Unit Plan: Understand E-Waste Through Battery Design

Grades:
4-5
Description:

In this lesson students will further explore their understanding of energy, electricity, and basic circuits. Students will begin their exploration of batteries by questioning where batteries end up when we are done using them, making connections to e-waste...

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More Details Less Details
Learning Goal(s):
1.Students will make connections to real world problem solving with e-waste.2.Students will explore battery design and transfer of energy through hands on experiments with household items.3.Students will evaluate and analyze problems with e-waste and research solutions.4.Students will draw and label models to explain circuits demonstrating the movement of energy.5.Students will be able to explain how the measured and compared batteries based on the knowledge learned about volts and using a voltmeter.
Author:
Jonathan Strunin
Estimated Activity Length:
10 hours
Source:
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Published:
2021
Last Updated:
2021
Intended Grade Level:
MS,
HS,
Post Secondary
Description:

The EJ Atlas collects these stories of communities struggling for environmental justice from around the world. It aims to make these mobilization more visible, highlight claims and testimonies and to make the case for true corporate and state accountability for the injustices inflicted through their activities. It also attempts to serve as a virtual space for those working on EJ issues to get information, find other groups working on related issues, and increase the visibility of environmental conflicts.

It is an interactive worldwide atlas highlighting EJ issues by geography.

Source:
Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (NYU Metro Center)
Published:
2021
Last Updated:
2021
Intended Grade Level:
PreK-2,
3-5,
MS,
HS,
OST
Description:

NYU Metro Center designed this tool to help parents, teachers, administrators, students, and community members determine the extent to which their schools’ Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) curricula are (or are not) culturally responsive. This scorecard can be used to evaluate just one discipline of STEAM, like a math curriculum or a science curriculum, or an interdisciplinary curriculum that includes all aspects of STEAM. We hope that this collaborative evaluation process will provoke thinking about what students should learn, how they should learn it, why they should learn it, and how curriculum can be transformed to engage students effectively. 

Location:
Energy Content:
Source:
Washington Green Schools
Published:
2021
Last Updated:
2021
Intended Grade Level:
3-5,
MS
Description:

Washington Green Schools guides and supports students and school communities to be leaders for a healthy environment. As part of their efforts to promote sustainable schools, they have developed a series of games and activities to help students understand energy use in their school and engage in conversations about how to reduce their energy use and clean up their sources of energy.

Source:
NGS Navigators Podcast
Published:
2019
Last Updated:
2021
Intended Grade Level:
PreK-2,
3-5,
MS,
HS,
OST,
Post Secondary
Description:

NGSNavigators podcast featuring Dr. Daniel Morales-Doyle, who discusses powerful impact of a justice-centered science pedagogy, which is one of the core pedagogies that informs CE's approach. He gives examples of what this looks like throughout different grade bands. He specifically shares a high school chemistry unit he taught in Chicago. In the show notes, find his research and similar articles of the impact of justice centered science pedagogy.

Location:
Source:
Institute for Science and Math Education
Published:
2016
Last Updated:
2020
Intended Grade Level:
PreK-2,
3-5,
MS,
HS,
OST
Resource File(s):
Description:

A fantastic one-page guide for educators to navigate different activities to promote collaborative science learning, based on the need/purpose andn timing of the activity. Includes stuent- and teacher led activities across a range of leanring styles. 

Location:
Source:
TERC
Published:
2012
Last Updated:
2020
Intended Grade Level:
PreK-2,
3-5,
MS,
HS,
OST
Resource File(s):
Description:

A simple reference for all student ages of talk moves and activities that educators can use to facilitate productive academic dialogue around new topics.

Location:

Adrift in a Sea of Plastic Unit Plan

Grades:
5-8
Description:

In this unit students will investigate the phenomena of plastic trash islands floating in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The students will work to solve the problem of plastic trash islands through the engineering and design process. Using 3D printers,...

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More Details Less Details
Learning Goal(s):
·       Students will design 3D models using Tinkercad software.·       Students will define the problem of plastic trash islands.·       Students will describe possible solutions to the problem of plastic trash islands.·       Students will research the plastic trash problem and create google slideshows the problem and how we might fix it.·       Students will investigate different ways to build structures that both float and hold weight.·       Students will build a model of a device that could collect plastic from the ocean.·       Students will test the models they build.·       Students will communicate their results from scientific inquiry to identify factors that are important to optimizing the design of the plastic collecting device.
Author:
Jonathan Strunin
Estimated Activity Length:
10 hours
Source:
Climate Justice Alliance
Published:
2016
Last Updated:
2020
Intended Grade Level:
MS,
HS,
OST,
Post Secondary
Description:

Released in response to President Obama's Clean Power Plan, this analysis and policy platform's goal is "to empower communities working for a Just Transition to a clean energy future by organizing to protect the integrity of the CPP and ensuring Federal and State Implementation Plans adhere to principles of environmental justice." It addresses effects on frontline communities, incorproatin of environmetal justice principles into state and federal energy plans, regulation of carbon and co-pollutant emisisons, policy loopholes to incentivize fossil fuel extraction, clean energy and conservtation, and access to clean energy careers.

Location:

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