Global Energy Flows

In this activity, students will "analyze data detailing global energy sources and sinks (uses) and construct a diagram to show the relative scale and the connections between them. Discussions of scale, historical, socio-environmental and geographic variation in this data and implications for future energy use are included." Targeted at high school through undergraduate students (grades 9 through 16), this activity requires a familiarity with renewable and non-renewable energy sources, basic physics concepts related to the transformation of energy and matter, and familiarity with the Joule (J) as a unit of energy. One to two 50-minute class periods and the attached activity packet are required for the activity. The downloadable file, called "Global Energy Flows Package" is a .zip file (8.4 MB) and includes: teacher instructions and answer key, student pages, global energy flow graph slide set, IPCC chapter four, and energy consumption by source raw data.