Let’s Explore Energy
Electricity History and Sources
Instructor Guide
Subject Area Unit Grade Time
Science Earth Science K -1st grade 45 minutes
Overview What You’ll Need
This lesson provides a background and Teacher Lesson Plan Notes
history of the making of electricity. It provides Extension Activity Supplies
reinforcement of the concept that the sun Access to Kids Korner Website
provides energy in the form of light and heat. Student Activity Sheet
Learning Objectives Steps
This lesson plan meets the typical state criteria 1. Review Let’s Explore Energy teacher
for Earth Science in the Kindergarten and First lecture notes with students.
grade level. 2. Visit Kids Korner Website Electric Journey
to show demonstration of how electricity gets
Extension Activities to your home.
3. Choose one of the extension activities to
1. Science Experiment: Let’s Make a reinforce the concept that the sun provides
Solar Cooker light and heat.
2. Science Experiment: Sun or Shade?
3. Connect the dots activity sheet Evaluation
4. Power Maze
Ask the students to explain what energy we get
from the sun. Ask what other sources help us get
energy and electricity.
Sources/References: www.sciencenetlinks.com, www.enchantedlearning.com, Energy Exchange
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01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
Teacher Lecture Notes
There are lots of types of energy that produce power to operate machines, heat and cool your homes
and light up your schools. We need energy to make things GO!
Electricity is the most widely used form of energy. Its uses range from the miniature batteries that
operate your wristwatch to huge motors that power trains and ships. Electricity operates our lights,
runs our refrigerators and powers motors. You can’t see electricity but you can see what it does like
when you turn on a light.
Let’s Explore Electricity!
Electric History
For hundreds of years electricity has fascinated many scientists. Around 600 BC, Greek philosophers
discovered that by rubbing amber against a cloth, lightweight objects would stick to it. Just like rubbing
a balloon on a cloth makes the balloon stick to other objects. It was not until around the year 1600, that
any real research was done on this phenomenon
Meet the Scientists
Meet some of our most famous scientists and inventors, who by their curiosity, knowledge,
experimentation and pure genius, changed the world with electricity.
Ben Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was not only a scientist and inventor,
but also noted as being a statesman, a printer, philosopher, postmaster, musician and economist. Ben
was even one of the founding fathers of our country signing the Declaration of Independence.
Franklin is most famous for his curiosity and experimentation with electricity and other natural
occurrences. He became more interested in the effects of lightning. As an inventor Ben was most
noted for his famous kite flight experiment. Franklin did not invent electricity, but as a result of his
experiments, he did invent the lightning rod which protects buildings, homes and ships from lightning
damage from a strike.
Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, and like Ben Franklin, was both a scientist and
an inventor. In fact, Edison patented 1,093 inventions in his lifetime including the kinetoscope, the
phonograph, and his most famous - the incandescent lightbulb. These inventions earned him the
nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park.”
In 1879, after 1,200 experiments, Edison made a lightbulb using carbonized filaments from cotton that
burned for two days. With the help of an associate, Lewis Howard Latimer, who was responsible for
inventing the process for manufacturing the carbon filament, the light bulb was one of Edison’s greatest
achievements and it changed the world. The first light bulbs were installed in a steamship and later in a
New York factory.
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01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
The Electric Journey:
How Does Electricity Get to My House?
Check out the Kid Korner for an on line demonstration.
Energy comes from a Power Source
Types of Power Sources: Natural Gas, Hydropower, Coal and Solar
What is Natural Gas?
Natural gas is a fossil fuel like oil and coal. It is a “nonrenewable” fuel because it takes millions of
years to form deep in the earth before it can be used again. When microorganisms, sea plants and
animals died over 300 million years ago, even before the dinosaurs, they settled on the bottom of the
oceans which covered most of the earth. Layers of dead sea plants, animals, sand, mud, and other
debris built up over time and the pressure and heat from the earth turned them into petroleum and
natural gas. The natural gas would get trapped in pockets of underground rocks. Sometimes the gas
would seep up to the earth’s surface and dissipate into the air or ignite from lightning strikes.
Natural gas in it’s pure form is colorless, odorless and shapeless. Only after processing is the “rotten
egg” odor added for safety. It is a combination of several gases like propane, butane, carbon dioxide,
ethane, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide, but primarily made up of methane gas so when you
burn it it gives of heat energy. There are some renewable sources for methane like garbage in landfills
that produce some gas.
For more information on Natural Gas visit www.naturalgas.org.
