Phenomena: The Story of Electronics
Students will use a See, Think, Wonder chart to explore the phenomenon of e-waste and what happens to electronics when they are thrown away. They will use this understanding to shape their exploration of batteries and clean energy technology.
Next Generation Science Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
| Performance Expectations | How is this Assessed? |
| 4-PS3-2. Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents. | L1, Students will record information about electric currents in their journals including models of energy transfer. L2, L3: Students will analyze various forms of energy sources including batteries, wind, hydrogen fuel cells, and solar that convert various forms of energy to electricity. |
| 4-PS3-4. Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another | L2: Students will design and create various forms of batteries from organic and inorganic objects. L3: Students will design wind turbine blades to convert wind energy into electricity. Students will also design solar boats to convert solar energy into motion. |
| 4-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment. | L1, L2: Students will explore existing energy sources in their community, understand their impact on society and the earth. They will conduct research processes to reduce the amount of e-waste in our community. Students will also research future energy sources to determine key sources that could and should be used to minimize human impact. |
| 5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment. | L3: Students will learn about various forms of alternative energy and how specific communities have applied these forms to provide energy for their community. |
| 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost. | L3: Students will be guided through 2 engineering design challenges to engineer wind turbine blades and a solar boat. This will involve defining the problem, designing solutions and testing and iterating those solutions. |
| 3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. | L3: Students will be guided through 2 engineering design challenges to engineer wind turbine blades and a solar boat. This will involve defining the problem, designing solutions and testing and iterating those solutions. |
| 3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved. | L3: Students will be guided through 2 engineering design challenges to engineer wind turbine blades and a solar boat. This will involve defining the problem, designing solutions and testing and iterating those solutions. |
Lesson 1: How Might We Design a Battery That Reduces E-Waste?
During this multi-day introductory lesson in this series, students will explore the guiding phenomenon to understand e-waste and connect it to battery design. Students will utilize online resources to learn about problems from e-waste around the world and the environmental impact of electronic consumption. The focus will be for students to ask questions, define problems and communicate information about e-waste. Students will read articles and define problems about the planet and human impact and review circuits to prepare for further exploration into electronics and battery design for the next lesson portion.
Lesson 2: Exploring Eco-Friendly Battery Design
In this lesson students will experiment with everyday household items to make batteries. Students will use lemons, potatoes, pennies, and cola to make batteries, and compare the amount of voltage produced. These lessons can be expanded to test a variety of fruits as electrolytes with the electrodes being zinc and copper.
Lesson 3: Engineering Clean Energy For Our Community
In this lesson, students will compare different clean energy sources to decide which energy source will power a motor. Students will experiment with wind power, solar cells, and hydrogen fuel cell models. Students will have multiple lessons to build, design, test, and redesign as they go through the entire engineering design process. Students will engage in all 4 model designs and choose the best option for their model. Students will use evidence from the design process to explain their solution. This is a great end of year culminating project to compare energy solutions to the problem of fossil fuels and pollution in the environment. Students final project will compare human impact with all different methods.