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Crisis? What Crisis?
Wood to Wheels - Inquiry Lesson Plan
Lesson Introduction

Title: Is
our Energy Usage Sustainable?

Subject/ target grade: 9 – 12

Duration: Three class periods, 50 minutes each.

Setting: classroom, library, computer lab, auditorium

Learning Objectives:
o Evaluate our energy sources as either renewable or non-renewable, and determine
whether the energy utilization of each energy source is sustainable.

Michigan Content Expectations:
B, C, P1.1B Evaluate the uncertainties or validity of scientific conclusions using an understanding of
sources of measurement error, the challenges of controlling variables, accuracy of data analysis, logic of
argument, logic of experimental design, and/or the dependence on underlying assumptions.
B, C, P1.1D Identify patterns in data and relate them to theoretical models.
B, C, P1.1E Describe a reason for a given conclusion using evidence from an investigation.
B, C, P1.2B Identify and critique arguments about personal or societal issues based on scientific evidence.
B3.4C Examine the negative impact of human activities.
B3.4d Describe the greenhouse effect and list possible causes.
B3.4e List the possible causes and consequences of global warming.
E5.4A Explain the natural mechanism of the greenhouse effect, including comparisons of the major
greenhouse gases (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone).
E5.4C Analyze the empirical relationship between the emissions of carbon dioxide, atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels, and the average global temperature over the past 150 years.
E5.4D Based on evidence of observable changes in recent history and climate change models, explain
the consequences of warmer oceans (including the results of increased evaporation, shoreline and
estuarine impacts, oceanic algae growth, and coral bleaching) and changing climatic zones (including the
adaptive capacity of the biosphere).
P4.2A Account for and represent energy transfer and transformation in complex processes (interactions).
P4.2C Explain how energy is conserved in common systems (e.g., light incident on a transparent material,
light incident on a leaf, mechanical energy in a collision).

Lesson Overview: The film “An Inconvenient Truth” will be shown in class. During the
presentation, students will answer questions on a supplied worksheet or graphic organizer to
organize their thoughts and accumulate facts. Students will form groups to share their
assessment of the presentation, create a presentation, and report questions that they have about
the data presented in the film that remain unanswered.
Lesson Core

The Guiding Question: Can the world continue to use energy in its current form at
predicted increasing usage rates without suffering from negative influences?

Materials and Equipment Needed: suitable for showing film “An Inconvenient Truth”
(popcorn machine optional)

Safety precautions: none

Advanced Preparation: ensure that projection equipment is in working order.

Background Information for Teachers: possible sources for lesson plans and preparation.
Global Warming Lesson
http://www.georgiagbea.org/Teacher_Resources/LegalEnvironemnt/BusLaw_FOD2009/Environment
%20Law/Global%20Warming/An%20Inconvenient%20Truth%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf
Australian Site (not free)
http://www.aninconvenienttruth.com.au/truth/guide.htm
Climate Classroom
http://www.climateclassroom.org/teens/lessonplans.cfm

Engage: How will the teacher introduce the question in a way that engages the students’
interest and builds on their prior knowledge?
o Where does the energy come from that powers your cell phone? Your video game?
Your car?
o What are the advantages/disadvantages of that energy source, and can we continue to
use it without causing harm to the environment?
o Students initiate a KWL: what they Know (K) and what they Want to know (W) about
climate change.

Building on prior knowledge: Questions that the teacher might ask to assess students’ prior
knowledge.
o What are renewable and nonrenewable energy sources?
o What are fossil fuels?
o What is the ultimate source of energy of fossil fuels and biofuels?

Pre-teaching: Information that students need to know to begin exploration.
o Global warming has now been redefined as climate change.
o The release of some email records discussing data manipulation has called the validity
of global warming into question. This is popularly called “Climategate” and is
summarized here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy
The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (commonly known as "Climategate") began in
November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of
East Anglia (UEA). On 20 November, two weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change,
an unknown individual or group breached CRU's server and copied thousands of emails and computer
files to various locations on the Internet. The story first broke in the blogosphere with columnist James
Delingpole popularizing the term "Climategate" to describe the controversy. Climate skeptics alleged
that the emails revealed scientists manipulating climate data and suppressing their critics. According
to Newsweek, climate skeptics believed that the documents showed that "global warming is a scientific
conspiracy”.
The traditional media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in
Copenhagen on 7 December, with media outlets like Fox News giving the controversy increased
coverage. Because of the timing, scientists and policy makers speculated that the release of emails was
a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference. In response to the controversy, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Meteorological Society
(AMS) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released statements supporting the scientific
consensus, with the AAAS concluding "based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global
climate change caused by human activities is now underway...it is a growing threat to society.”
Six committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or
scientific misconduct. However, the reports criticized climate scientists for their disorganized methods,
bunker mentality and lack of transparency. Climate scientists and organizations pledged to restore
public confidence in the research process by improving data management and opening up access to
data. The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained
unchanged by the end of the investigations.
The CRU temperature data set is based on raw data held by National Meteorological Organizations,
some of which restricted redistribution. CRU received numerous Freedom of Information Act requests
for this data and for the redistribution restriction agreements, and in August 2009 announced work to
release the raw data by agreement with the meteorological organizations. A FOI request for emails
between scientists about the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report was refused, but one of the hacked
emails revealed in November 2009 proposed deletion of requested emails. The Information
Commissioner's Office decided in July 2010 that the university had not provided timely responses, but
no further action was needed to release the emails. Whether requested emails had actually been deleted
was not investigated, as prosecution for this was time-barred by the statute of limitations, but the ICO
would consider ways of improving openness in future. Following an ICO decision in June 2011, the
requested raw data was made publicly available despite one Met office explicitly refusing consent.
Overall, the incident was considered a public relations disaster for the scientific community. Public
opinion on the subject remains polarized and sharply divided along political orientation. Former
Republican House Science Committee chairman Sherwood Boehlert called the attacks a "manufactured
distraction", and the dispute was described as a "highly orchestrated" and manufactured controversy by
Newsweek and The New York Times. Concerns about the media's role in promoting early allegations
while also minimizing later coverage exonerating the scientists were raised by journalists and policy
experts. Historian Spencer R. Weart of the American Institute of Physics said the incident was
unprecedented in the history of science, having "never before seen a set of people accuse an entire
community of scientists of deliberate deception and other professional malfeasance.” The United
States National Academy of Sciences expressed concern and condemned what they called "political
assaults on scientists and climate scientists in particular”.
o Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure,
wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental
measurements in a given region over long periods. Climate can be contrasted to
weather, which is the present condition of these elements and their variations over
shorter periods.
o Plants and animals change their breeding and growth patterns to take advantage of
changes in climate. Rapid changes in climate can have detrimental effects on
populations that cannot adapt quickly enough. Habitat loss is also a concern: lakes dry
up, ice flows melt, habitable land succumbs to desertification, etc.

Explore: How will the teacher facilitate the students’ exploration of the problem and collection
of data?
o Where does the data come from that indicates the carbon dioxide concentration in the
Earth’s atmosphere in the past? How far back does it go? How reliable is it?
o Where does the data come from that indicates the temperature of the Earth in the past?
How far back does it go? How reliable is it?
o Why is there a season change in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?
o What historical link is there between an increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere and the average temperature of the earth?
o What is the greenhouse effect?
 How does it relate to the transformation from one kind of energy to another?
 How is energy conserved in this process?
o Why is it called climate change and not weather change?
o What error does the film make when it talks about changes in weather?
o What factors can contribute to a lake drying-up? Consider the competing uses for water
and how different groups (industry, agriculture, municipal, and environmental) place
demands on this resource.
o What evidence is there that the temperature of the earth is rising?
o What evidence is there that the activity of human beings is causing the rise in
temperature?
o What gases are more harmful to the earth’s atmosphere or cause a greater greenhouse
effect than carbon dioxide, and how successful were the efforts to regulate and remove
them? Is carbon dioxide regulation possible?
o What is the significance of the frog and boiling water analogy?
o How is climate change affecting ocean life and ocean levels? What impact might this
have on human habitation in coastal areas?
o Why did the film reference human population?
o Sources of worksheets/graphic organizers for students to organize data during film
presentation:
 http://educatoral.com/documents/AIT-Sheehan.pdf
 http://moviesheets.com/site/sheets.php?id=1

Explain: How will the students be expected to explain their data or evidence?
o Depending on teacher preference, there is a range of possibilities.
o Students collect information on worksheets/graphic organizers (see above), share with a
small group, and report-out to the class as a whole.
o Oral group presentations, butcher paper, white boards, power points, etc. can be
assembled depending on resources.

Elaboration: How will the teacher facilitate the sharing of student explanations?
o Mediate classroom discussion
o Provide white paper, markers
o Provide dry erase boards, markers
o Computer lab for power-point creation

Evaluate: How will the teacher connect the student explanations and bring out the big
scientific idea.
o Student groups present their assimilation product (see above) to the entire class. Time
is provided for discussion after each presentation and questions are addressed or
referred for further research.
o Presentations focus on:
 Strength of correlation between greenhouse gases and global temperature.
 Effect of human behavior on increase in greenhouse gases.
 Evidence for climate change.

Lesson Closure:
Questions that the teachers might ask to bring the big scientific idea of the lesson.
Questions that the teacher might ask to assess mastery of the learning objectives.
 What is the ultimate source of most of the energy that is used?
 What are renewable and non-renewable energy sources?
 Can we continue to rely on our current energy sources? Why or why not?
 What are the effects on the environment of fossil fuels, wind energy, hydro electric,
nuclear, and biofuels?
 Where do we go from here?
Lesson Extension

Assessment Options:
o Written Response: Students are provided a scoring rubric and are assigned to write a
paragraph concerning the burning of fossil fuels, the effects on the environment, and
solutions to the situation.
o Exit essay: Students complete a short description of prior Knowledge, what they
Wanted to know, and what they have Learned (KWL).

Additional Resources:
o Numerous. An internet search is very productive. Samples are below.
An Inconvenient Truth
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
Green Schools Initiative
http://greenschoolsinitiative.com/TeacherResources.html
Climate Classroom
http://www.climateclassroom.org/teens/lessonplans.cfm
Rainforest Action Network
http://www.georgiagbea.org/Teacher_Resources/LegalEnvironemnt/BusLaw_FOD2009/Environment
%20Law/Global%20Warming/An%20Inconvenient%20Truth%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf
Now: Public Broadcasting System
http://www.pbs.org/now/classroom/globalwarming.html
Lesson Planet
http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?keywords=inconvenient+truth&media=lesson