Rationale
Sometimes I think when my students were born one of the first procedures that the doctor performed was to plug the student into the nearest electrical outlet and check to ensure that their entire "tech" was working properly. After all, my students, like so many other "typical" high school students across America, have the same daily behaviors and routines which begin immediately upon waking up. Sleepy eyes slightly open, they first fumble for their "tech." They switch on a radio or TV and then mentally run through their personal "check list" for the day which usually includes removing an IPod® or IPhone® or some similar device from the wall charger (while leaving the charger still plugged into the wall wasting electricity) or for many students, this may also include a small, hand held gaming device such as a PSP®, IPad® or laptop. Regardless of what "tech" item the student prepares for their day, the one commonality is that all of these items require electricity. My students believe that electricity is there for the taking, an unlimited supply freely flowing through the outlets. Just plug in and power up. The sky is the limit and there is never a cloudy day. A thought is never given to the cost of the electricity, how it is generated, or transmitted. The students don't have a clue as to the enormous amount of pollution generated from the conversion of our dwindling fossil fuel resources into electricity and the health problems associated with that conversion. Compounding this problem is the great disconnect between my students lack of knowledge concerning electricity and all of the phenomenal, environmental, "green, "accomplishments of the City of San Jose, the City which they call home.
San Jose is the tenth largest City in the United States with a population exceeding one million. According to the United States Census Bureau, San Jose's population has been steadily increasing over the last three decades. Coinciding with this increase in population has been the increase in energy use, specifically electricity. Over the last thirty years, the average household and personal demand for electricity has greatly increased. In the past, most homes had one, maybe, two televisions and a single telephone. Not like the plethora of electrical devices today which adorn the modern household and are found on individual students. My personal concern, as their high school Physics teacher is, "how do I get my Physics students to begin to understand their individual and household energy use along with the adverse environmental effects of such use?" How do I accomplish these objectives while meeting all other academic obligations of incorporating the new Common Core Standards for Physics, improving their reading, writing, (literacy), and critical thinking skills, while at the same time prepare the students so that they can successfully pass the California Science Test for Physics? The answer to accomplishing all of these objectives while providing the students with an exceptional educational experience which involves their families was the development of this curricular unit. The first step in formulating this unit was choosing my seminar. I chose the seminar, "Energy, Environment, and Health" by Dr. John Wargo of Yale University because the topics presented and to be discussed were exactly what I needed for my unit.
Dr. Wargo's seminar, through the Yale Teachers Initiative, helped me to understand the concept that every technological advancement has a consequence. Many times the consequence is not easily identified and may lay hidden in the environment due to the complex relationships between human interactions with the environment. As an example, which we discussed in class, most people now spend over 90% of their time indoors and most modern buildings are heavily insulated to conserve energy. Although this may seem very beneficial to the environment, in a green sense, what if the air inside the building were to slowly become contaminated from vapors released from the multitude of chemicals used in insulation manufacture? Compounding this possible problem could be a limited fresh air supply due to the recirculation of air in the building, once again, done as a means to conserve energy. Dr. Wargo helped me understand the complex relationship which exits between our natural environment and our "built" environment. I would like this curricular unit to help my students understand these complex relationships in terms of renewable and non-renewable resources; specifically, oil, natural gas, and solar energy. At the end of this unit I will be posing a series of questions to my students in the form of "problem based learning," and they will be required to make informed decisions as to the "costs" of using renewable energy as opposed to non-renewable energy and the associated health concerns resulting from their decisions.
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