Student Learning Outcomes

• Explain the pivotal role energy production and consumption play in maintaining the standard of living in a modern, technological society.
• Calculate the efficiency of an energy-transfer processes.
• Analyze the technical, social, and economic factors driving our present energy production and distribution systems.
• Describe the processes underlying nuclear power generation, and be able to calculate the theoretical energy yielded from both fission and fusion reactions.
• Apply basic heat transfer processes to explain the design of solar thermal collectors and systems.
• Explain how an electrical generator produces electricity, and how energy from a variety of sources is transformed into electrical energy.
• Calculate the power generated by a given volume flow of water falling through a known distance through a hydroelectric generator of known efficiency.
• Students can explain the science behind global warming, and can explain the relationship between the use of fossil fuels and climate change.
• Students will be able to explain how understanding the relationship between fossils fuel use and climate change relates to real life.
• Describe the challenges that must be surmounted for alternative energy production to become fully integrated into the modern energy mix.
• Students can identify the particular heat transfer mechanisms at play in the design of a solar water heating collector.