Video length 2 min.
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Video
supports the Next Generation Science Standards»High School: 3 Disciplinary Core Ideas
Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
GPe 
GPe Strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emission (energy conservation, renewable energies, change in energy use)
Other materials addressing GPe
Energy Literacy
Environmental quality is impacted by energy choices.
7.3 Environmental quality.
Humans transfer and transform energy from the environment into forms useful for human endeavors.
4.1 Humans transfer and transform energy.
Electricity is usually generated in one of two ways.
4.5 Electricity generation.
Different sources of energy and the different ways energy can be transformed, transported and stored each have different benefits and drawbacks.
4.7 Different sources of energy have different benefits and drawbacks.
Notes From Our Reviewers
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- For additional information and graphics, visit the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/.
About the Science
- A very clear visual and verbal explanation of how a PV panel works. Discusses light as a photon.
- Comments from expert scientist:
Scientific Strengths:
- A good non-scientific introduction to the topic. Not much has changed since it was made, so still accurate.
- The video is clear, interesting and has high production values
Suggestions:
- This resource ducks the hard-to-explain question of why the electrons flow in the direction they go to develop a voltage, instead of in both directions.
- This resource was made before photovoltaics became and energy-significant (>1%) source of electricity in the U.S. and worldwide, so it is not actually optimistic enough about the potential.
About the Pedagogy
- The main message of the video is that PV systems generate power without pollution as they convert the sun's energy into electricity.
Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN
More videos from the US Dept of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy: http://www.energy.gov/eere/videos
Next Generation Science Standards See how this Video supports:
High School
Disciplinary Core Ideas: 3
HS-PS3.D3:Solar cells are human-made devices that likewise capture the sun’s energy and produce electrical energy.
HS-PS4.B1:Electromagnetic radiation (e.g., radio, microwaves, light) can be modeled as a wave of changing electric and magnetic fields or as particles called photons. The wave model is useful for explaining many features of electromagnetic radiation, and the particle model explains other features.
HS-PS4.B3:Photoelectric materials emit electrons when they absorb light of a high-enough frequency
