NOVA Energy Lab

Design renewable energy systems and compete with others to see whose designs can produce the most power.

For something we use every day, energy is a pretty mysterious concept. This interactive investigates what energy is, how it can be converted into useful forms, and why some sources are running low. In our Research Challenge, you'll use scientific data to design renewable energy systems for cities across the U.S.—and compete with others to see whose designs can produce the most power. For Educators: The individual components of the Energy Lab give you a range of options for integrating some or the entire Lab into your instruction. From homework enrichment, to science fair project, to a week-long lesson module, the flexibility of the Energy Lab components will help you address the topics of energy, Earth’s systems, technology, engineering, and scientific modeling with your middle school or high school students. Below are standards from the NGSS that align to the content and skills in the Energy Lab: Middle School: —MS-PS3-5—Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object. High School: —HS-PS3-2—Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motions of particles (objects) and energy associated with the relative positions of particles (objects)