Objectives
By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will understand:
- Energy basics
- Working with dimensional units
- Global, national, local and personal energy use
- Renewable and non-renewable methods of energy production and their impacts
Goals
The following are some of the main goals for the Energy Fundamentals module.
Concepts
By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will understand the following concepts (among others):
- Energy types and transfer
- Power loss and efficiency
- Laws of Thermodynamics
- Energy generation, storage and generation
- Models
- Power versus energy
- EROI
- Primary energy source versus energy carrier
Vocabulary and units
By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be able to confidently use the following vocabulary and/or units (among others):
- Conduction, convection, radiation, energy, power, length, area, volume, EROI, entropy, power loss, distribution, energy carrier, primary energy source
- BTU, therm, joule, quads, cal, Cal, kw, kWh, kg, m, ft, s, hr, m3, ft3, prefixes (m, k, M, G)
Calculations
By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be able to do the following calculations (among others):
- E=P*t
- gas mileage and cost
- efficiency
How to
By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be comfortable doing the following (among others):
- use a kilowatt meter
- electrical energy audit
- Back Of the Envelope calculations
Field trips
By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be have gone on the following field trips (possibly among others):
- Schatz Energy Research Center
- Campus Center for Appropriate Technology
- Redwood Coast Energy Authority