Day 4- Hydroelectric and Solar Power

DAY 4

48% of Spokane's power is generated by water. The Spokane area is really stepping up their game in the renewable resource industry, I'm impressed! The inside of the turbine generator is incredible. What's even more fascinating is that it was built in 1920! I think students would have so much to take away from this field trip, this is an amazing asset to have this contact information. 

Below is a diagram of the inside of the turbine:

 This field trip would definitely engage students and make them want to learn more but it could also be used as an explain stage of a unit! Students could be working on building their own hydroelectric power plants in a classroom and then go see the Spokane dam as an explain lesson where they could ask super thoughtful questions to the engineers, allowing them to really take ownership of their learning. I also loved the tour guide's ability to elicit student response of some big conceptual ideas like the heat being given off by the generator, and the pressure of 1 cubic foot of water, etc.

In order to assess students' understanding at the end of this trip, they could be required to answer some higher level thinking application questions such as:
How is energy produced by the turbine?
Why is water a good renewable energy source?
Can you think of some challenges that hydroelectric power plants might face?
Why have they designed the gates to be able to channel the water where they want it to go?
What are some benefits of hydroelectric power?
(objective 5) 

As we toured the facility and saw how the turbines worked, my own gears were spinning with ideas of exploration lessons. If resources allow, I would love for students (upper grades) to explore how wind and hydroelectric power work simultaneously to supply electricity to an area. This would hopefully guide students to the question of how to store electrical energy. If my students are able to leave my class with some big questions like this that would inspire them to go find solutions, I would feel accomplished as a science teacher!

Solar Arrays

The Avista Community Solar Arrays are a super cool innovative way to test and research a new source of energy while allowing investors to benefit. 

The arrays were really cool to see and they could definitely spark some interest in solar technology for students. A fun integrated math lesson could include work with math arrays - for example:
If one 3x5 panel produces 2 KWH of electricity, how much electricity is produced by the entire field of 1512 panels? (Integration, Objective 2)