ALEX | Alabama Learning Exchange

Fuels of the Future

Classroom Resource Information

Title:

Fuels of the Future

URL:

https://www.readworks.org/article/Fuels-of-the-Future/b9ce857c-f636-4de5-b763-995642dc104e#!questionsetsSection:2016/articleTab:content/

Content Source:

Other
ReadWorks.org

Type:

Learning Activity

Overview:

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can introduce students to fossil fuel alternatives, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This learning activity could be used to demonstrate how students across the country have started to become environmentally aware and encourage students to start developing these solutions at their school.

Content Standard(s):

Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 6
Earth and Space Science

16 ) Implement scientific principles to design processes for monitoring and minimizing human impact on the environment (e.g., water usage, including withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or construction of dams and levees; land usage, including urban development, agriculture, or removal of wetlands; pollution of air, water, and land).*

NAEP Framework

NAEP Statement::
E8.15a: Human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere, and intensive farming, have changed Earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere.

NAEP Statement::
E8.15b: Studies of plant and animal populations have shown that such activities can reduce the number and variety of wild plants and animals and sometimes result in the extinction of species.

Unpacked Content

Scientific And Engineering Practices:

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect

Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth and Human Activity

Evidence Of Student Attainment:

Students:

Design a process for monitoring human impact on the environment using scientific principles.
Design a process for minimizing human impact on the environment using scientific principles.

Teacher Vocabulary:

Habitat
Extinction
Species
Human Impact
Population
Per-capita consumption
Technology
Object
System
Process
Engineer
Engineering Design Process (EDP)
Monitor
Minimize
Solution
Causal and correlational relationships
Criteria
Constraints
Limitations

Knowledge:

Students know:

Human activities have significantly altered the environment, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of other species.
Changes to Earth's environments can have different positive and negative impacts for different living things.
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.
Technology is anything man-made that solves a problem or fulfills a desire.
Technology can be an object, system, or process.
Engineering is a systematic and often iterative approach to designing objects, processes, and systems to meet human needs and wants.
The Engineering Design Process (EDP) is a series of steps engineers use to guide them as they solve problems.
The EDP may include the following cyclical steps: ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve.
Scientific information and principles regarding human impact on the environment must be used to design a process or solution that addresses the results of a particular human activity.
Scientific information and principles regarding human impact on the environment must be used to design a process or solution that incorporates technologies that can be used to monitor negative effects that human activities have on the environment.
Scientific information and principles regarding human impact on the environment must be used to design a process or solution that incorporates technologies that can be used to minimize negative effects that human activities have on the environment.
Causal and correlational relationships between the human activity and the negative environmental impact must be distinguished to facilitate the design of the process or solution.
Criteria and constraints for the solution must be defined and quantified to include individual or societal needs or desires and constraints imposed by economic conditions (e.g., costs of building and maintaining the solution).
Criteria are the principles or standards by which the process or solution is judged.
Constraints are the limitations or restrictions on the process or solution.
The process or solution must meet the criteria and constraints.
Limitations of the use of technologies exist.

Skills:

Students are able to:

Use scientific information and principles to generate a design solution for a problem related to human impact on the environment.
Identify relationships between the human activity and the negative environmental impact based on scientific principles.
Distinguish between causal and correlational relationships to facilitate the design of the solution.
Define and quantify, when appropriate, criteria and constraints for the solution.
Describe how well the solution meets the criteria and constraints, including monitoring or minimizing a human impact based on the causal relationships between relevant scientific principles about the processes that occur in, as well as among, Earth systems and the human impact on the environment.
Identify limitations of the use of technologies employed by the solution.

Understanding:

Students understand that:

A process or solution must meet criteria and constraints, including monitoring or minimizing a human impact based on the causal relationships between relevant scientific principles about the processes that occur in, as well as among, Earth systems and the human impact on the environment.

AMSTI Resources:

AMSTI Module:
Exploring Planetary Systems

Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards

AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.6.16- Assess how human behaviors impact the environment (e.g., recycling, conservation, pollution); suggest processes to minimize human impact on the environment.

Tags:

Earth Day, environment, fossil fuels, fuel alternatives, human impact, pollution

License Type:

Custom Permission Type
See Terms: https://about.readworks.org/terms-of-use.html
For full descriptions of license types and a guide to usage, visit :
https://creativecommons.org/licenses

Accessibility

Audio resources: includes a transcript or subtitles
Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings

Comments

ReadWorks is a website that provides K-12 teachers with free literacy resources (About ReadWorks). ReadWorks has literary and informational texts on a variety of subjects and reading skills. You may narrow your search using grade level or Lexile level, making this website a wonderful tool for differentiation. Students will complete their work digitally, and you will provide their score and feedback digitally. This makes it easy to go paperless for this activity.

Prior to implementing this activity, you will need to sign up for an Educator Account on ReadWorks. After setting up an account, create a class from the Class Admin tab, this will provide you with a Class Code to give to students. Next, use the Find Content tab to search for the informational article that will be used during this activity, "Fuels of the Future". After navigating to the article, click on the blue Assign button to assign it to your class.

Each student will need access to a digital device, such as a tablet or laptop. The first time students enter the website they will need to enter the Class Code that is listed on your Class Admin page. Alternatively, you can print the article and corresponding questions for students, if digital devices are not available.

This resource provided by:

Author:

Hannah Bradley

ALEX Classroom Resource

Fuels of the Future