Energy Science Project
Everyone can find personal relevancy in an energy science project.
Nothing gets done without energy.
When thought of Colloquially, though,
the typical image that comes to mind is that of energy used for the home, or by
an automobile.
Energy can be thought of as something that allows a force to be created.
That force can be in the form of voltage in the wires of your house, or the
explosions in a car engine that cause the pistons to move and ultimately the
wheels to rotate.
There is a lot of research being done presently in the search for better
forms of energy. Cleaner forms, in some cases, and more concentrated in
others.
An energy science project can go off in many directions - solar
energy science projects are popular, for instance. The main decision you
have is figuring out what important aspect of energy you want to investigate.
Topical Research
If you are doing your project on photovoltaic cells, do some
research into the different variants. Some use copper indium diselenide as
a substrate, others don't. Find out about the differences and make sure to
record them in your science project journal.
It might be a good idea to find out why certain forms of energy
production have become dominant while others have withered. For instance,
why do you think that nuclear energy has received such bad press? Find out
for yourself and it might influence your original topic choice.
Question and Hypothesis
What is the question? Here is an example: "Given a
standard photovoltaic cell, what are the optimal wavelengths of light in terms
of energy conversion?" You might use this as a question for a solar energy
science project.
Another might be: "What is the maximum amount of energy that can
be extracted from a spent nuclear fuel rod given current technology?"
Depending on your desired level of sophistication, you may want
to have a more technical question for your energy science project: "What is the
optimal shield enclosure for a fusion reactor given anisotropic radiation
emission."
Once you have a question you are interested in, your hypothesis
should be your best educated guess based on the research you did on the topic of
energy. For example: "My hypothesis is that for the wavelengths that can
be absorbed by a standard photovoltaic cell, shorter wavelengths of light will
yield more energy then light with longer wavelengths."
Make sure your hypothesis has your independent and dependent
variables. Not sure what these are? Check out the
resources section at the bottom.
Procedure and Materials
For an energy science project, you will likely be doing a lot of
measurements. It might be helpful to have a computerized spreadsheet to
keep track of your data.
If you are running an experiment on something you can't (or
shouldn't!) have access to, like a nuclear reactor, you will need to create, or
get access to, a simulation program to conduct your experimental runs.
You might find it useful to have a conceptual physics book along
with a calculus book to enable the computation of energy output given input
fuel.
Finally, if you are performing an experiment on a benign, and
safe, form of energy creation like solar power, you might want to invest in the
energy creation mechanism itself and have it plugged into a device to
demonstrate it's power output - such as a row of LED lights or incandescent
bulbs.
Results
When you perform your experimental runs after you
generated your hypothesis, record your results. Impartially. WITHOUT
modifying the data; this is very important. Even if the data does not
agree with your hypothesis.
After recording your results, analyze the results you got and
interpret them given what you know of the science behind your energy science
experiment.
Generate visual aids using your results to make them easy to
interpret by someone who is not intimately familiar with the science behind your
experiment.
Cool Twist
There is no reason an energy science project has to be dry -
throw in a cool twist to it. Be inventive - perhaps postulate how
different energy creation technologies can be combined to form better overall
solutions.
How much solar energy would need to be harnessed in order to
jump start a fusion reactor?
How does a gasoline engine compare in energy generation to the
human body? How many watts of power does the human body generate per
minute (it's more then you think.)
There are all kinds of ways to generate power. Wave
motion, ocean temperature differentials, orbital generators that us the earth
magnetic field to generate voltage, garden slug to energy bio converters - the
list is endless! You don't have to be stuck doing just another
photovoltaic cell project.
Resources
We could not possibly give you all the information you need to
complete your energy science project on just this page. We do
however provided a guide that does give you all the
information you need. You can get started by making sure you have the
right
idea.
Want something different? You might want to make an
energy science project based on fuel
cells.
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