What is Hydropower?
Water is another very important energy resource. People, plants and animals all depend on water.
Hydropower is energy that comes from the force of moving water. The word “hydro” means water.
Hydropower is a renewable energy source too. The sun heats the oceans turning it into water vapor.
This is called evaporation. When the water vapor rises it turns into clouds. The cold air above the earth
mixes with the clouds and releases rain or snow called precipitation. This water cycle goes on forever
making this a renewable energy source.
Hydropower is also a clean and environmentally friendly source of energy. There is no fuel to burn so
there are no harmful emissions put into the air.
What is coal?
Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel resource in the United States. Almost half of our electricity
comes from coal-fired plants and provides almost a quarter of America’s energy needs. Coal is also
the least expensive fossil fuel to use and is cleaner burning today than ever before by reducing the
sulfur dioxide emission (air pollution) by 71% since 1999.
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Teacher Feature
01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
Before the first settlers arrived, the North American Indians used coal to bake their clay pottery. By
the 1800’s coal was used for manufacturing goods, to make iron and steel, and later to power steam
engines for ships and trains. By the end of the 1800’s coal was used to produce electricity.
Today coal is used to make electricity and for smelting metals in the iron and steel industry;
(metallurgical coal is used for steel making). The paper, brick, cement and limestone industries also
use coal to make products.
Alternative Energy - Solar
Alternative Energy comes from resources like the sun (solar), the earth (geothermal), the wind (wind
power), wood, agricultural crops and animal waste (biomass), landfill or methane gasses (biogas),
and other sources like fuel cells. These resources are abundant and are renewable fuels. By using
alternative fuel sources we can conserve our non-renewable fuel sources like natural gas and oil.
By doing this we can be more energy efficient in producing electricity and heat while protecting our
environment
How It Works
Sun Power (solar energy) gives us heat and light energy.
Energy comes from a power source. For example, we get heat and light energy from the sun. The
sun is an energy source.
Solar Power is energy produced by the sun in the form of heat and light. The sun is 93 million miles
from the earth and is 4 to 5 billion years old. The temperature of the sun ranges from 10,000 degrees
Fahrenheit at its surface to more than 18 million degrees Fahrenheit at its center. That’s HOT! It takes
about 8 minutes for this energy to reach the earth. The sun itself is a star made up of mostly hydrogen
and helium gas and it radiates an enormous amount of energy every day.
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01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
Extension Activities - Experiments
To demonstrate that we get heat from the Sun
Let’s Make a Solar Cooker
You will need:
A sunny day
1 empty pizza box
Black construction paper
Aluminum foil
Sheet of clear plastic laminate
Non-toxic glue
Tape and scissors
Ruler and magic marker
One wood dowel rod
Food to bake-nachos and cheese
Build Your Solar Box:
1. Draw and cut a window in the top of the pizza box leaving one side
for folding.
2. Cut two pieces of foil to fit on the inside of the lid and to line the
inside of the box. Smooth out wrinkles and glue in place.
3. Tape a piece of plastic to the underside of the opening you cut.
Make sure the plastic is tightly sealed around all the edges. This
makes your oven window.
4. Glue corners of a piece of black construction paper to the bottom of
the inside of the box on top of the foil.
Your Solar Oven is now ready!
Just place your food to be cooked on the inside the box. Close the
box and prop open the window lid using the dowel rod. Position your
oven in the sun so that the foil lid reflects the maximum amount of
sunlight through the window. Try heating up s’mores, hot dogs, melt
some cheese on nachos, or even try baking a cookie
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01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
Experiment:
Sun or Shade?
Background questions:
When it is a hot sunny day, where might we go to get cool?
Are we really cooler in the shade?
Materials:
Thermometer
String
Procedure:
1. Hang a thermometer in the shade. After 5 minutes tell the class what the temperature is.
2. Next hang the thermometer in the sun. After 5 minutes check the temperature and report to the
class.
Ask questions:
Which area is warmer?
Why does it feel warmer in the sun?
When you are outside is the sun’s energy hitting your skin? How do you know?
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01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
Activities Page: Connect the Dots
Heat and Light Comes from the _____________?
Connect the dots to find the answer.
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01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
Activities Page - Power Maze
Help the house get the energy it needs by following through the maze.
This maze helps you to understand how we get energy we need in our daily lives. It starts with an energy
source, which then goes to a power plant. This power plant turns to energy into electricity that we can
use at home and at school.
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01/08 Let’s Explore Energy: Electricity History and Resources
