Environment in HS Physics

[Yebo Yerp]

Hello,

I was wondering if you would have any thoughts on how to go about introducing environmental topics into high school physics in a practical sense.

Regards,

[annettemcd]

Mechanical physics includes the study of simple machines. You could study 1) what makes engines more efficient and thus cleaner, 2) vehicles which are more aerodynamic and thus more efficient, 3) wind dynamos which generate more power at low wind speed, and 4) ways to use magnets for low friction modes of transportation. --just a few ideas...

On #2, students could design race cars and carve them out of blocks of wood and race them. (My children's physics class did this with kits that were powered by CO2 cartridges.)

[Harry Bosch]

to Popular Science (http://http://www.popsci.com/)

lots of good stuff in there

lots of it about hydrid technology, energy efficient houses, etc...

[Yebo Yerp]

Thank you "annettemcd" and "Harry Bosch" for your thoughts.

Your suggestions certainly do expand the field of human interactions on the natural environment, including many simple problems on renewable energy (solar and water waves, circular motion in wind turbines, etc.), energy and power (an audit on home appliances and light bulbs), volumes and rates of flow (water outlets in the home), etc.

Would you have any further ideas within strictly the natural environment?

[annettemcd]

You touch on it yourself, but definitely the forces of nature could be studied in Physics: waves, storms, wind, glaciers, solar energy (not as used by humans, but as drives natural processes such as the water cycle), erosion, earthquakes.

When I took a Geomorphology course in college, there were many links to entropy. For example, rivers, as they develop over time and distance, change from a straight channel to a braided river with curves, meanders, ox-bow lakes, and sloughs --definitely increased entropy.