Fifth Grade

Champion Learners

Investigating Different Energy Sources

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In science, we recently started investigating different energy sources. We started with the Coal Story. This really helped us to understand the long process from mining coal to the electricity we use in our homes. We also saw how short the process is for solar!

Mrs. Moore presented us with this puzzlement:

Today you will think like a scientist, an entrepreneur, an environmentalist, and an economist! What questions do you have about each of these sources of energy? (solar, nuclear, coal, wind, hydro, and natural gas) Come up with at least one question for each using keywords.

She gave us time to come up with the questions, put them on sticky notes, and place them next to the picture.

Then we got into groups of 3 or 4. In our groups, we read 2 or 3 articles about one type of energy. After, we worked with our group to create a list of details we thought were important for the rest of our classmates to know and understand.

Each group presented our findings to the class. We took notes and thought about the trends we saw between different types energy or how they changed over time. Mrs. Moore also asked us to think about pros and cons from at least two different perspectives.

Next, we answered this question.

Individually we completed this task and also wrote 3 unanswered questions we still have about energy sources.

Here are a few unanswered questions!

  • What is the future of energy?
  • Can energy improve over time from fossil fuels to solar and save the earth from becoming a bad place in the universe?
  • What are the consequences of using nonrenewable energy sources?
  • Why do people use so many nonrenewable resources when it is so unhealthy for the environment?
  • Do you think there might be other types of energy sources in the future?
  • In the future, could people ban or make some types of energy illegal?
  • Why is coal cheap?
  • Why do they say nuclear energy is clean?

Most of us feel solar energy should be the number 1 source! We had some strong opinions about coal and nuclear energy as well.

Which energy do you feel should be utilized the majority of the time? 

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