1.5 Who Use? Who Gain? Who Lose?

Teacher & Student Materials > Powering a Warming Planet

1.5 Who Use? Who Gain? Who Lose?

Lesson Overview

Guiding question:

Who use? Who gain? Who lose?

90 minutes

Purpose:

This lesson addresses the two major issues with energy use: on the one hand, some people and countries use too much energy and fossil fuels, which emits too much greenhouse gases and causes climate change. At the same time, some people and countries still suffer from energy poverty, where they do not have access to energy. In addition, people in energy poverty are also victims of climate change. Lastly, students will explore multiple perspectives in regard to the energy transitioning away from coal.

Overview:

Students will review the line graph and table of energy consumption from 1870 to 2020 to summarize the first issue: humans have had a growing demand on energy, especially fossil fuels, which produces greenhouse gas emissions and causes climate change. The lesson will then introduce the issue of energy poverty and climate inequality.

Design Principles:

Social justice
Considering the economic/ethical/political dimension of the issue

Background Knowledge:

elationship between energy use, CO2 emission (the greenhouse effect) and climate change.

Common Misconceptions:

Safety:

Unit Connections:

connects to water use in US, Israel, India, and Cote D’lvoire (Ivory Coast)

Teacher

Teacher slides 1.5 Who Use? Who Gain? Who Lose?

Student

Reading cards 1.5 Transitioning from coal. What makes it difficult?

Instructional Sequence

Materials: Teacher slides 1.5 Who Use? Who Gain? Who Lose?

Issue 1: Using too much fossil fuels produces greenhouse gas emissions and causes climate change (slide 2-6)

How has energy consumption changed during the past 150 years? Review the table and line graphic for “Energy consumption from 1870 to 2020.”
Students should be able to summarize that from 1870 to 2020, the amount of energy consumption exhibited a huge amount of increase; and a huge amount of energy consumption increase was due to the rise of fossil fuels.
Further link the two graphs students examined before: global atmospheric CO2 concentration and global average temperature from 1850 to 2020, students should be able to summarize that the first energy issue is that using too much fossil fuels produces greenhouse gas emissions and causes climate change

DP: Considering the economic/ethical/political dimension of the issue

Discourse opportunities:

Classroom discussion；
small group discussion

Issue 2: People in the poor developing countries suffer from energy poverty and climate change (slides 7-9)

Slide 7: Students watch a video about energy poverty.

Slide 8: Introduce the issue of energy poverty. The satellite image shows that because many countries in Africa have little access to electricity, it is dark at night.

Slide 9: Students discuss in small group discussion and share with class.

In the water unit, students explored water use in US, Israel, India, and Cote D’lvoire (Ivory Coast). In this lesson, students compare the energy use in these four countries. They also use the graph to predict how much energy (in trend) each country will use. The last discussion question asks why the energy use per person in the US can decrease. This is an open-ended question. Possible answers include:

Economic recessions in the 1980s and 2001
COVID (travel restriction, closed offices and businesses, work-from-home)
Increases in efficiency of appliances, electrical equipment, and building insulation
Increases in the average fuel efficiency of vehicles
Reduction in the energy-intensive production of metals and other manufacturing

Slide 10: Climate injustice

Students watch the video that explains why poor people suffer more from climate change.

Transitioning from coal. What makes it difficult?(Slides 11-14)

Materials: Reading cards 1.5 Transitioning from coal. What makes it difficult?

This activity allows students to explore the multiple perspectives in regard to energy transitioning.

First, students are assigned into groups of 2 to 4. Each group will be provided with an information card. They read the card and answer the questions:

Who might be the author of the information?
Does the author support the transitioning from coal?
What evidence does the author provide to support the claim?

After all groups answer the four questions. Ask students the last question again: Should West Virginia transition from coal to new energy sources? If students changed their mind, ask them why.

Provide suggestions to the West Virginia government on how to do the transition?

DP: Social Justice

Discourse opportunities:

Small group discussion;
classroom discussion.

Information for Planning & Teaching

Background Knowledge
Lesson Timing
Student ideas & Experiences
Science Practices
Teaching Cases