Air: Fuel for Thought

This lesson plan engages students in a real-life exploration of climate change as it is affected by greenhouse emissions from vehicles. The aim of this activity is for students to realize the impact of vehicle use in their family and to give students the opportunity to brainstorm viable alternatives to this use.

Go To:

http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2004/educators/edu_air1.html

PBS

Notes From Our Reviewers

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Teaching Tips

Give students a data table to use to collect their data.

Provide students with written directions for the calculations.

About the Science

Students gather data about their family's car and calculate the total emissions per year. The class then discusses ways to reduce emissions.

Emissions data come from http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

Comments from expert scientist: This is a nice activity to connect personal choices to increasing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is a great example of calculating quantities from varying rates and conversion factors, such as tons/year, pounds/ton, etc.

About the Pedagogy

The background content portion of activity is lecture-delivered.

Students research emissions and perform calculations for their family's vehicles.

This lesson presents a good opportunity for students to discuss their own use of vehicles and the impact of the choices they and others make on the environment. Focusing on cars and driving behaviors may prove to be motivational at the high school level.

It will be important for the teacher to implement meaningful, connected activities in the week between data collection.

Technical Details

Low tech; easy to use.