Fossil Fuels and Renewable Alternative Clean Energy Unit Print & Digital

Explore the urgent crisis growing with our world’s unhealthy and unsustainable addiction: fossil fuels.

Everything from its various forms (oil, coal, and natural gas) to air pollution and greenhouse gases, and climate change to clean alternative energy like solar and wind are covered in this unit.

Grab students' attention with shocking numbers, guide them to dig deeper with engaging documentaries and current issues, and inspire them with the work of clean energy activists.

This unit comes in both print PDF and editable digital Google files.

It's routinely revised to keep up-to-date with the most current statistics, data displays, and outside sources. You'll have free access to all future updates. It was last updated in 2023.

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Greatness is believing in the power of one person’s choices to impact the world.

Few teenagers know the world beyond their own and don't realize their lifestyle, consumption levels, and “normal” behavior aren't the reality for much of the world, especially when it comes to our natural resources.

Guide your students through a variety of sources, from documentaries and charts to a simulation and news articles, as they grapple with the urgent question: “How can I lessen my carbon footprint?”

Set each of them up for success with this high-interest, multi-faceted unit with highly scaffolded graphic organizers, detailed student directions, and supplemental resources included at each step of the way.

And empower your students to become globally-aware clean-energy citizens in this 3-week unit!

Included in this complete inquiry-driven Fossil Fuel & Renewable Energy unit:

Teacher Materials

• Teacher Unit Overview with general notes, links, standards, and a pacing guide with standards (3 pages)
• Daily Lesson Plans with step-by-step directions, planning tips, and lesson takeaway notes (13 pages total)
• Detailed Answer Keys for each activity
• Image Files of each of the included data displays
• Unit Review and Skills handouts with self-checking questions and "I Can..." statements using social studies and science standards from several states
• Skill Handouts that include Annotating a Text, Analyzing News Media Sources, Analyzing a Political Cartoon
• Editable Permission Template list supplemental resources and topics covered for families and admin, if needed
• Digital Quick Links File: all the links to editable Google file of all student materials

Student Materials

• Unit Notes: deepen learning of various concepts with unit-long notes
• Incoming Brainstorm: open the unit with a discussion of the unit's central concept, fossil fuel
• Fossil Fuel Pop Quiz: kick off the unit with some eye-opening statistics and facts
• Farming for Oil Simulation: using some dried beans, demonstrate just how little fossil fuel there is left on earth
• Fossil Fuel Video Notes: gain a solid overview of the world's history and current environmental and energy crisis with guided notes for a short National Geographic video
• Fossil Fuel Consumption: analyze a wide variety of maps and graphs for how much the world relies on this unsustainable and damaging energy source
• Pump: compare various clean fuel alternatives to gasoline and the real reason we use fossil fuels in this investigative documentary
• Alternative Options: research the different clean energy sources: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biofuel
• Case Study: Living Off the Grid: explore how several households have said goodbye to fossil fuel energy
• Political Cartoon & News Article Analysis: incorporate timely events with these templates; includes ideas for incorporating throughout the unit
• Socratic Seminar Discussion: culminate learning with a deep conversation about what all this means for the future
• Assessment: confidently assess with these short-answer and extending written response questions

Notes

All outside resources are accessible for free online. The full-length documentary, Pump, is unrated and available for free streaming at the time of this latest update.

While this unit supports many related Environmental Science standards and has been used successfully by many science teachers, it is created with a Human Geography lens. Check out the last page of the Preview for a complete list of standards and topics covered.

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What Other Teachers are Saying

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I got a lot of great pieces for my unit on nonrenewable energy. I particularly liked the lesson that has students evaluate political cartoons, they found this interesting and engaging! They were also engaged in the pre-test, as they did not expect the answers that were true. We had some good discussions. Thanks for this great resource! – Elizabeth B.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This unit is great. Everything is well laid-out and the flow of the lessons keeps a high level of student engagement. It would also be an excellent framework to use and then add some other activities and topics that your students find interesting. – Melanie B.

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Looking for more units on sustainability?

These units can be easily integrated into your Current Events, Human Geography, or Environmental Science course

• Water Supply & Pollution: a 3-week unit exploring our finite freshwater supply and the human rights, pollution, and conservation issues that need urgent solutions
• Plastic & Garbage: a 3-week unit exploring the modern invention of garbage, landfills, and single-use disposables, the effects it is having on our oceans, and how a zero-waste lifestyle can be possible

Interested in making this into a full course?

Global Issues, a semester-long current events, human geography, and environmental science all-in-one course

• World Population, Demographics, & Poverty PBL Unit: explore worldwide population numbers, extreme poverty, and demographics
• Growth, Globalization, & Natural Resources PBL Unit: explore the growth and shrinking of our global population, connectivity, and resources
• Sustainability PBL Unit: explores the ever-increasing water, fossil fuel, and garbage footprints
• Global Priorities Research Project: a 2-option, 2-3 week capstone research project where students complete either a one-pager or research essay on the global issue they find most pressing

This listing is for one license for regular, non-commercial classroom use by a single teacher only. Commercial use like online teaching (ex. Outschool) or sharing with other teachers (ex. shared drive, in a Facebook group, in a professional development training) is strictly prohibited.

By purchasing a license to this resource, you have access to all future updates at no cost, available under “My Purchases." Multiple and transferable licenses are available for purchase. PDF files are uneditable, other files have editing abilities, unless otherwise stated. All files are protected under federal copyright laws.

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