Natural Resources Sustainability Water Garbage Fossil Fuel 3-Units-in-1

Explore the increasingly urgent problem of our world’s 3 biggest environmental dilemmas: how to conserve our water, how to end our addiction to fossil fuel oils, and how to stop generating so much garbage (especially plastic waste) in this 8-9-week inquiry unit on sustainability.

Everything from pollution to conservation, carbon footprints to single-use disposables, renewable energy alternatives like wind, solar, and hydrogen to landfills, and zero-waste lifestyles are covered!

This mega unit is like 3 units in one!

This unit is part of a thematic, project-based course, Global Issues, a semester-long look at current events, human geography, and environmental science.

Get a closer look >> scroll up and click View Preview above; also download this FREE Unit Overview.

Unit At A Glance

• 19 Activities, End-of-Unit Essay & Project
• “I Can” Standards Checklist & Skill Handouts
• Detailed Daily Lesson Plans, Answer Keys & Rubrics
• Instructional Slide Deck
• Printable PDF & editable Google files of every activity

Greatness is believing that one person’s choices can impact the world.

Few teenagers know the world beyond their own surroundings and many have no idea how their lifestyle, their consumption levels, their “normal” behavior negatively impacts our environment and our planet’s future.

Guide your students through a wide variety of sources (from documentaries and maps to simulations and news articles) as they grapple with the not-so-simple question: “How can I help sustain this planet for future generations?”

You will set each of your students up for success in this high interest, multi-faceted inquiry unit, regardless of ability, with highly scaffolded graphic organizers, skill sheets, powerful projects, and supplemental resources included at each step of the way.

Empower your students to become globally aware eco-citizens in this 3-part, 8-9-week unit!

Activities are completely interchangeable as well- mix and match depending on time constraints, student ability, or personal interests.

Included in this complete thematic, inquiry-driven unit:

Overview

• Teacher Unit Overview with general notes, links, standards, and a pacing guide
• Daily Lesson Plans with step-by-step details, planning, and lesson takeaways
• Detailed Answer Keys for each activity
• 65-slide Instructional support slide deck (PT & Slides) to assist in daily lessons with student questions, images, step-by-step essay outlining support, etc.
• Student Unit Review handouts with review questions and "I Can..." checklists
• Student Unit Notes sheet for building deep and nuanced mastery of concepts
• Student Skill sheets including Annotating a Text, Analyzing News Media Sources, Deciding a Precise Position, Constructing a Thesis, Including Evidence, Creating a Works Cited, and Annotating a Works Cited

Student Activities (in both PDF & Google Slides/Docs)

• Unit Notes: record and reflect on learning throughout the unit
• Unit Hook: quiz on eye-popping statistics and facts about our planet's resources
• Water Activities:
  - take a personal water audit
  - learn about the water shortage crisis emerging throughout the world
  - hear stories of females who must forgo school and work to solely gather water
  - watch a investigative documentary on the world's most polluted river,
  - analyze a variety of maps and graphs on the limited access to fresh water across the world
• Fossil Fuel Activities:
  - learn about the history and different types of fossil fuels
  - analyze data displays of declining reserve and increasing consumption
  - explore the fuel monopoly created and the alternative bio-fuels that also can power cars in the powerful documentary Pump
  - research the costs and benefits of clean
  - renewable energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro
  - deep-dive into the lifestyles of people living off the grid
• Garbage Activities:
  - uncover the history of plastic and the myth of recycling we have created
  - analyze data displays of massive consumption and lack of reuse
  - explore the hidden-away landfills of the world
  - watch compelling video diaries of people saying no to plastic and waste
  - explore the zero-waste lifestyle in the compelling film, Just Eat It, and various vlog challenges
  - investigate the surprising findings from experts about how stuff doesn't really make people happy

Project & Assessment

• Be The Solution Project:
  - create either a bulletin board display of quick tips and shocking facts or more in-depth infographics to share with school community
• Unit Essay:
  - culminate learning and takeaway with this DBQ-style essay
  - support students with a collaborative brainstorm activity, detailed instructions, outline template, sentence stems, and rubrics, that asks them to answer “How can I sustain our planet's resources?”

Note on Resources Used

All video clips, full-length documentaries, news articles, and web tools can be accessed free online at the time of this latest update. However, it's encouraged to purchase to two full-length films, Pump and Just Eat It, to ensure continued access.

What Other Teachers Are Saying

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I've been using this with my Environmental Science class. I love how easy it is to use. The outlines and directions give suggestions to help integrate the content in various ways. This is a great resource to use and add to anyone's existing content on sustainability. I found it extremely helpful when I didn't know what to start with for this unit. - Hallie

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I recently begin using this bundle for my environmental science class when covering renewable/nonrenewable resources and sustainability. I used this for a multi-unit project. It has tons of resources and is outlined well. My student liked that the project was specific to them or the areas they live in. Worth the purchase! - Amanda

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I used this as the end-of-the-year unit with 8th grade on human impact on the environment. I didn't do everything, picked and chose but it worked well with my kids. - Stephanie

Also available are stand-alone units that dive deeper into each topic:

• Water Supply & Pollution: a 3-week unit exploring our finite freshwater supply and the human rights, pollution, and conservation issues that need urgent solutions
• Fossil Fuels & Alternatives: a 3-week unit exploring our addiction to oil, the harsh impact it is having on our air pollution and greenhouse gas levels, and the urgent need to switch to clean renewable energy sources
• Plastic & Garbage: a 3-week unit exploring the modern invention of plastic, landfills, food waste, the effects all this trash is having on our oceans, and how a zero-waste lifestyle can be possible

Like this unit? Grab the rest of the course!

Global Issues is a semester-long current events, human geography, and environmental science all-in-one course that will create global citizens out of your students

• World Population, Demographics, & Poverty Unit: explore worldwide population numbers, extreme poverty, and demographics
• Growth, Globalization, & Natural Resources Unit: explore the growth and shrinking of our global population, connectivity, and resources
• Sustainability & Consumption of Water, Energy, & Garbage Unit: explore the ever-increasing water, fossil fuel, and garbage footprints
• Global Priorities Research Project: culminate learning with this capstone project that strengthens research, sourcing, and writing skills to turn your students into global citizens

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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