Energy Flow from Earth’s Systems | New Visions for Public Schools
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Physics Unit 1

Energy Flow from Earth’s Systems

OpenSciEd Physics Adapted by New Visions for NYSSLS

5-6 weeks

Unit Overview

How can we design more reliable systems to meet our communities’ energy needs?

This unit uses the 2021 Texas power crisis to help students explore energy transfer, system reliability, and engineering tradeoffs. Through real-world context and a culminating design task, students learn how energy systems work and propose reliable solutions that reflect their communities’ needs and values.

*This performance expectation is developed across multiple units.
†This performance expectation is developed across multiple courses.

Performance Expectations:

HS-PS2-5*, HS-PS3-5†, HS-PS3-2†, HS-PS3-3, HS-ETS1-3†, HS-ESS3-2†, *, †

Coming Soon

Coming Soon!

We are putting the finishing touches on this unit! Fully aligned adapted materials–crafted specifically for NYCPS and NY State Standards–will be ready on August 25th.

Lesson Set 1:

How does electricity transfer through systems to power communities, and what causes instability in these systems?

Lesson 1:

What can we learn from a blackout in Texas about producing reliable energy for our communities?

Lesson 2:

What structures in the system enable energy transfer from one source to multiple devices, buildings, and neighborhoods?

Lesson 3:

Could the blackouts in Texas have been caused by a broken or short-circuited curcuit?

Lesson 4:

What makes an energy source reliable?

Lesson 5:

Where does electrical energy come from?

Lesson 6:

How does energy transfer in wires?

Lesson: 7

What could have caused the disparities we saw in the blackouts in Texas?

Lesson 8:

Why do design solutions affect some people differently than others?

Lesson Set 2:

Why do design solutions affect some people differently than others?

Lesson 9a:

How can energy storage make our systems more reliable during an energy crisis?