We love seeing updates and pictures from the activities SMILE has created. Forest Grove High School was nice enough to share with us the progress of their poplar trees that they received during the 2014 Winter Teacher’s Workshop. Students in this club are taking measurements every week. See for yourself their growing trees:
![photo[1]](http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/smile/files/2014/11/photo1-e1415121772131.jpg)
![photo[4]-2](http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/smile/files/2014/11/photo4-2-e1415121781991.jpg)
We had a great time hosting our teacher’s workshop where we got to showcase fun, new activities to use in the club or classroom setting. For the middle school and high school students we shifted our focus toward engineering by showing the teachers an algal lab where the students can design what they think is an optimal place for algae to grow. For the elementary school students the focus was on ecology and geology, which lead to some awesome hands on activities. All of these activities and those showcased in the workshop can be found below. Thanks again for joining us this year and please feel free to share your comments on the activities we provided.
Elementary School:
Middle School:
High School:
For all ages we created a lab activity to focus on a new type of biofuel grown from algae. In this activity the class will make and grow their own algae as instructed in the video below. This algae will then be extracted to show students how much oil can be produced from such a small sample. This will allow students to compare this biofuels to others they have seen in the past.
Teachers, we have been dormant for a while so we could create amazing activities for you and your students. The teacher workshop is just a few weeks away and we wanted to give you a preview of one of the great activities you can use in your classroom. To start, we found this Bioenergy Farm Game from Great Lakes that would be perfect for a high school classroom. Students will take the perspective of a bioenergy farmer to learn the benefits and drawbacks of crops, like corn and switchgrass, that can be turned into fuel. This game allows students to see where and how money is made and the effects of their actions on the environment. Check back for more activities that will be presented at the teacher workshop. See you there!
The SMILE club at Forest Grove High School was nice enough to share with us their pictures of them planting their poplar samplings. We encourage you to start planting soon and we look forward to exchanging data in the future. Remember earlier in the term we shared with you a lesson plan as well as a video to help your students learn about bioenergy. Happy planting!
GreenWood Resources, home to the largest drip irrigation farm in the world, was nice enough to provide our workshop attendees with several varieties of poplar saplings. With these saplings we ask that you and your students plant them and conduct your own growth experiment. Here we have provided for you a lesson plan as well as planting instructions for your trees. We would like to see data about your sapling’s progress and we will provide a way to share that data in the near future. Enjoy!
This post contains Bioenergy activities for middle and high school that were presented at our Summer Teacher’s Workshop earlier in August. The lesson plans and any other resources for each activity are available on Google Drive. To access the lesson plans, click on the title of each activity. (Note: you do NOT have to have a Google account to access these files.) Please also note that the Fuel Comparison and Generations of Biofuels activities are the same, as both were presented to be used for both middle and high school levels. You are able to download and/or print the files for all of the activities directly from Google Drive, but you must download the file before you can make any personal edits. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback!
Middle School Activities
The following activities are meant for use in SMILE clubs or classrooms at the middle school level. Each activity includes a comprehensive lesson plan with background information, materials, procedures, and challenge questions for your students. From these activities, we hope your students gain a better understanding of bioenergy and renewable resources, in particular renewable fuels or biofuels. Upon completion of these activities, middle school students should understand that bioenergy technology must be desirable, convenient, and accessible. They should be able to articulate the need for further technology development to challenge traditional energy standards. Through these activities students will also explore benefits to the environment and humans from bioenergy technology and understand that bioenergy pioneering efforts come from unexpected places. These activities will provide interesting, engaging opportunities for your students to learn and grow their understanding of bioenergy.
High School Activities
The following activities are meant for use in SMILE clubs at the high school level. Each activity includes a comprehensive lesson plan with background information, materials, procedures, and challenge questions for your students. From these activities, we hope your students gain a better understanding of bioenergy and renewable resources, in particular renewable fuels or biofuels. Upon completion of these activities, high school students should understand that bioenergy technology must be desirable, convenient, and accessible. They should be able to articulate the need for further technology development to challenge traditional energy standards. They will also explore benefits to the environment and humans from bioenergy technology and understand that bioenergy pioneering efforts come from unexpected places. These activities will provide interesting, engaging opportunities for your students to learn and grow their understanding of bioenergy.
