Sankey Diagrams

Browsing for more Sankey diagram goodies the other day I was delighted to find the following sketch in a brochure ‘Let’s learn about energy: a practical handbook for teachers’ published by the TACIS technical dissemination project.

The diagram illustrates a list of suggested activities for students, to teach them “why energy is important”:

Get students to draw up Sankey diagram (Figure 3) showing the energy flows through a process or activity. Consider a power station, house or car. The width of the arrows represents the amount of energy. Energy inputs (fuels, electricity) usually flow into the process from the left and useful energy outputs (heating lighting mechanical power, chemical energy) and losses (heat, noise etc.) flow out to the right.

And another language for my collection of Sankey definitions…

The website of Nottingham City Schools offers a variety of materials that can be used by teachers in their courses. One of the key areas in the science field is ‘energy’.

The site has a demonstration of how Sankey diagrams may be used to represent transfer of energy, including a PowerPoint and “stories”, for which pupils can create a Sankey diagram by using tokens cut from cardboard.

I think this is a great idea, as it supports the understanding of the energy topic with a haptic and, very importantly, a visual approach.