What is Renewable Energy?

What is renewable energy, and why does it matter? This lesson plan helps teachers and parents introduce the idea to children through discussion, research and poster making. It begins with a thinking task: how different would life have been 200 years ago? Children talk about whether there would have been cars or electricity, then list the things they use energy for every day and ask where that energy comes from.

In groups, children make a poster of what they already know about energy, writing definitions for key words such as solar power, fossil fuels, global warming, climate change and wind turbines, and drawing pictures to match. The lesson includes two presentations, What is Hydropower? and What is Geothermal Energy?. After reading them, children update their posters with what they have learned. Groups of three or four can then use non-fiction books and the internet to research one aspect of renewable energy.

Children learn which everyday things use electricity, name some renewable energy methods, and begin to understand why renewable energy is better than non-renewable energy. Useful questions to ask include: What needs energy? What are fossil fuels? How does solar and wind power work? Displaying the finished posters in the classroom gives children a lasting reminder of how clean energy can help the planet.