Background
This project will be taking place at Union Street Charter School and will be a collaboration between our team, United Energy and Union School teacher, Greg Gaiera. We will collectively work on creating and Energy learning Station for students to use.
Describe the background of the project. Make sure to cover who, what, why, when and where. You will want to write in word (to have a local copy and help with grammar) and then copy it into the edit window on Appropedia. You will want a 'before' (or a contextual) image to help set the context of the background. Note that any images uploaded to Appropedia must be free to share and uniquely named (just use your team or project name as the start to the file name for ease and compliance).
Problem statement
The objective of this project is to create an energy learning system for Union Street Charter School faculty to use with their students to teach lessons on energy. Eventually, you will list the criteria here as well.
Literature Review
Energy and People:
Energy is a term used in conversations about food, electricity generation and spirituality. All three have a different use for the word, but ultimately the description is about harnessing energy from a storage unit. As long as energy can be harnessed, there is no preference over the source.
The book Cheap and Clean: How Americans think about Energy in the Age of Climate Change emphasizes that as long as needs are met, the source of energy isn’t a priority. Infact, most Americans wish to steer away from oil and coal (Ansolabehere 2014, 8). People are dependent on energy, therefore their needs must be met but they are not attached to the source.
What People Want (in order of priority) : (Ansolabehere 2014, 42).
- Low price Electricity
- Renewable Energy
- Fossil Fuel
Human Power:
Another source of Energy, which drives our society towards modernization and industrialization is Human Power. By reviewing the book Human-powered vehicles, it was clear the reason for our never ending need for energy is the limited amounts we can put out as an individual.
List of Inventions:
- Rowing shells
- Hydrofoils
- Bicycles
- Human-powered aircraft
Reason for inventions:
- Recreation
- Travel
- Exercise
Limitation of the Human Engine: Consistent Energy
Energy expenditure in Humans and Nonhuman Primates:
The energy expenditure in humans and nonhumans is limited to not more than 7 times their resting metabolic rate.
Citations
-Ansolabehere, S. Konisky M, D. Cheap and Clean: How Americans think about Energy in the Age of Climate Change. 2014. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/humboldt/detail.action?docID=3339843
-Abbott, Allan V. Human-Powered Vehicles. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publ., 1996.
-Hammond, Kimberly A., and Jared Diamond. “Maximal Sustained Energy Budgets in Humans and Animals.” Nature 386, no. 6624 (1997): 457–62. https://doi.org/10.1038/386457a0.