This week’s Snag Learning Film of the Week is Power Paths. Power Paths is a one hour documentary about the work of the Hopi and Navajo Native America tribes to transform their local economies to by moving to green, renewable energy. The tribes are working with environmental groups to phase out coal-burning energy sources with renewable energy sources. You can watch a preview of the movie below.
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Here are some additional resources you may want to use in lessons about renewable energy:
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory offers mapped data about alternative energy use and alternative energy availability in the United States. Google Maps Mania highlighted the NREL’s transportation atlas that features the locations of alternative energy fueling stations and the density of alternative energy vehicles.
The NEED Project is an educational program designed to teach students about energy consumption, energy sources, and the energy industry in general. NEED provides curriculum and lesson plans for teachers in all grades form elementary school through high school. The educators section of NEED makes all of their lessons with require materials available as PDF files.
The New York Times has an audio slideshow that provides a brief overview of geothermal energy. The audio slideshow is the accompaniment to an article about the dangers of drilling deep into the Earth. The slideshow provides an explanation of why the western United States is one of the easier places to access geothermal energy. The slideshow offers good visual aids depicting how geothermal energy is harnessed.
