This article is an update on the Smart Path Connect project that is rebuilding and modernizing transmission lines in New York to better withstand extreme weather and utilize clean energy.
The article highlights New York State as a national leader in their progressive climate plan that fosters a green economy, supports disadvantaged communities, and invests in clean energy.
The article is available in many languages.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The article explains the many benefits of this project, including a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and increased green energy jobs.
The article is available in twelve other languages.
Additional Prerequisites
The links for the Smart Path Connect map, the New Statewide Transmission Investments map, and the Smart Path Connect website are broken.
Students should be familiar with clean/renewable electricity and how it is transmitted.
Some students may benefit from having the terms transmission lines, grid, renewable energy, emissions, and others defined before reading the article.
Differentiation
Civics classes can use this resource to assess the intended and actual outcomes of New York's climate policies.
Earth science and engineering classes can use this resource as an example of technical climate change solutions.
Students outside of New York State can read this article as inspiration for what their state can do to address climate change. Students can create proposals for climate policy using ideas from this article.
Scientist Notes
This resource shares an announcement from NY Governor Hochul. This announcement details progress on updating and protecting the state energy transmission lines. The updates and protections will allow New York to pursue more green energy and protect infrastructure from extreme weather. The article discusses the benefits and relationships to the state’s climate change plan. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3.A: Natural Resources
HS-ESS3-A.2. All forms of energy production and other resource extraction have associated economic, social, environmental, and geopolitical costs and risks as well as benefits. New technologies and social regulations can change the balance of these factors. (HS-ESS3-2)
ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
HS-ESS3-C.2. Scientists and engineers can make major contributions by developing technologies that produce less pollution and waste and that preclude ecosystem degradation. (HS-ESS3-4)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.12.9-12 Analyze how people use and challenge local, state, national, and international laws to address a variety of public issues.
D2.Civ.13.9-12 Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10 By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
