8 Renewable Energy SPARKlab Activities

This is the Middle School version of Horizon's Renewable Energy SPARKlab series. View the Family of Products page for information regarding the High School SPARKlabs.

Connect students to a world where clean energy is essential through Horizon Renewable Energy SPARKlabs. 8 activities help to develop an understanding of renewable energy.

• Solar
  • How heat affects energy production from a solar cell
  • How tilt angle of a solar panel affects energy production
  • How shading a solar panel affects energy production
• Wind
  • How the pitch of turbine blades affect energy production
  • How the surface area of turbine blades affect energy production
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell
  • Compare the voltage output of a fuel cell versus a battery
  • Voltage required for water decomposition

The Company – Horizon Fuel Cell

Horizon Fuel Cell is a company dedicated to bring commercially viable, clean hydrogen fuel cell power to the public. Horizon's education kits are used to explain renewable energy science in a classroom environment. PASCO has partnered with Horizon to offer SPARKlabs on renewable energy for middle school schools.

Created in partnership with Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, these 8 SPARKlabs cover solar, wind and hydrogen fuel cell environmental science activities. Perform each lab using the materials included in the renewable energy kit along with the SPARK Science Learning System.

Designed to guide Middle School students through the process of investigation and promote critical thinking and group discussion, these standards-based, teacher-designed SPARKlabs include:

• Background science content
• Setup guidance
• Seamless integration with data collection and analysis
• Embedded assessment and reflection prompts

How It Works

These labs are written in the form of a guided inquiry.  Since the equipment will be new to the students, much of the labs are meant to familiarize the students with assembling and using the alternative energy equipment.  

In each lab there is an extension which is is provided in each lab for a variety of purposes.  If the students are ready to conduct their own inquiry, the extension can provide ideas for their inquiry question.  If some students finish early, the extension can give them a further related idea to explore.  The Extension could also serve as extra credit or reinforcement.  In most cases, the data collection graphs, tables or displays in the lab can be used to collect data for the Extension.  The students can also build a page containing a graph, or add a page to write observations.

Answers to the Analyze Data, Analysis or Synthesis questions, along with screen shots of the graphical displays of the data and related slides, are provided in the Teacher Notes for each lab. The answer to the Driving Question is also found in the Teacher Notes. You can have your students turn in their electronic journal after they have taken snapshots of their pages: they can print their journal, save it to a USB and transfer it electronically, or save the entire lab by giving it a new name. Additionally, you can add your own assessment questions to the lab.