What are our alternatives?             Name _______________________________________

 

 Many people worry that the resources we use for energy are running out.  Are there alternatives that are ready to use?  Which alternative is best?  How can we make the right decisions?  Most of these decisions are made by political and industrial leaders, so what can we do?

You actually have power to influence the people who make decisions about energy.  One way we can influence decision makers is by our votes.  The other way we can influence these decisions is by our “purchasing power”.  In other words, we make a kind of “vote” with the products we chose to buy or not to buy.  For example, someone who decides to buy a car that gets 30 miles per gallon instead of a car that gets 15 miles per gallon is “casting a vote” for high mileage cars.

The challenge facing people is knowing how to make good decisions.  To make good decisions we need to know what we are talking about.  This is the purpose of this assignment – to learn about our energy alternatives.

Each student will have an energy resource to research.  We will go to the library one day to do research.  You also will have a bell in computer lab to do work.  Any additional time you need, will be on your own.  Each student will be responsible for developing a presentation of about 3 – 5 minutes. The presentations could be Power Point, a web page, Smart Notebook, a video, or a “Movie Maker” presentation. You will present this in your computer class where the technical aspects will be graded AND you will also present it to your science class where the content will be graded. We will also exchange information, and complete the “Important Facts About Energy Resources” so that everyone will have knowledge about each energy resource.  As a final step in the project, each student will be expected to write a paragraph describing what the future of energy use should be like.

You will have to do a works cited and a works consulted, so you need to keep a list of your sources.

Due dates:

 

Your assigned “Energy Resource” (or “Way of getting energy”): __________________________

1. Describe your energy resource, including what we use the energy to do (such as for transportation or to generate electricity). 

2. Is your resource renewable or non-renewable, and what makes it that way? 

3. How did/does this energy resource form/occur in nature?  Where can we find it in nature and/or what kinds of places have the most?

4. Describe the technological system that uses your resource to generate electricity.  Describe any ways your resource is used for transportation.  Describe any other significant way we use it as a source of energy.

5. What other uses are there for this resource?

6. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of your energy resource:

7. Explain whether or not this energy resource is a good choice for the future.  Support what you say with three or more facts.  Two of the facts need an internal citation.  There is information about how to do an internal citation and a works cited on the library web page.  This is an important question, so consider your answer carefully.  This is to be answered in paragraph form with internal citations given in parentheses.

 

Works Cited:  You will need to attach a typed copy of the sources you took your quotes from.  It is ok to get both quotes from the same source.  Do the works cited in the format described on the library web page.

Works consulted:  You must have at least these four sources.  One source must be from the Gale Student Resource Database (but  not an encyclopedia from Gale).  Another you should use, but is not required, is your science textbook.  One must be a book (other than your science book).  You are also required to use an encyclopedia; the encyclopedia must be Britannica from the JH library web site OR a print encyclopedia from the JH library.   Another source must be a web site (but not one from a database, like Gale).  You will be required to do a web evaluation for the site.  The Web Evaluation form is on the “class projects” link on the library web page.  Type your works consulted in the format described on the library web page.

 

 

What are our Alternatives?  Rubric Student_____________________________________

PACKET:  Slashed items indicate areas of weakness.

1.       Completion of packet  {#1=4, #2=1, #3=1, #4=4, #5=4, #6=1, #7=4)……………….…….._____/19

2.       Reasonable, well thought out and well supported paragraph discussion of #7 ….… _____/15

a.       Quotes done correctly (blend , quotations , citation correct,

parentheses , period …………………………………………………………………………….…. _____/5

3.       Works cited (alphabetical, double space, format, hanging indent,

Matches internal citation) ……………………………………………………………………………………. _____/6

4.       Works consulted

a.       Overall: alphabetical, double space, hanging indent………………..…….……….. _____/6

b.      Book: author, format ……………………………………………….………………………..……. _____/3

c.       Gale source: “name of article”, original source, MJHS, Gale URL …………..… _____/3

d.      Encyclopedia: "Title of the Article." Title of Encyclopedia……………………...… _____/3

e.      Web site: "Title of Article/Document." Title of Website. 

Date of access, URL……………………………………………………………….……………..…. _____/3

5.       TOTAL POINTS EARNED FOR PACKET………………………………………………………..………_____/63

PRESENTATION

1.       Coverage and correctness of packet items.  C = coverage, E = error.  A slash indicates a problem.

a.       #1 – Description, including uses, transportation, electricity ( C – E ) .…..…..…_____/10

b.      #2 – Reasoning for renewable or nonrenewable ( C – E ) …………………..………._____/4

c.       #3 - How did resource form and where can we find it? ( C – E )...................._____/6

d.      #4 - How do we generate electricity with the resource? ( C – E ) .…………….…_____/10

e.      #5 – Other uses ( C – E ) ……………………………………………………………………..………._____/4

f.        #6 – Advantages and disadvantages ( C – E ) …….………………………………..………_____/6

g.       #7 – Is resource good for the future? ( C – E )................................................_____/10

2.       TOTAL POINTS EARNED FOR PRESENTATION………………………………………………….……_____/50