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 Students visit the Dream Farm |
Visiting the Dream Farm: Renewable Energy Demonstrations |
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| Students tour the Dream Farm renewable energy demonstration project including many hands-on outdoor active lessons. We explain the operation of the solar hot water heating, solar clothes dryer and the huge, sun-tracking photovoltaic panels. Kids can pedal the generator bikes that generate electricity. This active, hands-on exhibit shows how much effort it requires to power a standard incandescent light and allows kids to feel how much easier the new compact fluorescent bulbs are to light up. We have two exercise bikes and each bike has both types of lighting. The tour includes a hike around the bog and to the stream on a raised wood chip pathway. This bog is coal in the making. We bounce on the bog and dig down a little to see the layers of organic material that, when compressed, eventually become coal. I bring real coal that I obtained from Detroit Edison's electric power plant. The kids see the layers in the fossil coal and try to burn a piece of the coal. I also have an analytical lab activity where the kids burn some carbon based fuel (paper) and weigh the chemicals before and after. This outdoor lab activity shows that nearly all the carbon gets connected with oxygen to form CO2. This provides a great connection to your lessons on the causes and solutions to global warming. |
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