Wind Energy: Exploring Wind Farms with Google Earth

Notes from our reviewers

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• Teaching Tips
  Depending educator's level of comfort with integrating technology into the curriculum, this introductory level activity using Google Earth would be a good one. This lesson, combined with others, could supplement existing content or with the other lessons in this curricula [link http://www.ei.lehigh.edu/eli/energy/index.html] be combined for a more robust content coverage. Less tech-savvy students may need assistance following the steps to utilize the Google Earth files.
• About the Science
  From a sample of seven large wind farms scattered over the globe, students measure the size of each farm and compile data on average wind speed, topography, and land cover for each to compare the potential wind resource capacity of each farm. Comments from expert scientist: Good teaching material; well presented and accessible.
• About the Pedagogy
  Teaching strategy includes support for working with students and Google Earth program. Curiosity about Google Earth will be a motivating factor for students in this lesson. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
• Technical Details/Ease of Use
  Support for how to use Google Earth is provided with screen shots and a video, although the accent of the video narrator may make the narration difficult to understand.