Unit Five Plans: The Power to Change Our World

Learning Objectives

Oregon's Common Curriculum Goals:

History

• World History
1. Understand and interpret events, issues and developments in four spheres of human activity (i.e., economic, social, political, cultural) within and across eras of world history:
• Era 1: The Beginnings of Human Society
• Era 2: Early Civilizations and the Emergence of Pastoral Peoples (4000 BC - 1000 BC)
• Era 3: 1000 BC - 300 AD
• Era 4: 300 - 1000
• Era 5: 1000 - 1500
• Era 6: 1450 - 1770
• Era 7: 1750 - 1914
• Era 8: Half-Century of Crisis and Achievement (1900-1945)
• Era 9: 20th Century since 1945: Promises and Paradoxes
• Historical Relationships
1. Analyze cause and effect relationships, including multiple causations.
2. Interpret and reconstruct chronological relationships.
3. Recognize and interpret change and continuity within four broad content themes: interaction of people, cultures, and ideas; economic and technological developments and their impact on society; American politics and political thought; role of the United States in the world.
4. Understand relationships among events, issues and developments that cross spheres of human activity (i.e., economic, social, political, cultural).

Economics

• Economics
1. Understand that resources are limted.
2. Understand economic trade-offs and how choices result in both costs and benefits to individuals and society.

Geography

• Interaction Between Physical and Human Systems
1. Describe the consequences of humans changing the physical environment and how human changes in one place affect other places.
2. Describe how physical charcteristics of places and regions affect human activities.
3. Understand the geographic results of resource use and management programs and policies.

Social Science Analysis

• Analysis
1. Define and clarify an issue so that its dimensions are well understood.
2. Explain various perspectives on an event or issue and the reasoning behind them.
3. Identify, analyze and select a course of action to resolve an issue.

Content Goals:

• Students will understand the causes and effects of the transitions from human to modern energy sources.
• Students will understand the chronology of the energy changes and their impact on the environment.
• Students will predict future energy trends and develop a sustainable energy policy.
• Students will identify the causes of several global environmental problems including ozone depletion, acid rain, and global warming.
• Students will identify the effects from ozone depletion, acid rain, and global warming and predict the future effects from continued atmospheric changes caused by humans.
• Students will analyze and synthesize available information to recommend one or more strategies to deal with or mitigate anthropegenic atmospheric change.

Content Resources

Readings:

• Chapter 13 in Clive Ponting's A Green History of the World (pp. 267 - 294)
• Group discussion/Lecture (Linguistic, Interpersonal, Mathematical - Logical) -

Have students discuss the major transitions from human power to modern power sources. Ask students to identify reasons for transitions from one energy source to another.

• Small Group Activity (Mathematical - Logical, Spatial, Linguistic, Interpersonal) -

Have students construct a timeline of major transitions in energy sources.

• Individual Assignment (Spatial, Mathematical - Logical) -

Create a diagram, web or chart which shows the major sources of energy which have been used throughout history and shows the uses to which those sources of energy have been put. Make sure to include: human, animal, water, wind, wood, coal, oil, electric, hydroelectric, and nuclear power. Include symbols or drawings which illustrate each power source and each use.

• Small Group Activity (Musical, Linguistic, Interpersonal, Spatial) -

Have students create a song which traces the history of power usage. Play the song, We Didn't Start the Fire, to demonstrate how a song might tell history. Have students create a music video of their song. They should make sure that their action in the video supports the story of power they are telling in the lyrics of the song.

• Individual Assignment (Linguistic, Mathematical -Logical)-

Write an essay in which you identify future energy sources and propose a policy for a sustainable energy future. Make sure you highlight the advantages of your program over current practices and identify any potential problems with your plan.

• Chapter 16 in Clive Ponting's A Green History of the World (pp. 346-392)
• Individual Assignment ( Spatial, Linguistic) -

Create a diagram or chart with labels to explain the acid rain problem. Show the causes of acid rain, where it occurs, what it is, and what it does (its effects).

Videos:

• America Grows Up
• Endangered Earth: The Politics of Acid Rain
• Back to Chernobyl
• Baraka

Links: