Bonus Joules and the Knowledge Economy
Teaching and learning about energy- better energy use- enhancing health and wealth.

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Subject index 

of the journey of Bonus Joules through topics such as commerce, economics, education, energy efficiency, meterology, P.R., Science. 

 

Jan 2005 NOTE to READERS: 
Lack of funding means development of this page remains incomplete. It only links to the first four chapters. Chapters 5 to 7 contain more detailed explorations of how the atmosphere works and how to create more sustainable dwellings, electricity grids and urban developments.
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Are you interested in what happens when Bonus Joules explores a topic? 
Cartoons are indexed by subject to help your search.
The subjects often overlap in a topic area and you are advised to search more than one subject.

Cartoons relevant to the teaching of energy to 10-12 year olds are catalogued under the title of Primary/Junior School

Climate Change ( Air, energy and us)
Is Human civilisation at risk? 

Introduction to the “greenhouse effect” image of the Atmospheric Effect.
The Zone of Ozone
Energy transformations in the Ozone Layer.
Chloroflurocarbons and ozone.
The Holey Ozone Layer

The protective role of the Warmer Trace Gas, ozone.

 

Commerce ( Bonus joules and junk joules in the market place) 
Nailing the Froth

Obstacles to the generation of bonus joules in the construction industry.

THE ECONOMY Jitters.

Transfusing THE ECONOMY

Dancing in the Dark

Often we can choose from a range of energy forms to achieve a purpose. Sometimes personal and environmental considerations are complicated and even confounded by pressures from certain sectors of society.

 

Economics (Accounting for bonus joules and junk joules)  

When Less is More... and More

Gross National Product (GNP)- generators and values.
THE ECONOMY Jitters
Dark Encounters

Dancing in the Dark

THE ECONOMY is an arbitrary construct. What and when is wealth and health? What are the best measures of wellbeing and who measures it best?

Transfusing THE ECONOMY
We are all born with “the right to adequate to food, clothing and housing.” (The United Nations INTERNATIONAL COVENANT Article 11) .  The energy forms we choose to provide these impact on global energy balances. Often we are under pressure to use energy forms that generate junk joules. Identify some of the pressures and explore Triple Bottom Line concepts of accounting in energy use.  
The Powers of Junk Joules.
Current definitions of a healthy economy require constant growth in consumption of select energy forms and fuels. Various forms of crisis occur when these definitions fail to include the sustainability of supply, the ability of structures to deliver the resources and the ability of the environment to mitigate the impact of our activities.

 

Energy forms and transformations.
EECA and Black Holes

When is a Hole not a Hole?
White from Black.

Introduction to and detecting small but incredibly powerful regions of the universe made of intense gravity and extremely condensed matter.

EECA and Near Oblivion.The concept of Absolute Zero or Nil Energy

Renewable Energy Mayhem

While the amount of energy remains constant, its “usefulness” alters. We can transform the potential energy in stored water into kinetic energy to drive turbines and generators that work to transform the energy into electricity which then can be transformed into useful energy forms such as light, movement and heat.

 

Energy efficiency practice (Generating bonus joules)

Definition of bonus joules  Also provided is a defintion of junk joules.

My Ancestors We go back through the mists of time to great early thinkers and innovators.
Holey Leaks!
Insulation: introducing thermal bridges and their ability to transfer thermal energy; questions of quality of materials and installation.
When Less is More... and More
Quality energy efficient practice versus fashion dictates.
Nailing the Froth

The need for quality installation practice with wall insulation.

Heated Ups and Downs
Calculating the potential cost of the faulty iinstallation of wall insulation.
An Audience with the Sheep Sage.

The use of air in nature to create thermal insulation.
Eye to Eye with the Unknown.

Entering the Land of the Other

One in the Other
We live in a constant flux of energy and knowledge. The balances of energy forms and flows continually change. What we consider positive adaptive uses of energy one day can become negative maladaptive uses the next. The complementary concepts of Bonus Joules and Junk Joules constantly evolve through each other with changing knowledge.
Negwatts and Junk Joules

A Negawatt is a measure of energy efficiency. Improved design and practice can result in a reduction in the amount of energy used to perform a task. The reduced amount of energy used can be often measured in Watts. 
The concept, as used in the trading markets, makes no link to the alternative use of the Watts 'saved.'
The Negawatt image is mainly used by academics, traders, and “energy experts”.

