Energy, Environment, and Health

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 12.07.08

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Classroom and School Environment
  3. Rational
  4. Objectives
  5. Strategies for future Energy
  6. Appendix 1 Annotated Bibliography
  7. Appendix 2 IB Objectives
  8. Appendix 3 Student Handouts and Diagrams
  9. Endnotes

Energy for the Future, Superheroes Need Not Apply

Debra Blake Semmler

Published September 2012

Tools for this Unit:

Introduction

Is the idea of inexpensive and environmentally safe energy only a dream? The blockbuster movie The Avengers conveys a story about the evil Loki stealing the infinitely powerful "Tesseract" from S.H.I.E.L.D., an international peace keeping agency. The superheroes, Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk and Thor must come to save the world from destruction because the power of the "Tesseract" is in evil hands. In the 2009 blockbuster, Avatar, having depleted our own resources on Earth, we had to travel 4.3 light years to the moon Pandora to mine "Unobtainium" to supply our need for energy. 1 Are these just stories or do they speak to the global need for clean, safe energy? My curriculum unit will address the issues surrounding global energy supply. The curriculum unit will explore the physical laws associated with the production of energy alternatives, energy degradation, and energy density. Students will research energy alternatives and the global energy supplies and develop a plan to provide a country with safe, clean energy for the next twenty-five years. Will this be a job only superheroes can do? Will we have to travel to a fictional moon? The answer is no, but we will have to make difficult decisions based on scientific laws and facts.

Comments:

Christina C Forbes

January 2, 2016 at 10:14 pm

This post needs serious editing

The content is fine. But the writing is poor. Typos, bad grammar, failures of clarity abound. Not a good platform for public school children to learn from. A good editor who knows something about energy terminology is needed, quickly. For example, the text confuses kilowatts and kilowatt hours. Examples need to be crystal clear. The writing is not up to Yale standards (I am a Yale Law School graduate). Happy new year, Christina Forbes Alexandria, Va.

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