In this video from DragonflyTV, follow the investigation of Isaac and Anjali as they record, measure, and analyze data about how the Sun's position in the sky affects a solar-powered car's speed.

Working as if they were engineers, students design and construct model solar sails made of aluminum foil to move cardboard tube satellites through “space” on a string. Working in teams, they follow the engineering design thinking steps—empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, redesign—to design and test small-scale solar sails for satellites and space probes. During the process, learn about Newton’s laws of motion and the transfer of energy from wave energy to mechanical energy. A student activity worksheet is provided.

This article provides elementary school teachers with background knowledge about science concepts needed to understand the first of seven essential principles of climate literacy--the sun is the primary source of energy for our climate system. Graphs, diagrams, and oneline resources provide more background for the teacher. The article appears in a free online magazine that focuses on the seven essential princples of the climate sciences.

This course is taught in four main parts. The first is a review of fundamental thermodynamic concepts (e.g. energy exchange in propulsion and power processes), and is followed by the second law (e.g. reversibility and irreversibility, lost work). Next are applications of thermodynamics to engineering systems (e.g. propulsion and power cycles, thermo chemistry), and the course concludes with fundamentals of heat transfer (e.g. heat exchange in aerospace devices).

Thermodynamics is the study of heat, "thermo," and work, "dynamics." We will be learning about energy transfer during chemical and physical changes, and how we can predict what kind of changes will occur. Concepts covered in this tutorial include the laws of thermodynamics, internal energy, heat, work, PV diagrams, enthalpy, Hess's law, entropy, and Gibbs free energy.

Description
Overview: Area: Energy
There is a single quantity called energy is due to the remarkable fact that a system's total energy is conserved. Regardless of the quantities of energy transferred between subsystems and stored in various ways within the system, the total energy of a system changes only by the amount of energy transferred into and out of the system.

A variety of fuels are evaluated for the amount of heat they liberate upon burning. This includes a discussion of how different criteria can influence the evaluation of what makes a "good" fuel.

This formative assessment item is used to uncover student ideas about solar radiation. Students will decide what they believe the sun provides to Earth. It is aligned to National Science Education Standards. Resources are provided to give additional information, as well as instructional suggestions.

Student pairs design and construct small, wind-powered sail cars using limited quantities of drinking straws, masking tape, paper and beads. Teams compete to see which sail car travels the farthest when pushed by the wind (simulated by the use of an electric fan). Students learn about wind and kinetic and renewable energy, and follow the steps of the engineering design process to imagine, create, test, evaluate and refine their sail cars. This activity is part of a unit in which multiple activities are brought together for an all-day school/multi-school concluding “engineering field day” competition.