“The Problems with Oil” Project & “The Great Carbon Race!” Students apply science concepts to take action on pressing issues for their future. Sue Boudreau, Science Chair, Orinda Intermediate School ->OIS- >Teachers->Boudreau

Introductions Me & Yahoo group for ProblemswithOilProject – leave your e mail and I’ll invite you. You: Grade level and subject School location/population type. Experience with project-based learning. Main challenge you face with pbl.

Why we need to do this: National Resource Defense Council 2010 clip

“The Problems with Oil” Project at OIS

Questions and Concerns So Far How’s this going to fit into your school and your class room? Is it going to be manageable with your students and your experience level? Will parents support it? Can the time be justified in terms of standards and STAR test scores? What if we don’t have block scheduling? Or class computers? And more…

How POP fits into the Standards and the Year See the Curriculum Outline p.1 in your packet. Woven into units Density Structure of Matter Chemical Reactions. Our STAR 8 th science proficient and advanced scores increased by 7% Cross curricular standards in ELA, math, VPA and history + 6 th science stds. 9 th earth science and HS biology. 21 st C skills of creativity, communication, choice, issues, inquiry and critical thinking Engaging, action-oriented and seriously fun.

Words to the Wise Do a smaller project with your students first. If parents will not be able to support their students, allow extra time in school. Consider having students save carbon for the school instead of at home. Maybe use school computers for the multi media projects. Keep it light, don’t beat a concept to death. Keep upbeat and action-oriented. Watch your own political biases – it turns off students and annoys parents. Respect parental politics: Re-frame carbon saving as $ saving. Works best if the whole grade level does it together. Builds excitement with kids, nice to have a colleague’s support. Online support available through the blog takeactionscience.wordpress.com and through Edutopia PBL community. Link academic vocabulary and POP with Concept ConstruXion cards/kahnacademy.org

And now, the Nuts and Bolts How to make this project happen in your class room, step by step with plenty of resources, activity sheets and online support….

A. LINK OIL TO YOUR LIFE 1. Impact of Oil: “Home” video clip 2. How are we Connected to Oil? 3. Imagining Life After (Cheap) Oil 4. Producing Oil Products 5. Categorizing and Picking a Problem

D. SOLUTIONS: The Great Carbon Race 9. Review the CO2/Oil/Climate Change connection (p.26) Carbon Footprints and Comparing Calculators (p.27) tm tm 11. The Carbon Race Challenge.

F. DO IT! Students make CO2 savings at home, log and collect evidence and use our carbon calculator to work out how much they saved. 12. Ad Poster to encourage others to do what they are doing around school.

Evidence for Great Carbon Race

F. THE FINISH: 12. Tally Carbon Savings 13. The Carbon Court. 14. Letters to next years’ students. Circulate examples. 15. Party 16. Open House show for parents.

POP-related Labs in 8 th Grade Science Available at my OIS website - >OIS->Teachers->Boudreau 1. Which Plastics Float? (Density Unit) 2. Distilling salt water for fresh. 3. Distillation, fractionation and food. 4. Acids, Bases, pH and Oceans 5. Investigate Chemical Reactions - Combustion 6. Making, investigating and Modeling Polymers 7. Energy Needs – Is Atomic Energy the Way to Go?

“The Problems with Oil” Project & “The Great Carbon Race!” Students apply science concepts to take action on pressing issues for their future. Sue Boudreau, Science Chair, Orinda Intermediate School ->OIS- >Teachers->Boudreau Yahoo group: Leave your e mail for an invitation.