Youth Curriculum

1. RENEWABLE FUELS
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES OF:

2. QUIZ TIME
• What is deforestation?
• Name one animal that humans have saved from
extinction.
• How did Einstein help save animals?

3. WHAT TYPES OF FUELS DO WE USE NOW?
• What are fossil fuels?
• Oil, Coal, and Natural
Gas
• link

4. WHY ARE FOSSILS FUELS NOT AS GOOD AS SOME OTHER TYPES OF FUEL?
• Well, we already talked about fossil fuels emitting CO2 into the atmosphere.
• This causes and increase in green house gases
• Another reason is that fossil fuels are Non-Renewable Resources
• This means that we use them faster than they can be made.
• Eventually they will get used up.

5. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER ENERGY RESOURCES
• Can anyone name a few?
• Hydroelectric
• Solar
• Wind
• Nuclear
• Biofuels

6. SOLAR ENERGY
• The sun’s energy is expressed in
different ways, depending on what
materials it interacts with.
• Solar panels are built with materials
that physically interact with certain
wavelengths of solar energy.
• This enables them to transform solar
energy into electricity. Here’s how solar
panels absorb and store energy

7. SOLAR PANELS
• Solar panels are made with silicon crystals.
• Silicon is a very special material. It creates an
electrical current with sunlight.
• When sunlight hits your skin, the electrons in
the atoms of your body vibrate quickly to
generate heat. This is a sunburn
• But electrons do something different in silicon.
The electrons start moving around. This means
that the sun’s energy is conducted into an
electrical current, rather than heat.

8. SO WHY AREN’T SOLAR PANELS EVERYWHERE, LIKE EVERYWHERE
• What if it is cloudy?
• Solar panels are not super efficient
yet.
• That means that the usable energy
is a lot from solar panels.

9. HOW MANY RENEWABLE RESOURCES ARE USED
• Many of the energy sources use a
turbine generator
• In a turbine generator, a moving fluid—
such as water, steam, gases, or air—
pushes a conductor in a circle.
• Just outside the conductor is a huge
magnet
• Remember moving magnets by a
conductor move electrons.
• The reverse is also true, a moving
conductor by magnets moves electrons.
Keep this in mind for the future slides

10. HOW DOES IT WORK
HYDROELECTRICITY
• This is a form of energy that harnesses the power of water in motion—such as water
flowing over a waterfall—to generate electricity.
• People have used this force for millennia.
• Over two thousand years ago, people in Greece used flowing water to turn the
wheel of their mill to ground wheat into flour.

11. HYDROELECTRIC POWER

12. HYDROELECTRIC POWER

13. HYDROELECTRIC POWER
Think about the water as an infinite battery!

14. WIND IS LIKE WATER
• Wind power or wind energy
is the use of wind to provide
the power through wind
turbines to turn electric
generators, which will make
electricity for use!
• This is exactly how the
hydroelectricity works!

15. NUCLEAR ENERGY (FISSION)
• Nuclear energy originates from the
splitting of uranium atoms – a
process called fission.
• This generates heat to produce
steam, which is used by a turbine
generator to generate electricity.
• Because nuclear power plants do
not burn fuel, they do not produce
greenhouse gas emissions.

16. NUCLEAR ENERGY (FISSION)
• About 20% of America’s electricity comes from nuclear energy.
• Nuclear energy accounts for 56% of our nation's carbon-free electricity.
• Nuclear plants are the lowest-cost provider of large-scale electricity.
• Some states generate more than half of their electricity from nuclear power.

17. NUCLEAR ENERGY WASTE
• Even though, nuclear energy does not contribute to
green house gases, it still produces waste.
• Radioactive waste at that!
• This radioactive was can stick around for hundreds of
years!
• And no spidey powers!

18. NUCLEAR POWER (FUSION)
• The Sun uses Nuclear Fusion which mixes two atoms together by throwing them at
each other at really really really high speeds.
• What if we could use nuclear fusion?
• Well, that’s where Tokamaks come into the story.

19. TOKAMAKS
• Tokamaks are in the shape of a huge doughnut.
• They spin atoms so fast around the doughnut, they smash into each other and
create energy!
• The atoms are confined in the doughnut because the doughnut is one big ole
magnet.
• Our tokamaks get hotter than the sun!!!!
• However, we are still working on this stuff and making it more efficient!

20. TOKAMAK

21. TOKAMAK

22. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK
IS THE BEST ENERGY SOURCE?

23. HOW CAN PHYSICS HELP
• Physics is essential in every use of our renewable and nonrenewable resources.
• When someone asks What is physics?
Answer: The study of energy of every form.
• Every physics class will talk about:
1. What is the concept?
2. What is the math to prove the concept?
3. How does it relate to energy?
• Remember, Energy is the ability to do work or push something (You can push a box
or a battery can push electrons.)

24. LETS REVIEW
• How does a turbine work?
• Hydroelectricity?
• Wind?
• Solar?
• Nuclear (fission)?
• Nuclear (fusion)?