Energy Diet- A student post

Our grade 4 and 7 classes are collaborating this year in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge. The students have been assembled into small combined teams where each takes up the different challenges. Our grade 7 students have taken up these leadership roles, and below is a blog post written by a grade 4 and 7 pair. They could earn up to 15 points for their team!

Energy Diet (Letter to the editor)
By: T and P

What are different types of energy sources? And which one is best for our environment?

Sun

Solar panels generate electricity from the sun. The old solar panels were made of silicon and now solar panels are made from cheaper crystals but do not work as well as silicon. Solar power is made when the suns light hits the solar panel, the electrons in the silicon get up and move instead of just jiggling in place to make heat.


Windmills
When there are high speeds of wind it creates enough pressure to spin the turbines on the windmill. At wind farms they would provide the windmills facing different directions to catch all directions of the wind. As the wind turbines spin they spin a shaft that lead to a hub then the rotor to a generator. When the generator turns the rotational energy it creates electricity. The electricity can now transfer underground to our homes and other buildings.

This is a windmill farm. As you could see all the windmills are facing all different directions to catch wind if it flows in a different direction.

Coal
Coal is a big producer of energy but also pollutes the most. Coal is burned and water is added which creates steam. The steam moves turbines. The turbines are connected to a generator. In the generator, big magnets spin close to coils of wire. When this happens, electrical currents are created in the wires. Through the wires the electricity travels to homes, schools

Oil
There are places called oil power stations. Those stations are used to create electricity from oil and transport the electricity into homes and businesses. It takes 6 different steps to convert the chemical energy to usable electricity on a power line. First the oil is piped into the boiler where is is burned which is converting the chemical energy into heat energy. The heat energy is moved into water heating the water but turning the energy into steam. The steam creates high pressure in the narrow pipes and then starts to spin steam turbines. Once the steam turbines are turning it is then converting the heat energy into mechanical energy. The generator can use a electromagnetic field to covert this mechanical energy to electrical energy.

Water
A dam is built in special areas for a turbine to be built. There is a hole in the dam where the water turbine is, so there is a controlled amount of water flowing through. As water comes through the underwater turbines it makes the propellers move faster creating energy.

Natural Gas
Natural gas is made from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are created when there is layers of dead plants and animals that are exposed to intense heat. Natural gas is nonrenewable resource, for it can not be replaced or filled back on a human time frame.
Steps to how natural gas was made.

1. Under water here are dead organisms, animal, and plants are on the surface of the sand.
2. Over the years sedimentary rock starts to cover the organisms making them into fossils
3. Slowly than the pressure and exposed to heat then makes coal oil and natural gas.

Conclusion:
We think that solar power energy is the best to use for our environment. To get solar panels are very expensive, because they use a very rare crystal called silicon. The other energy sources are either creates lots of pollution or use a lot of other resources.


photo credit: Mountain/\Ash via photopin cc
photo credit: Statkraft via photopin cc
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