Unit: 1 Resources and Human Impact on the Environment #1 LT 1.1: I can describe and identify the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. 1. Can you define renewable and nonrenewable resources? Yes I can: 2. Can you describe, in general, how electricity is made and give some examples? 3. Can you explain were fossil fuels (coal and oil) come from? LT 1.2: I can evaluate competing designs for energy production and develop sustainable plans for energy production. 1. Can you explain how we generate electricity for each of the resources (biomass, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, fossil fuels (3 types), nuclear, wind)? Yes I can: 2. Can you explain pros and cons for each of the resources (biomass, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, fossil fuels (3 types), nuclear, wind)? 3. Can you create or evaluate competing designs for sustainable energy production? LT 1.3: I understand the life cycle of products (cradle to grave) and I can use this idea to compare and contrast the risks and benefits of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Yes I can: 1. Can you list and explain the 6 steps it takes to make a material ready for us to use? 2. Can you explain the pros and cons of reduce, reuse, and recycle? 3. Can you explain a few reasons why mining is bad for the environment?
Vocabulary I should know: 1. Renewable energy that can be made again in a short amount time (instantly to a few years) #2 2. Nonrenewable energy that take a large amount time to renew (millions of years) 3. Hydroelectric electricity made from moving water 4. Geothermal - electricity made from the heat of the earth 5. Fossil fuel - electricity made from burning fossil fuels, which are the carbon remains from living things that died millions of years ago. 6. Biomass - electricity made from renewable organic (living) materials like wood, crops, waste (animal and garbage). Can be burned or made into a fuel 7. Solar - electricity made from the sun. It can be done one of two ways: 1.Photo voltaic (PV) directly transfers sunlight into electricity. 2. Thermal: mirrors focus light to one spot where water is heated to steam. 8. Nuclear Fission - electricity made from the heat of a nuclear reaction. In this case the splitting of an atom. (we can do this one) 9. Nuclear Fusion - electricity made from the heat of a nuclear reaction. In this case the combining two atoms together (we cannot do this one) 10. Wind - electricity made from moving air 11. Coal - electricity made from the burning of coal 12. Oil- electricity made from the burning of oil 13. Natural Gas - electricity made from the burning natural gas 14. Reduce to use less of something 15. Reuse to use something again for another purpose 16. Recycle to take waste and remake it into something new 17. Surface Mining also called pit or strip mining, is when a large area is dug out and the useful stuff is separated from the unwanted rocks and dirt 18. Subsurface Mining a hole is dug in the ground to get to the useful stuff. 19. Sustainable a way of doing things (like making electricity) that can be done forever. 20. Line graph - Line graphs are used to track changes over time. 21. Pie Chart - Pie charts are best to use when you are trying to compare parts of a whole. They do not show changes over time. 22. Bar Graph - Bar graphs are used to compare things between different groups.
How is Electricity Made? #3 LT 1.1: I can describe and identify the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. 1. What do you know about how electricity is made? 2. Mr. Potter is going to demonstrate how electricity is made. Describe what happened in your own words. 3. Draw a picture below of how a generator works. 4. There are two main ways to make electricity. One involves heat; the other involves stuff that moves. Briefly describe the process of how each makes electricity. HEAT MOTION Describe: Describe:
Energy in the Earth System LT 1.1: I can describe and identify the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. #4
Windmill Energy Production Lab LT 1.1: I can describe and identify the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. #5 1. Question: How does changing the number of blades (2,3,4) change the energy output of the windmill? 2. Background Information: 3. Hypothesis: 4. Materials: 5. Variables a. Independent Variable: b. Dependent Variable: 6. Diagram: Run the Experiment 7. Data: Blade number 2 3 4 Voltage output
8. Graph your data: 9. Analysis: (Why do you think you got the results you did.) 10. Did you make any mistakes or did anything unexpected happen? 11. Conclusion: (Did you support your hypothesis? Why or why not? Use evidence!!!!) Part 3: Post Lab Questions 12. Why do you think most windmills have 3 blades?
