Day 40

We did something a little different today, inspired by Lego.  The objective is to build a representation of a renewable energy.  We did a little research and, partly because Dad is a geologist I suspect, we decided on Geothermal.  I was kind of surprised that there weren't more visual aids for this technology, but we did find a really good (short) video at this site, where we went to the movie titled How Geothermal Energy Works.  We then build our own geothermal stations based on what we learned during the movie.  We even reviewed the movie as we built to try to get it as accurate as we could. 


Emily's Geothermal Station


Here you can see Emily's model which has the yarn 'pipe' coming up from the ground and going to the distribution center, where the water and steam then goes to a series of tanks where the steam is syphoned off, and the steam powers the turbines (the red) which powers the generator (next to the turbines), which power the transformers, and the water is sent back down to get reheated. 







Luke's contraption

 Luke's got a bit more complicated, as he has solar at the top for the house, and geothermal leading to the (green) underground.  The blue is the water which heads up the pipe, and the turbines and generator are down under the house, and the return pipe is yellow.  I have to give him creative credit, the lava monster seems to be near the cool water return, and he's not happy.






This was a fun project where the kids felt like they were playing, and I felt like they were learning, and everyone got something out of it.  Even if it was just a cool lego contraption.