SC.912.L.17.11

This is a simulation that allows students to explore how the common usage of a potentially renewable resource can lead to its exploitation. Students will complete an activity, a data sheet, an analysis of the data, and discuss how the concept of the ‘commons' relates to southern Florida's water resources. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students explore the costs and environmental impacts of land development and restoration.

Type: Lesson Plan

The relationship between oceans and climate change has been debated. The cost of ocean and marine life conservation can be high. Students will create an ecological budget to decide whether the preservation of marine ecosystems is worth the cost.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will build student awareness of renewable and non-renewable resources using a combination of discussion, a group simulation activity, and a group research project and presentation.

Type: Lesson Plan

The governor of Florida has declared a state of emergency and is asking all of the residents to calculate their carbon footprint. Students need to submit a reference letter back to the governor explaining what their carbon footprint is as well as the steps they will take to reduce their carbon footprint. Students will then present their findings and evidence to reduce their carbon footprint at a city council meeting. This is an imaginary scenario and students will be graded on their written letters and speeches that are presented to the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

The underlying focus of this lesson is to provide students with documents designed to equip students with information that describes the following: solar policies guiding the current federal administration, basic current forms of solar energy use, costs and benefits of investments in solar energy, the planned infrastructure designed to make the transition to solar happen.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson deals with understanding how non renewable resources are being depleted. It emphasizes the urgent need to discuss and implement the use of renewable resources since its much cheaper. A total appreciation of what the earth supply us with.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discuss the costs and benefits of a variety of energy projects in a local area.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

The importance of knowing what drinking water contains. How to know what properties are present in different bottled water. Knowing the elements present in water that is advantageous to growth and development of many things in the body. To know what to be alert for in water and to understand the importance of water in general.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students must choose which type of automotive power plant is the best choice for a car company to use in its upcoming eco-friendly model. The students must make this decision based on characteristics of each power plant, such as efficiency, production cost, and production energy. Students must decide what they feel makes the car most “ecological.” They may choose a very low-polluting car that is very difficult and costly to produce, or one that has more emissions, but uses very limited resources to develop. This lesson could be used to either as an introduction or a follow-up to a lesson about ecology, energy use and conservation, or human environmental impacts.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

Coleman Mackie discusses longleaf pine forests as renewable resources.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Charles Carpenter gives an overview of what it is like to own an electric car.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their curriculum. This tutorial focuses on teaching students how to integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information in different media. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

Type: Professional Development

This resource is a student-led project surrounding human impact on the environment in the context of the nature of science (problem solving).

Type: Project

Students will identify the steps of how a bill becomes a law. Students will demonstrate presentation and debating skills during a mock session of congress. Students will identify causes as to why animals become threatened or endangered.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Is large-scale production of biofuel possible? The author attempts to answer this key question. As the world seeks to decrease its dependence on petroleum fuel by genetically engineering certain crops, there is the potential to commercially produce biofuels. Plant sources for bioenergy, the harnessing of plant bioenergy, and the sustainability of the industry are all issues considered in this text. The article discusses both environmental and economic consequences.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses a troublesome milestone in climate science: the CO₂ levels in Earth's atmosphere stayed above 400 ppm for the entire month of April 2014. The article discusses the significance of this measurement and how CO₂ levels impact the atmosphere.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists are looking into newer, futuristic technologies to help humans do less damage to our environment. This article focuses on three very exciting solutions—leafy walls, water conservation, and solar cells—that are close to becoming realities.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how scientists have discovered a method of transferring wave energy into electrical energy by the use of manmade seafloor "carpets." After the article explains how the process works, it lists the potential benefits of utilizing this method on a large scale.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is based on a climate change report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It provides another perspective on climate change from the IPCC and includes evidence and possible solutions to the problems caused by man-made pollution.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article explains the causes and locations of deforestation and explores the environmental consequences that occur because of the practice.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the use of bacteria and fungi to share the process of changing cellulose in corn husks to isobutanol. In contrast to current methods of producing biofuels, this process requires a simple, one bioreactor process.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the development of floor tiles that provide a green, alternative energy source. These tiles work on the principle that pressure (footsteps) generates an electric current from certain crystals in an application of the piezoelectric effect.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes a group of researchers/investors who are attempting to convert the energy in volcanically heated water to electricity using a new method of forming more fissures to hold the heated water.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text describes the open cycle method of converting the energy of warmed, surface seawater into electricity and the benefits of using this method.

Type: Text Resource

This site from the National Academy of Sciences presents uses, sources, costs, and efficiency of energy.

Type: Text Resource

This lab simulation will allow you to explore how carbon circulates through the environment. Through data collection and analysis, you will experiment with the impact that humans are having on the cycling of carbon and make data based predictions on how these impacts may change environmental outcomes to the year 2100.

Type: Tutorial