Biofuels

 

This week at After School To-Go, students investigated different energy sources as Biofuel Engineers! After reviewing concepts like alternative energy, fermentation, and nonrenewable and renewable resources, girls discussed common sources of energy. What makes a resource renewable or nonrenewable? How do countries acquire more nonrenewable resources? Students explored these and other questions to prepare for their biofuels experiment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students were given water bottles with warm water, yeast, and various forms of sugar to examine different forms of alternative energy. After adding the ingredients to each mixture, girls fit balloons over each water bottle and observed the chemical reactions occurring within. Depending on the sugar source, some balloons expanded much more than others! Students hypothesized that the mixtures with smaller balloons were not as efficient at creating biofuels as were the mixtures with very large balloons.