This video and accompanying text outline how geothermal energy has many uses in Iceland, including electricity generation, heating homes, and growing food in greenhouses.
Teaching Tips
Positives
There is an excellent graphic showing how geothermal energy works.
The accompanying text has links throughout that lead students to other resources.
Additional Prerequisites
Prior knowledge of plate tectonics would be helpful for students to know.
The host of this video mentions bitcoin mining, which actually has a negative impact on the environment because it consumes so much electricity. To learn more about Bitcoin's impact on the environment, students can read this article or this article. You can also use this lesson plan for 6th-8th graders to show cryptocurrency's climate impact.
Differentiation
Students could explore the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean and propose other locations that could use geothermal energy.
Students could read this e-book on solar, wind, and geothermal. Students could compare and contrast these three types of renewable energy.
Students could explore this interactive map to see geothermal energy capacity around the world.
Scientist Notes
This is a short article and embedded 9-minute video that explore the geothermal energy technologies used by Iceland. Concepts are explained clearly and explore both how energy is produced and what it used for locally. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-1 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.5.6-8 Analyze the combinations of cultural and environmental characteristics that make places both similar to and different from other places.
D2.Geo.10.6-8 Analyze the ways in which cultural and environmental characteristics vary among various regions of the world.