 

Principles of Science

The Collision 

Confusion or Concussion.

EECA’s struggle to Save Energy.  

The Principle of the Conservation of Energy in our daily lives and its conflict with popular images.
Greenhouse Effects
The atmosphere has a large capacity to transfer thermal energy by convection. By comparison, greenhouses are designed to suppress convection.

Heated Ups and Downs
Blocks to understanding that thermal energy is transferred from warmer area to cooler areas and never vice versa.
An Audience with the Sheep Sage.

The thermodynamics of air: air is effective at thermal convection and poor at thermal conduction.

Renewable Energy Mayhem

The First Principle of the Conservation of Energy states that “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed and can only converted from one form to another”.

 

Fuels and Energy (science concepts)  

Web definition  fuel -- (a substance that can be consumed to produce energy;

The Burning Miracle

The Burning Conundrum

The Atmosphere Lives

Revealing our Thermal Beings.

‘Thermal’ electricity generators combine fuels from plants (coal, gas, oil, etc ) with oxygen from the air in combustion (burning). Both the ground and the atmosphere are mined in the process. In combustion, the gases of the atmosphere are transformed. In particular the carbon in the plant-sourced fuels is released into the atmosphere and this alters the thermal balances of Earth’s surface. The “waste’ gases emitted can sometimes be seen as smoke. However most of the gases and the direct effects they have on Earth's energy system are invisible. 

 

P.R. (Image engineering)

Chapter Two discusses learning blocks caused by the image that is generated by the term EECA. Identify them. Research the mission of the agency and generate an image that better achieves its objectives. (Science and English Curruculum.)

The Minister's Environment.

Government's are vitally concerned with local and international perceptions of their country. They live with constant electoral and other pressures to maintain the most positive image. Sometimes this results in Greenwash and the reality is less positive than the official protrait. The cartoon links to the full speech text of the Minister for the Environment outlining her priorities and concerns

Is our Universe Stark Bonkers Mad?

What makes a good science programme? Study  the BBC television series called Space. Compare the images created by the commentary, the music, the visual effects and the astronomers.
Greenhouse Effects

The Holey Ozone Layer
Do a survey with this order of questions:
(A)What % of the total atmosphere is each of these gases: nitrous oxide, nitrogen, ozone, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapour, and methane?
(B) What is the definition of a Greenhouse gas?
(C) What is the definition of a trace gas?
Collate results. How many responses from (A) fit your Definition of a trace gas?

The Cartoon Perfectimo.Quality energy efficient practice versus fashion dictates.
Suffocating Images.
How scientific meaning is destroyed by the medium of the message.
The dangers of satire – negative images generate negative images.  

Approaching the Godhead.
A Higher Being joins Cabinet.
The concepts of Minister of Energy and Minister of Science are recent. Explore your Government’s statutes for patterns in the activities associated with these posts. What do you think the impact is on peoples’ awareness of scientific principles when Parliament deems certain energy forms are energy itself?

The Minister of Energy is Revealed

Titles are mechanisms for expressing visions and for giving authority to individuals and ideas. They work to define knowledge and the power of images.

At One yet Everywhere
Countries, as reflected in the names of their Government agencies, have differing images of the nature of energy and of humans’ role in maintaining energy balances. Do these images reflect scientific understanding of the nature of energy? Can you detect any possible correlations between national images of energy and the use of energy forms per head of population?
The Energy Imagineers

Eye of the Unknown
Junk Joules, the Imagineer
Scientific images of energy are constantly being engineered to serve the interests of sector groups. 

At Home with Junk Joules.
The Advertising and  Public Relations Industry is now the largest global industry. It is funded by and promotes the interests and activities of certain sectors of humanity, sometimes at the expense of other sectors. It effectively shapes much of formal education and school curricula.
Upgrading Cartoon Images.
Graphic designers use symbols and stereotypic images to communicate ideas. Often the symbol is chosen for reasons of tradition and little consideration is given to how the image works to shape popular awareness and how their use impacts on the environment.
Junk Light Children.
Graphic designers are seen as the masters of the image. They craft and shape them to spark the senses. They help people see what they want to say and their interpretation can be dazzling. To some extent, the medium and symbols they use becomes the message.
A Goggle at Google.

