Renewable Energy: Solar
Lesson Plans
GradesK, 1, 2Science, English Language Arts
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by Pacific Education Institute
What it is
- In this collection of 8 lessons, students will learn about light energy, heat energy, how light interacts with objects, and how color affects heat.
- The unit opens with a Native American story about the Sun. Inspired by the story, students will design a hat to minimize the effects of the Sun's heat on the eagle's head, then do experiments and activities to update their design and demonstrate their learning.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The animated video does a great job of explaining translucent, transparent, and opaque in simple terms.
- Many hands-on activities, videos, and stories will keep students engaged and are effective for all kinds of learners.
Additional Prerequisites
- The link to the solar energy experiment will not take you to the correct page on the website, but you can find a similar activity here.
- The link to the Program Manager of Energy Efficiency in the extension section is broken.
Differentiation
- Students can hunt around their homes for objects that are transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective, and bring the objects or pictures of the objects to school.
- After they learn about heat and color, have students plan an outfit for different weather conditions.
- If you have the time and materials, have students construct their hat designs and test them outside.
From the scientist review
This resource compiled by CLEAN and developed by the Pacific Education Institute is about light (solar) and how it can affect the climate and the weather. A 2-3 week lesson plan is provided that walks students through exercises and activities involving light where students collect their own data to analyze. The exercises are age-appropriate and well-designed to activate critical thinking skills. This lesson would be a great addition to a classroom discussion about what contributes to climate change.
Ready to use it?
Hosted on oercommons.s3.amazonaws.com
Want this to fit your class?
Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.
