This article and linked recording is about Oregon's energy grid, what changes would make the grid more environmentally friendly, and how one man transformed his home into a model of sustainability.
Students will learn that Oregon's energy grid still utilizes natural gas and coal, the region's power grid will need more transmission lines in order to access distant wind and solar farms, and homeowners can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels using solar panels and battery storage.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article acknowledges how expensive it can be to minimize a home's carbon footprint.
This article is full of intriguing pictures that aid comprehension.
Additional Prerequisites
Students need to understand what climate change is and how it negatively impacts our planet.
Students need to understand how the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change
Differentiation
Students could use this article to construct an explanation on how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced Oregonians.
Students could use this article to evaluate the Oregon government's effectiveness at addressing climate change.
Students could use this article to analyze the ways in which climate change concerns have incentivized Oregon's government to move towards renewable energy and away from fossil fuels.
For a language arts course, this article allows students to determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text that deals with climate change.
Scientist Notes
This resource from the Oregon Public Broadcasting discusses one person's move to clean energy and the changes he has made to his home. A discussion with the homeowner, a climate and sustainability advocate, covers changes he has personally made to his home to help him and his family reduce their carbon footprints and the infrastructure that is still preventing his move to 100% clean and sustainable energy reality. This article would be a great addition to a classroom discussion about climate change, what individuals can do to lessen their carbon footprints, and the work that still needs to be done to ensure a cleaner more climate-friendly Earth for everyone. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-1 Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
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.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.3.9-12 Analyze the ways in which incentives influence what is produced and distributed in a market system.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms.