An image can be enhanced, diminished and distorted by the images that surround it. Search engines tend to promote images that are the most popular and linked to ‘approved’ institutions. As yet they do not offer searches on alternative and new images. This works to suppress the spread of innovative images that may provide more adaptive visions.
The Burning Miracle.
The Burning Conundrum.

The Atmosphere Lives.
Revealing our Thermal Beings.
Institutions, including commercial companies, often are involved in education programmes. There are always pressures working to shape the content so it best serves the institution’s interests. Sometimes the programmes are specifically designed to obscure the negative impacts of the institutional activities on the environment i.e. form Greenwash. To counter growing international concern at the possible negative impact on the atmosphere, PR processes to minimise awareness that burning fossil fuels involves extensive mining of the atmosphere.

Renewable Energy Mayhem

The images used in the marketing of products often conflicts with scientific images of how energy works. There is a powerful tendency to minimise the impact of use on the environment and to even detach it from natural energy restraints.

 

Primary/Junior School
My Ancestors

Draw a cartoon showing people performing a common task using energy in a very stupid way - like Junk Joules would. Then draw a cartoon showing people making wiser use of energy to perform the task-like Bonus Joules would. 
Extension:
1 Draw the two groups of people interacting.
2.Drama-act out the scenes.
An Audience with the Sheep Sage.

Wool contains many insights into the nature of thermal transfers and designing effective thermal barriers. Ideas for activities can be found at Revealing our Thermal Beings.

Approaching the Godhead.
A Higher Being joins Cabinet.
Parliament now has a post called the Minister of Energy. Write a list of 20 things you know need energy to work.  Include the biggest, smallest, nearest, farthest, quickest, slowest, most ugly, most beautiful…. Then tick all the things the Minister of Energy can govern.  EXTENSION: Discus and draw pictures of the things The Minister of Energy governs/ cannot govern.
Upgrading Cartoon Images
Junk Light Children

Graphic designers often use the lightbulb image to show a person is having a bright idea. The Governments booklet on Climate Change uses the symbol to teach about "energy efficient" light bulbs. Do you think this use of the image is a bright idea?

The Burning Miracle
The Burning Conundrum

Air and Us.
Students are challenged to help Bonus Joules find out what is missing on the model animation used to portray how a ‘thermal’ electricity generator works. See Fuels and Energy for an explanation of combustion.
The Atmosphere Lives
When we burn fuels to generate electricity we mine the ground and the atmosphere. Students attempt to work out how the advanced model of a “thermal generator” at the Genesis web site works. Encourage students to identify missing atmospheric components and to create their own image of how we burn resources to generate electricity.
Revealing our Thermal Beings.

It is possible to work to reveal the invisible nature of heat to all ages. To view a possible sequence of learning activities for ages 5-12 visit the Climate Change programe on this website. Use the BACK button to return to Bonus Joules.

Renewable Energy Mayhem

Students examine hydro electric model for flaws and suggest how weather factors might impact on storage levels. The model provides an excellent opportunity to introduce the Conservation principle (Energy can be neither created nor destroyed.) and for students to reflect on what happens if this principle is breached.

 

 

 

THermodynamics (Earth’s energy system)  

Chapter six-Land of the Lost Trace Gases explores this topic in more cohesive detail via the New Zealand Government Climate Change Group's booklet for primary schools. 

 

Is Human civilisation at risk?

Without the thermal energy retained in the atmosphere Earth’s surface would be about 33оC colder. A balance between incoming solar energy and outgoing energy is maintained. Human activity can alter this balance.
The Zone of Ozone
Energy transformations in the Ozone Layer.
When Less is More... and More
Nailing the Froth

Heated Ups and Downs
Thermal barriers and bridges in buildings.
An Audience with the Sheep Sage.

Important properties of air and thermal barriers in nature.

The Burning Miracle

The Burning Conundrum 

The Atmosphere Lives
Revealing our Thermal Beings.

Combustion involves the combination of fuels from the earth and the air. It alters the balances of the gases in the atmosphere and the invisible thermal balances. These changes affect weather patterns.

In particular combustion increases the quantity of the Warmer Trace Gases in the atmosphere and to the extent that they degrade our environment they can be described as pollution.

 

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