LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE Your Name: Michaelah Mazek Title of Lesson: All about wind energy Grade: 4th

STANDARDS 4-PS3-4 Energy Students who demonstrate understanding can: Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another. LESSON SUMMARY/OVERVIEW This lesson will teach students about wind energy. The lesson will give students scientific information on wind and hands on activities that will allow students to see wind energy in action. OBJECTIVES Students will be able to explain what wind energy is, how it is made, and how it is used. ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION The students will be given an exit ticket for the day asking them to state three facts about wind. Possible answers: -Energy from the wind is renewable -Wind energy comes for large structures called, wind turbines. -A man named Charles F. Brush invented the first wind turbine. PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE That wind exists. MATERIALS The students will make a pinwheel turbine: -Scissors -Thumbtack -Pencil with an eraser at the end VOCABULARY/KEY WORDS Mechanical Energy: Energy an object has because of its motion or position Electrical Energy: Form of energy that consists of a flow of electric charges through a conductor Turbine: A machine that converts the mechanical energy of wind, moving water, or steam to electrical energy by using a generator Windmill: A small air turbine with blades, like those of an airplane propeller, exposed on a moving aircraft and driven by the air Generator: Machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy Wind Farms: A large grouping of wind generators or wind plants located at a site having dependable strong winds Anemometer: Instrument used to measure wind speed 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. TEACHING PROCEDURES Ask the students: Did you know we can get electricity through wind? Tell students: Wind energy comes from large structures called wind turbines. A wind turbine works the opposite of a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, a turbine uses wind to make electricity. When the wind turns the blades of a windmill, it spins a turbine inside a small generator to produce electricity. Tell students: During the winter of 1887-88 a man named Charles F. Brush invented the first wind turbine. (Show students pictures of first wind turbine and current wind turbine) Ask the students: How often during the day do they feel the wind blowing? Explain to students: Some days the wind blows a lot, but some days it does not blow that much. On windy days, wind turbines work extra hard to store up the electricity that can come from wind.

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Tell students: Using wind to create electricity has been around for a long time. A windmill on a farm can only make a small amount of electricity, enough to power a few farm machines. To make enough electricity to serve lots of people, power companies build wind farms with dozens of wind turbines. 7. Explain to students that windmills turns mechanical energy into electrical energy and go over definitions of the two different types of energy. 8. Tell students: Today we are going to make a wind turbine and that there are specific directions on the paper. However, if the students have a scientific idea that they believe would make the pinwheel work better they can change it. 9. Begin pinwheel turbine activity. 10. Have students take their pinwheels outside and try and catch the wind to make their turbine spin. 11. While using their pinwheels discuss mechanical energy and electrical energy and how a wind turbine changes the form of energy. 12. Once back in the classroom, play a wind facts game on the smart board as a whole class. RESOURCES

Information on wind energy from:

http://www.alliantenergykids.com/EnergyandTheEnvironment/RenewableEnergy/022397 http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageId=341
Pinwheel activity:

http://www.alliantenergykids.com/wcm/groups/wcm_internet/@int/@aekids/documents/document/mdaw/mdiy/~e disp/022821.pdf
Wind fact game:

http://www.alliantenergykids.com/FunandGames/OnlineGames/007011
Pictures of windmills:

http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageId=341 http://www.sustainable.co.za/blog/2013/08/urban-turbines-wind-power-for-domestic-use/
WAYS OF THINKING CONNECTION Futures thinking is considering how the decisions we make today, will affect us tomorrow. It involves looking deeper into these decisions and examining what they will potentially do to our world. By discussing alternative energy resources (I.E. wind energy) with the students, they can begin to learn about new ways of energy that one day our world may rely on.