Grade Range
4th-8th
Active Time
75 minutes
Total Time
75 minutes
Area of Science
Environmental Science
Key Concepts
environmental science, climate change, greenhouse gases, fossil fuels
Credits

Overview

powerplant

"Nuclear Power Plant Cattenom" © 2005 Stefan Kühn

In these two activities, students will explore two consequences of burning fossil fuels: air pollution and the greenhouse effect. For a comprehensive unit on fossil fuels, this lesson works especially well as an extension to Fossil Fuels: Chocolate Chip Mining.

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:
  • 4-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment
  • MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices Disciplinary Core Ideas Crosscutting Concepts
Developing and Using Models. Develop and/or use models to describe and/or predict phenomena.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. Use evidence to construct or support an explanation or design a solution to a problem.
 4-ESS3A: Energy and fuels that humans use are derived from natural sources, and their use affects the environment in multiple ways. Some resources are renewable over time, and others are not.

5-ESS3C: Human activities in agriculture, industry and everyday life have had major effects on land, vegetation, streams, oceans, air and even outer space.

MS-ESS3A: Minerals, fresh water, and biosphere resources are limited, and many are not renewable or replaceable over human lifetimes.

MS-ESS3C: Human activities have significantly altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of other species.

MS-ESS3C: Typically as human populations and per-capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on Earth, unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise.
 Cause and Effect. Cause and effect relationship may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.

Systems and System Models. Models are limited in that they only represent certain aspects of the system under study.

Stability and Change. Stability might be disturbed either by sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time.
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Grade Range
4th-8th
Active Time
75 minutes
Total Time
75 minutes
Area of Science
Environmental Science
Key Concepts
environmental science, climate change, greenhouse gases, fossil fuels
Credits
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