the sea levels are affected.

The students are making this a competition and each group is trying to come up with the best lesson plan and review test. In addition, they are putting together a make-up test for any student who missed the original test.

This process has required them to know the subject matter a little better and since it has become a bit of a competition the students seem to be concentrating on their peers’ presentations.

They are starting to understand that they can make a difference and that this environment we all share is a balancing act.

Next week we will start building the other environmental lab and after that we will start installing the solar panel array outside.

We changed things up a little this week; the students are starting to teach the lessons to their peers.  The class, as you recall, is broken up into teams. Each team had to research different areas that are related to alternating energy, then develop a lesson plan and construct a test related to their subject matter covered.

The subjects that the teams chose to teach are as follows:

• British Thermal Unit (BTU) – Relationship to Electricity
• Global Warming – The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect
• Solar Panel Energy
• Wind Turbines
• Geothermal Energy
• AC/DC: What’s the Difference
• Alternative Energy.

British Thermal Unit (BTU) – Relationship to Electricity class was taught this past Monday.  The team demonstrated how electricity generates heat and how that heat is measured in BTU’s.

In addition, the team discussed how to wire solar panel arrays to increase voltage verses increasing amperage. The instructing team had the other teams demonstrate their knowledge by asking them to wire their own arrays, which were checked as part of their assessment process. 

Next lesson: Global Warming – The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect.

Since this is the third marking period and some of the students have had me for other classes they understand my teaching style.  This allows me to move at a faster pace and cover a little more material than the other two previous classes.

Now that the new students are here, I started the class off by giving the students an overview, course outline and the vocabulary list with instructions for the students to review this information. I advised them that we would cover the material during the next couple of classes.
 
In addition, during the week the students viewed NOVA’s  “Global Warming” DVD. After we viewed the DVD the students had a group discussion, then wrote an essay covering the DVD and their discussion.

While everything else was going on, some of the students needed to complete their solar array spreadsheets and charts. I must say, some of the charts were a bit colorful for my taste (see above.) Yes, they are having fun!  At the same time, the data is there and they are learning the required information.