LESSON 6: What Is Efficiency in a Vehicle?Time: 45 minutes
Download the Full Lesson Plan(PDF) 264KB
Lesson Overview
In this lesson, students will begin to develop an understanding of the concept of efficiency. They approach this concept by considering the related concepts of input and output. Students will first complete a hands-on activity in which they use marbles to represent energy units. Next, they will conduct online research in order to calculate the miles per gallon (mpg) ratio for several real-world vehicles. Only when students have obtained a basic understanding of efficiency are they ready to design vehicles that make efficient use of energy.
Lesson Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:- Explain that energy in gasoline is converted into energy of motion of a vehicle.
- Describe that efficiency in a vehicle means it gets good gas mileage (or has a high output to input ratio for use of its energy source).
Lesson Essential Questions
1. What is a ratio?
2. How does the expression 'input/output' relate to the efficiency of a vehicle?
3. How do you calculate the gas mileage of a vehicle?
