This course about clean energy sources, or energy sources that do not directly require fossil fuels, contains the following sections: the number one climate problem, fossil fuels, nuclear power, generation IV nuclear, solar power, wind power, hydropower, nuclear fusion, can we make fusion work, everything electric, hydrogen, and 100% renewables.
This course contains text, interactive questions, infographics, data charts, a video, and sections called "Open Problems"and "Final Quiz."
Teaching Tips
Positives
The course is available in a number of different languages.
Students earn a certificate if they complete the course.
This resource covers complex chemistry and physics topics that may require some previous knowledge or additional time to cover.
Students will need a computer and Internet connection to use the interactive features.
The resource provides a very pro-nuclear stance and does not discuss that Uranium ore must be mined for use, nor that most nuclear power plants use a huge amount of water from reservoirs and rivers to operate.
Some of the reference links are not secure websites, and some links are broken or go to pages no longer updated.
Differentiation
This course provides two levels of learning. Use the button in the top left of the page to toggle between "Simple" and "Advanced." The "Simple" setting is recommended for middle school students, while the "Advanced" setting is recommended for high school students.
Students can proceed through this course at their own pace.
Students could discuss the lack of a safe storage solution for radioactive waste, which must be contained and monitored for thousands of years.
This resource is appropriate to enlighten students on the parameters and procedures for energy production, especially from renewable sources. Datasets from IEA, Our World In Data, etc. are accurate, and the resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-1 Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
PS1: Matter and its Interactions
HS-PS1-1 Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties of elements based on the patterns of electrons in the outermost energy level of atoms.
HS-PS1-4 Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends upon the changes in total bond energy.
HS-PS1-5 Apply scientific principles and evidence to provide an explanation about the effects of changing the temperature or concentration of the reacting particles on the rate at which a reaction occurs.
PS2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
HS-PS2-6 Communicate scientific and technical information about why the molecular-level structure is important in the functioning of designed materials.
PS3: Energy
HS-PS3-2 Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motions of particles (objects) and energy associated with the relative position of particles (objects).
PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
HS-PS4-4 Evaluate the validity and reliability of claims in published materials of the effects that different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation have when absorbed by matter.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.10 By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.10 By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
