Teacher & Student Materials > Powering a Warming Planet
What are the problems with fossil fuels?
135 minutes
Students will learn the problems brought by fossil fuels, including climate change, depletion of fossil fuels, health hazards, and pollution caused by transferring fuels.
This lesson starts with students reviewing global energy consumption by source and temperature rise caused by CO2 emission. Students will participate in a lab experiment to explore the impact of acid rain. Students will use a matrix to evaluate online courses.
PH, acid, and base.
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Remind students that the beakers are glass. If they drop or break the beaker, they should immediately report to the teacher.
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Acid rain lab materials: PH test strips and scale
Materials: Teacher slides 1.4 What are the problems with fossil fuels?
Review the pie chart “Global energy consumption by source in 2020”, the top three energy sources nowadays are oil, gas, and coal (slide 2).
Ask students to brainstorm: what are the problems with fossil fuels? (slide 3)
The central problem is the CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels. Because the major component of fossil fuels is carbon. When we burn fossil fuels, carbon reacts with oxygen and creates carbon dioxide (Slide 4).
Another issue is the depletion of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels take millions of years to form. Once they are used, they are consumed (slide 5).
Students watch the video about the Great Smog of London (slides 6-7) and pay attention to the questions:
Use the slides, you explain the formation of acid rain (slide 9)
Explain that acid rain does not have to be “rain”. It could be any precipitation that is acidic, such as snow. Explain that the PH of acid rain is between 4 to 5 or even lower. How damaging acid rain can be? Let’s do an experiment. (slide 10)
Discourse opportunities:
classroom discussion.
Lab procedures:
The next day
Start the lesson with students observing and comparing the egg shells and green leaves placed in the water and carbonated water. Compare the color of the leaves and the hardness of egg shells.
Remind students that Carbon Monoxide (CO) is another pollutant created by burning coal. Use slides 13 to 17 to explain
On slide 12, we recommend stopping here for today’s class and have students observe the result the next day. Also, this is a place to explain 2×2 experimental design to your students.
DP: Science investigation
Discourse opportunities:
classroom discussion.
Introduce students and watch a video of “Coal ash in North Carolina”.(slide 18-19)
Explain that transferring and storing fuel may also result in pollution(slide 20).
DP: Localization of the issue. Contextualize the fossil fuel as coal ash in North Carolina. students will be able to see the connection between the issue with their everyday lives.
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