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LT 1.2: I can evaluate competing designs for energy production and develop sustainable plans for energy production. Energy Resources #8 Energy source Biomass Renewable or Nonrenewable How do we get electricity from it? (Burn it, capture its motion, capture its heat, ) Coal Geothermal Hydropower Natural gas Solar Uranium (Nuclear) Wind
LT 1.2: I can evaluate competing designs for energy production and develop sustainable plans for energy production. How much does it really cost? #9 Different types of energy cost different amounts for different reasons. Hydroelectric power uses free energy but require large cost build a dam; Nuclear power has lots of costs (fuel, power plant, disposing of radioactive waste) but it also makes a lot of electricity. With fossils fuels, the fuel must be purchased along with building and maintaining the power plant and sometimes the power plant has to capture the CO2 they give off, which is another cost. So how do you know how much it really costs? To the right is a list of energy sources and their levelized costs. This amount includes all the costs that go in to making electricity with that particular fuel and comparing the costs to how much energy it produces. While this table is helpful, it is hard to visualize which the best is. To do that, we should graph this data. Should we use a line graph, a bar graph, or a pie chart? When should we use: Line graph Bar graph Pie chart Power Plant Type Coal $95 Natural Gas $73 Nuclear $95 Wind $74 Solar PV $125 Solar Thermal $240 Cost $/kw-hr Geothermal $48 Biomass $101 Hydro $84 Source: EIA.gov
Energy Resources LT 1.2: I can evaluate competing designs for energy production and develop sustainable plans for energy production. #10 Energy source R=renewable N=Nonrenewable Biomass Process of making electricity (Thermal (heat), capture motion, other (explain) ) Is this a clean energy? Is it cheap on a large scale? (What s the levelized cost?) What is unique about this resource? (Good and/or bad) Coal Geothermal Hydropower Natural gas
Energy source R=renewable N=Nonrenewable Process of making electricity (Thermal (heat), capture motion, other (explain) ) Is this a clean energy? Is the cheap on a large scale? #11 What is unique about this resource? (Good and/or bad) Propane Solar Uranium (Nuclear) Wind
The Downside to Energy Production LT 1.2: I can evaluate competing designs for energy production and develop sustainable plans for energy production. 1. Summarize what this graph is showing: #12 2. Summarize what the greenhouse effect is: 3. Wind and solar are not perfect either. What general problem does this graph show?
Balancing Power LT 1.2: I can evaluate competing designs for energy production and develop sustainable plans for energy production. #13 The Problem: It is your job to come up with an energy plan for Michigan. Some sources like fossil fuels are cheap and create a lot electricity but create a heavily amount of pollution. Other sources like solar do not pollute at all but are very expensive while not producing very much electricity. Can you find the perfect balance? The Amount of Power Needed: 12,200MW Power source Number of power plants Cost $ ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT UNITS (BIG NUMBER=BAD) Wind x10-1 x10 Energy produced in MW The super-secret column (don t even ask what its for) Solar x20-4 x15 Fossil Fuel x100 200 x500 We are going to pretend that Michigan has volcanoes Hydroelectric (Max=2) Geothermal (Max=2) Nuclear (Max=3) Biomass (Max=2) Energy Conservation Campaign (Max=1) Totals: x200 40 x300 x50 0 x200 x400 50 x2000 x150 30 x400 x50-20 x-200 (Subtract forom target. Your target is now 12,000 MW)
#14 Post Lab 1. Why did you choose the energy resources that you did? 2. What are some positives about your energy plan? 3. What are some negatives about your energy plan? 4. Is it possible to have a net zero effect on the environment? (environmental impact score of 0 or negative) If so, what is its downside? 5. What does sustainable mean? 6. Is your energy plan sustainable? 7. What makes an energy plan sustainable? 8. Is there one right answer? Explain. 9. The price of solar is dropping fast. By the time Mr. Potter is ready to retire, it will probably be one of the cheaper ways to make electricity. But even if it was the cheapest, we cannot rely on only solar power. Why?
The Life Cycle of Things We Use LT 1.3: I understand the life cycle of products (cradle to grave) and I can use this idea to compare and contrast the risks and benefits of reduce, reuse, and recycle. 1. Where do clothes come from? Let s try to get all the steps from start to finish. #15 2. In general, what are the stages of production for the stuff we use from start to finish? 3. Think about what it takes to make a hamburger. Below, list all the ingredients it would take to make a great hamburger. 4. Your group will be assigned a part of a hamburger. For your part, think about the stages from above. Think about where your part comes from
#16 Types of Mines LT 1.3: I understand the life cycle of products (cradle to grave) and I can use this idea to compare and contrast the risks and benefits of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Surface mining (strip mining) Surface mining is done by removing (stripping) surface vegetation, dirt, and, if necessary, layers of bedrock in order to reach buried ore deposits. Techniques of surface mining include: open-pit mining, which is the recovery of materials from an open pit in the ground, quarrying, identical to open-pit mining except that it refers to sand, stone and clay; strip mining, which consists of stripping surface layers off to reveal ore/seams underneath; and mountaintop removal, commonly associated with coal mining, which involves taking the top of a mountain off to reach ore deposits at depth. Most (but not all) placer deposits, because of their shallowly buried nature, are mined by surface methods. Some Negatives: Uses a Huge amount of energy (moving mountains) Destroys the geosphere and the local ecosystem (biosphere) Produces mineral waste and waste water (Pollution) Underground mining Sub-surface mining consists of digging tunnels or shafts into the earth to reach buried ore deposits. Ore, for processing, and waste rock, for disposal, are brought to the surface through the tunnels and shafts. Sub-surface mining can be classified by the type of access shafts used, the extraction method or the technique used to reach the mineral deposit. Drift mining utilizes horizontal access tunnels, slope mining uses diagonally sloping access shafts, and shaft mining utilizes vertical access shafts. Some Negatives: Uses a lot of energy, though not as much as pit mining. Produces waste water (Hydrosphere)
