Energy makes things happen: it heats, lights, moves and powers machines. Two sources in this lesson are solar energy and fossil fuels. Solar energy is energy we can use from the light and heat of the sun. You can observe it when clothes dry on a line, when a dark roof grows hot, or when a solar panel makes electricity.

Fossil fuels formed from living things over a very long time. Oil, natural gas and coal are fossil fuels. Trinidad and Tobago produces oil and natural gas, so this lesson is about a local industry as well as about the sky. Both sources matter. They are not the same kind of source.

A useful definition comes from observations, not from a slogan. The sun gives light and heat. We can use that light and heat. That is solar energy. A solar water heater warms water. A solar panel turns light into electricity. A clothes line uses heat and moving air to dry clothes. Cocoa and fish are sometimes dried in the sun.

You do not look at the sun to study it. Looking at the sun can damage your eyes. You observe what the sunlight does to a safe object, such as a covered cup of water an adult sets in the sun, or the warmth on your sleeve.

In Trinidad and Tobago the sun is strong for much of the year because we live in the tropics. Solar energy is readily available here.

Oil, natural gas and coal are fossil fuels. They are useful. Power stations, vehicles and many factories have depended on them. Trinidad and Tobago has an oil and gas industry, and many families know someone whose work connects to it. The lesson does not insult that work. It asks you to compare the source with sunlight.

Fossil fuels take an extremely long time to form. We use them much faster than they form, so they are non-renewable on a human timescale. Burning them sends smoke and other waste into the air. That links to the pollution lesson.

Solar energy does not run out on that same timescale. We call it renewable. Using a panel does not burn a fuel at the house. Making and shipping panels still uses materials, so “clean” means cleaner at the point of use, not magic.

Benefits of solar energy: it is available in our tropical climate, it is renewable, and at the point of use it does not make the smoke that burning a fuel makes. Uses: electricity from panels, hot water, drying food and clothes, and warming a space.

Fossil fuels still start quickly, work at night, and already run much of our transport and industry. A fair answer names both the benefit of solar energy and the reason people still use oil and gas. The science outcome is to appreciate solar energy as an alternative, which means another real option, not a pretend one.