Urban Environmental Quality and Human Health: Conceiving a Sustainable Future

Overview

My unit will address certain parts of the fifth grade state science and social studies standards for New Mexico. They will understand science standards concerning the physical states of matter - gas, liquid, solid, and colloid and sources of water, and they will learn social studies standards concerning civics, economics, and history. ¹ I will teach them in the context of energy sources found in New Mexico. But this unit is much more than that. While learning about the states of matter, my students will learn how mineral rights give their owners the right to the minerals under ground but not the surface. Surface rights only give the owner the right to develop the surface. ² They will learn how communities' work within a system to express opinions, persuade opponents, advocate positions, and make things happen. They will increase their skill set for asking good questions, making rational arguments, and recognizing alternative perspectives.

They will experience our political process and see how a community fights to preserve what they consider the "right" way to manage Santa Fe County while others argue for legal rights to make changes. In the case we consider in this unit, we will see how some groups are for drilling and some are against it. Some groups fear possible side effects to their quality of life if the oil company drills. In particular, they fear noise pollution, visual blight, and contaminated water supplies. Some believe the community will not realize any benefits. Those people do not think the recovered oil or gas will improve their life enough to take the risk. Another set of people think that getting the oil will improve their life. Some of them think it is hypocritical to complain about the cost of fuel and expect other communities to suffer those inconveniences for you. Some groups see a substantial profits in their future and believe the down side risk is well worth the chance. Some think it will make the country more secure. There are "pro" drilling people and "con" drilling people. The two sides are convinced that they are right and will do battle in the civil court and the court of public opinion - trying to win. Whichever side wins will use their win to influence political leaders in the county. They will use their influence to advocate for their position - stop the oil drilling efforts or stop the activists from disrupting the mining.

While the students follow this conflict's evolution, from initiation to resolution, they will learn how different states of matter interact in different conditions (e.g., heat and pressure) and how different circumstances affect the water table and aquifer behavior. (e.g., geology, mining).

Part of this growth in understanding will include learning how to analyze multiple sides of controversy and conflict. The students will gain that understanding by looking at and examining specially selected case studies with an eye toward fairness and justice.

One aspect of the Galisteo Basin case that is especially notable to my students is that the government, who will ultimately make the final call on the controversy, has a history of secrecy in the region (two nuclear labs) and of proceeding without the best interest of the local citizenry as a primary motivation (Manhattan Project). This reality will bring us to examine the history of the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) and look briefly into the conduct of the nuclear industry. While studying the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the students will make decisions about who pays when nature has a hand in a disaster.

When the unit is finished, the students will know more about the states of matter than how liquids and gases will take the shape of their containers and how water can change between three states within 100 degrees Celsius. My students will understand something about how substances change, move, and interact with each other (e.g., liquids eroding or building, changes from heat or pressure). Depending on the nature of those interactions, otherwise benign substances can have a serious impact the community. In one of the situations we are considering, that impact has created heated debate in the local community. Through this study, students will learn how to form defensible positions on social controversy.