Sherman was sitting in his room working on his homework, when
he heard his dad yelling from the kitchen. He had no idea what he’d
done until his dad came upstairs asking why he’d left the refrigerator door
wide open.
“I didn’t mean to dad! I must’ve forgotten,” Sherman said.
“Well, I don’t need to remind you that we are working really hard at _________________________,
or trying to save energy,” Dad responded.
This started a conversation about how resources are consumed. _________________________, or
resources that take a long period of time to replace, account for about 85% of the world’s energy supply.
That energy comes from coal, oil, and natural gas which are called _________________________. Sherman
also remembered studying matter in science class, but he did not know about
_________________________. When his dad told him, he was amazed to find out that splitting an atom
could result in a source of nonrenewable energy. That means that the other 15% of the world’s energy
comes from _________________________, resources that can be replaced in a relatively short amount of
time.
“I’m sorry Dad. I’ll try harder to conserve energy around the house,” Sherman promised.
After the conversation Sherman had with his dad, he wanted to learn more about renewable
sources of energy. He began researching on the internet and at his local library. As he
learned more, he started to realize that he’d seen some of these forms of energy.
He’d seen _________________________ being used by the big black panels on a
rooftop that were there to get energy from the sun. He’d also seen what
looked like giant fans on the side of the road and realized that they were
using moving air to transform _________________________ to electrical
energy.
There were also a few forms of energy that he hadn’t seen in action. He
learned about the power of moving water when he researched
_________________________. This is something he had seen before, but just didn’t
realize it. He had visited the Hoover Dam when his family had taken a trip to Las Vegas. He continued to
research renewable energy and found that not only could the kinetic energy of water be used for energy,
but the inner core of the earth could be used as well. In _________________________, the earth’s internal
heat is used to heat water and create steam.
The last resource Sherman studied was _________________________, and
this was really interesting to him because he learned that fuel could be made
from a variety of other organic things. It was especially shocking to him that
this meant his TRASH! After all of his hard work and everything he’d learned,
Sherman was determined to share his knowledge with everyone he knew.
renewable resource
nonrenewable resource
energy conservation
fossil fuels
solar energy
wind energy
biomass fuels
hydropower
geothermal energy
nuclear energy
A resource that is naturally replaced in a
relatively short time.
A natural resource that is not replaced as it
is used.
The practice of reducing energy use.
An energy-rich substance (such as coal, oil,
or natural gas) formed from the remains of
organisms.
Energy from the sun.
Electricity produced from the mechanical
energy of moving air.
Fuel made from organic things such as
plants, wood, alcoholic fuels and simple
trash.
Energy produced by the kinetic energy of
water moving over a waterfall or dam.
Heat energy in Earth’s interior from water or
steam that has been heated by magma.
Energy stored in the nucleus of an atom.