The Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford has collaborated with MAP Royalty and KQED, the public media provider for northern California, to create an e-book series detailing the nature of energy and its uses. The interactive e-books are aimed at grades eight through 13 and designed for use on iPads and Mac computers.
The 95-page e-book series provides readers with a broad introduction to the subject of energy in two volumes, “Energy: The Basics” and “Energy: Use and Efficiency.” The first volume covers the science of energy and energy resources, while the second details how people use energy and how efficiently it is used.
According to Mark Shwartz, communications and energy writer at the Precourt Institute, the creators hope that, by catering to a younger audience, the series will advance energy literacy beyond the Stanford campus.
“When we proposed an energy e-book in 2013, KQED said they had been considering that very idea, and the joint project was launched,” Shwartz said. “The result is the two-part ‘Energy’ e-book series and a companion curriculum for classroom use.”
The e-books include not only articles but also videos, animations and a glossary of energy terms. These additional features help enhance the learning experience while also encouraging readers to learn more about energy and the energy industry. Some of the videos in the series serve as career-spotlight videos and give students a chance to observe the large range of jobs available in the energy industry. Other topics include solar and geothermal energy.
“[The e-books are] education via a new medium that takes advantage of automatic updating and tablet compatibility,” said Karl Knapp ’81 M.S. ’82 Ph.D. ’99, vice president of Sustainable Energy Education at MAP Royalty and consulting associate professor in Stanford’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
According to Knapp, KQED has also had success in the past with e-books. The “Energy” series is not the first of its kind that KQED, the San Francisco-based PBS and NPR affiliate, has published. KQED has already made three other science-related “Multi-Touch Books” on biotechnology, earthquakes and the ecology of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Currently, KQED is working on a new e-book about climate change that has already included input from Stanford researchers.
“[We] dove into the new platform, and it proved to be an effective way to really tell a story about a topic through a wealth of multimedia resources,” said Andrea Aust, science education manager at KQED. “We plan to continue developing media-rich e-books and iTunes U courses that are engaging for students, teachers and lifelong learners.”
Both the “Energy”e-book series and a companion iTunes U course are free and available for download from the iBooks store.
“The e-books are free and downloadable by anyone with an iPad or Mac computer with a Mavericks operating system,” Shwartz said. “The Precourt Institute is always interested in learning about novel ways to boost energy literacy.”
Contact Helen Wong at helen ‘dot’ wong ‘at’ saratogafalcon ‘dot’ org.