Cookie Mining LT 1.3: I understand the life cycle of products (cradle to grave) and I can use this idea to compare and contrast the risks and benefits of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Instructions 1. Each player starts with $19 of play money. 2. Each player receives a Cookie Mining sheet (page #17) and a sheet of grid paper. 3. Each player must buy his/her own "mining property" which is a chocolate chip cookie. Only one "mining property" per player. 4. After buying the cookie, the player places it on the grid paper and, using a pencil, traces the outline of the cookie. The player must then count each square that falls inside the circle, recording this number on the Cookie Mining Spreadsheet along with the properties of the cookie. Note: Count partial squares as a full square. 5. Each player must buy his or her own "mining equipment." More than one piece of equipment may be purchased. Equipment may not be shared between players. Mining equipment for sale is: Flat toothpick $2.00 each Round toothpick $4.00 each Paper clips $6.00 each 6. Mining costs are $1.00 per minute. #17 7. Sale of a chocolate chip mined from a cookie brings $2.00 (broken chocolate chips can be combined to make one whole chip). 8. After the cookie has been "mined," the cookie fragments and crumbs should be placed back into the circled area on the grid paper. This can only be accomplished using the mining tools No fingers or hands allowed. 9. Reclamation costs are $1.00 per square over original count. (Any piece of cookie outside of original circle counts as reclamation.) Cookie Mining Rules 1. Players cannot use their fingers to hold the cookie. The only things that can touch the cookie are the mining tools and the paper on which the cookie is sitting. 2. Players should be allowed a maximum of five minutes to mine their chocolate chip cookie. Players who finish mining before the five minutes are used up should only credit the time spent mining. 3. A player can purchase as many mining tools desired; the tools can be of different types. 4. If the mining tools break, they are no longer usable and a new tool must be purchased. 5. The cookie cannot be piled on itself at the end to avoid reclamation costs 6. The players that make money by the end of the game win. 7. All players win at the end of the game because they get to eat the remains of their cookie!
#18 Cookie Mining Spreadsheet 1. Type of Cookie 2. Price of Cookie = $ 3. Size of Cookie Squares covered 4. Equipment used Flat toothpicks x $2.00 = $ Round toothpicks x $4.00 = $ paperclips x $6.00 = $ 5. Cost of removing chips Minutes mining x $1.00 = $ 6. Total cost of mining (add #2-5) = $ 7. Total value of chips chips x $2.00 = $ 8. Reclamations cost squares x $1.00 = $ How much did I make? $19.00 -- Total cost of mining (#6) + Total value of chips (#7) -- Reclamations cost (#8) = Profit/loss 1. Did your mine make or lose money? 2. What could you have done differently to make your mine more profitable? 3. Reclamation is when the earth is returned to the way it was before the mine was opened. How easy was it to return your cookie back to the original size? 4. Imagine that the chocolate chips are too small to pick out with your mining tools. How could you separate it from the cookie? 5. Now you have a new type of waste. What have you just contaminated? 6. Imagining that your digging and separating the chocolate chips from the cookie took a massive amount of energy (fossil fuels). What are some ways that mining negatively affects the environment? 7. Imagine that the chocolate isn t ready to eat. Iron for example, must be separated from its ore. What must be done to it to get it ready to be used
Carbon Footprint LT 1.3: I understand the life cycle of products (cradle to grave) and I can use this idea to compare and contrast the risks and benefits of reduce, reuse, and recycle. #19 Complete the Carbon footprint calculator found on my website. Answer the questions to the best of your ability. 1. If everyone on planet Earth lived like you, how many Earth s would we need to provide enough resources? 2. How many acres of productivity do we need to support your life style? 3. How does your ecological footprint breakdown? 4. Go do edit your footprint. What are some things that could reduce your footprint? (List at least 3) 1. What is the device you are researching? Mining Minerals 2. In the table below, make a list of materials that is need to make your device. Mineral Location mined 3. Now research where these mineral come from. What country mines the most of that mineral?
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle LT 1.3: I can use this idea to compare and contrast the risks and benefits of reduce, reuse, and recycle. #20 Recycling Paper 1. Why is through stuff in the garbage (landfill) bad for the environment? 2. Describe the process of recycling paper (you should have about 5 steps): 3. Which of these would take energy or electricity? 4. Which steps would create waste? 5. What was the quality of our paper like? What are some things that we could do to improve the quality of our paper (name 3)? 6. What would improving the quality of our paper cost us? Reuse 7. What if we reused the paper instead of recycling it? What are some ways that we could reuse the paper instead? 8. What would it cost us in terms of energy and waste? 9. What advantages does reusing have over recycling? Reduce 10. What would this mean to reduce the amount of paper we use? 11. What would it cost us in terms of energy and waste? 12. Let s rank Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, in terms of best to worst for the environment. Explain why in the terms of energy and waste. 1 st Place: Why: 2 nd Place: Why: 3 rd Place: Why: Last Place: Throwing it in a landfill Why: _It will be there forever and we will never get the land back_(think WALL-E)