Education

Header

The Energy Highway: Solutions Ahead

Since 2001, a series of geopolitical, natural and economic realities—from extraordinary economic growth in China and India, to regional conflicts in the Middle East, to population growth, global climate change and natural disasters in the Gulf of Mexico—have combined to drive home the fact that we need to rethink and restructure our energy framework on a global basis.

This century will be defined by our ability to discover and implement innovative solutions to promote energy security and alternatives to petroleum-based resources, while meeting the increasing demand for energy across the globe and minimizing environmental impact.

We hope this curriculum helps you explore these issues with your students. This generation of young people holds the key to forming and advancing the solutions that will supply and sustain energy for our growing and prospering world.

Grade Level:

Anticipated Duration:

Download Lessons >>
4-5 class periods

Objectives:

  • Help students consider the current issues surrounding energy today, including increasing global energy demand and environmental and economic impacts.
  • Explore ways to help reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by using diverse and renewable energy resources.
  • Explore ways to conserve energy and become more energy efficient.
  • Demonstrate the benefits of using renewable energy resources to produce electricity and hydrogen as energy carriers that offer the greatest diversity and lowest environmental impact.

National Standards:

  • Science
    • Relationships among organisms and their physical environment.
    • Structure and properties of matter.
    • Sources and properties of energy.
  • Geography
    • Physical processes that shape patterns on earth’s surface.
    • Characteristics of ecosystems on earth’s surface.
    • Nature, distribution and migration of human populations on earth’s surface.
    • Patterns and networks of economic interdependence on earth’s surface.
    • How human actions modify the physical environment.
    • How physical systems affect human systems.
    • Changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources.
    • Global development and environmental issues.
  • United States History
    • How the rise of corporations, heavy industry and mechanized farming transformed American society.
  • Technology
    • Relationships among science, technology,society and the individual.
    • Nature and uses of different forms of technology.
  • Civics
    • Impact of significant political and nonpolitical developments on the United States and other nations.
  • Economics
    • Basic concepts about international economics.

Download Lesson Plans:

Descargas en español: