We all know that electricity is important in our lives, from charging our phones to flipping on the lights. This is all made possible by electrical circuits.  

Remember electricity is a form of energy that involves the flow of electrons and this free movement of electrons is an electrical current. A circuit is a pathway for electrons to flow continuously. A circuit can be closed or open, but only when it’s closed can the electrical current flow. When it is open, there is a break somewhere in the circuit – this is useful because we want to be able to turn off the flow of electrons when we don’t need it.

A simple circuit has 4 parts:

1. Power source – ie battery
2. Conductors – i.e. wires that the electrons flow along
3. Load – ie light or buzzer
4. Switch – opens or closes the circuit

You can build your own circuit with a few simple materials at home.

The energy that we use can be produced using renewable or non-renewable sources. But what does that mean? And which energy sources are which? Join Future Energy Systems Outreach Coordinator, Valerie Miller, to explore the different sources of energy and determine which are renewable or non-renewable. 

According to the Canada’s Energy Future 2020 report, in 2018 – electricity was generated from the following sources in Alberta and Canada.

How do we make electricity? We explored many ways in “Renewable Or Non-Renewable Energy, Test Your Knowledge”. In this activity, it is time to go inside a Future Energy Systems lab and see how we can make electricity using heat. Join Calynn Stumpf, MSc, in his lab to explore the turning, pumping, moving world of Stirling Engines and the potential of this early technology to generate energy in the future.

According to a variety of sources, the USA produces the highest amount of electricity from geothermal energy (known as geothermal power) followed by Indonesia. Learn more here (https://rb.gy/coygnt, https://rb.gy/w1wfum).

Water – it is all around us and it is essential for life. Yet so many human activities can pollute water making it unusable for us and unsafe for the environment. Join Sushmitha Thirumalaivasan, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Engineering, as she shares her research on bioremediation of tailings ponds and teaches us how to make a water filter at home.

Join Autumn Watkinson, PhD, Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia, and Valerie Miller, PhD, Future Energy Systems’ Outreach Coordinator, explore tree rings and how they can tell us stories of the past. Then join Autumn and Valerie to create a tree ring of your own life in this easy to do craft.

Alternative video option – Grade 3 and under – https://youtu.be/xnzfvfPrFOY

Whether it’s by extracting fossil fuels, mining materials for renewable energy technology, or building renewable energy installations, many of our energy activities can have an impact on the environment. This is why we need land reclamation. 

Land reclamation is the process of taking disturbed or damaged land and returning it to its past condition or making a different landscape, essentially trying to heal the land. One important part of this is revegetation – bringing plants back – and to do that, we need to learn about plants. 

Another way to make a difference for our environment is to be more sustainable. Sustainability means that when we use resources, we are making sure that there is enough for everyone else to use, today and in the future. When you consider how much energy you use everyday, can you find ways to reduce it? 

Join members of the University of Alberta’s Sustain SU group to explore how household tasks can be made more sustainable and find new things to try in your daily life. 

The photo used is by NASA on Unsplash.