Objectives:
This three-week unit attempts to enhance students’ content mastery and analytical skills by developing LCAs to determine the most energy efficient and cost-effective way for students to get to school. Students will require mastery in multifactor modelling, energetics of technology, conservation of energy, and energy economics. Students will develop individualized mathematical transportation models with parameters that apply to their residence/locality with justifications for each. As a class we will discuss energy transformations and their implications with energy efficient technologies. In addition, we will explore DC transportation data and examine emerging patterns by calculating megajoules per passenger mile and grams of CO2 equivalence per passenger mile with various transportation modalities (i.e., metro, uber, and electric scooter) within each ward of the District of Columbia. The objectives for this unit seek to have students assess modes of energy transportation by 1) developing a system flow model grounded in energy transformations and resources 2) compare the energy of per passenger mile and greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile as impact factors using LCA framework. This unit is meant to be a project that elicits individual exploration as well as cultivates a depth of thinking that goes beyond the standards of NGSS. It is my hope that students will gain a deeper understanding of energy efficiency by mastering energy transformations and the governing principle(s) of modelling to develop a decision about how to get to school.
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