Evander Childs High School Mr. U. T. Akhmedov

As you all know millions of tons of oil, coal, and natural gas are being burned each year to supply people with energy they need in form of heat, electricity, to run cars, airplanes and many other machines. Burning fossil fuels that were accumulated by our nature for millions of years is happening a lot faster than they have formed long time ago. Not only that, you know that many of your friends may suffer from asthma, allergies, and other health problems directly related to the air pollution due to the burning of fossil fuel. Acid rains, smog, lung cancer are also caused by smoke and chemicals coming from burning.

... other ways of harnessing energy without causing health problems or environmental problems. Ask yourself what things around you cause motion or give off natural heat, pushes rocks and sand in the rivers and oceans. Ask your friend the similar questions. Your answer will prepare you to accomplish your task and get an excellent grade!

Your task is to find solutions for reducing environmental problems by using alternative energy resources. You are expected to make a report/presentation that will convince politicians and the public to implement laws promoting and funding both research and development of alternative energy resources as well as enhancing public awareness of the present issue. People who will listen to your report must leave with the understanding of the necessity for increasing the usage of safe energy harnessing.

You will have to become a Public Policy Analyst, who will evaluate and propose new solutions for promoting Alternative Energy Sources. You will have to follow the steps presented in the Process section, use the worksheets and resources to develop your project.

In your presentation, you will have to describe the possible ways of using alternative energy resources; underscore the importance of public and government support for increasing this sector of the energy production, and their benefits for the society. You will also have to evaluate present public policies concerning the use alternative energy resources, and develop proposals that will help people have purer energy sources and cause no environmental damage.

You will have to produce a Power Point Presentation using animation and other computer technologies.

You will be divided into groups of four. This is a group project.

You will have to follow the steps below in developing and presenting your work. Each link below will take you to the web site of Syracuse University, where you will find extended explanation for the terms. The worksheets will be given to you by the instructor. However, you may print out the worksheets on your own if you are working in the Public Library, or other place.

(1) Define the problem

(2) Gather evidence

(3) Identify causes

(4) Evaluate a policy

(5) Develop solutions

(6) Select best solution

Use these worksheets to define the problem, gather evidence, identify causes, evaluate a policy, develop solutions, and select best solution.

Use the worksheets linked to this web site. They should help you to:

- define the problem – social consequences of burning fossil fuels;

- gather evidence: to support the alternative non-harmful energy sources, statistics, articles of experts, case studies;

- determine what causes make alternative energy sources of more importance;

- outline the present public policies concerning alternative energy sources; state advantages and disadvantages of today’s public policies;

- find ways to improve the present public policy;

- develop possible new solutions;

- select the best solution;

- evaluate potential benefits and costs of the suggested policy;

You will use the following sources. However, you are not limited to these resources. You are strongly encouraged to use newspaper articles, scientific journals and magazines.

You can also use

and look up the unfamiliar words!

Learn more about alternative energy sources: http://www.cc.utah.edu/~ptt25660/tran.html. Find out how wind, sun, and water energy can be used in the following sites:

http://www.sea-us.org.au/alt-energy.html

http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/bldg/active/zeh/index.htm

http://www.txses.org/epsea/

What are the Current Public Policies? http://www.its.berkeley.edu/publications/ITSReviewonline/winter2003/altfuels_irvine.html. Also look for information here http://www.choose-positive-energy.org/html/content/news_global-thai-energy-backgrounder.html.

Find out how US Government plans and distribute our energy resources: http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/.

The product developed by you group of scientists will have to satisfy following requirements of the EPA presented in the Rubrics below. Your Power Point Presentation will be evaluated in the same way as a printed report except you will have email or bring a floppy with your file and hand it in before the due date. If you wish to make a Power Point Presentation but do not know how to start you may want to learn how to develop a Power Point Presentation click here.

Evaluation of Your Presentation

Multimedia Project: Environmental Science Project

Teacher Name: U. Akhmedov

Student Name: ________________________________________

CATEGORY	100 or less	75 or less	65 or less	40 or less
Mechanics	No misspellings or grammatical errors.	Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors.	Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar.
Content	Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent.	Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good.	Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors.	Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors.
Attractiveness	Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation.	Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation.	Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these detract from the presentation content.	Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. but these often distract from the presentation content.
Originality	Product shows a large amount of original thought. Ideas are creative and inventive.	Product shows some original thought. Work shows new ideas and insights.	Uses other people's ideas (giving them credit), but there is little evidence of original thinking.	Uses other people's ideas, but does not give them credit.
Requirements	All requirements are met and exceeded.	All requirements are met.	One requirement was not completely met.	More than one requirement was not completely met.

Evaluation of Your Paper Project

Research Report: Environmental Science

Teacher Name: Mr. Akhmedov

Student Name: ________________________________________

CATEGORY	100	75	65	40 or less
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.	Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors	A few grammatical spelling or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Amount of Information	All topics are addressed and all questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed and most questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed, and most questions answered with 1 sentence about each.	One or more topics were not addressed.
Internet Use	Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or to navigate within these sites.
Quality of Information	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.	Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Paragraph Construction	All paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Most paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Paragraphs included related information but were typically not constructed well.	Paragraphing structure was not clear and sentences were not typically related within the paragraphs.

We continue to burn fossil fuel and damage our environmental here at home. Your report, as well as the report of your peers will help many people understand why it is important to rely more on alternative energy sources. New technologies for power production are making their ways to more wide use, but this process is slow. The most challenging part is to promote public policy supporting wide spread of such new solution. And this is where your efforts are most valuable. The project you have accomplished will be small but significant step humankind makes on the way to pollution-free world. If we all sum up our knowledge and good will, and help promote clean technologies for energy production, we can make this world a safer and better place to live!

The present Web Quest focuses on the following Science Performance Standards:

S5 Scientific Thinking

S5d: Proposes, recognizes, analyzes, considers, and critiques alternative explanations; and distinguishes between fact and opinion.

S5e: Identifies problems; proposes and implements solutions; and evaluates the accuracy, design, and outcomes of investigations.

S6 Scientific Tools and Technologies

S6d: Acquires information from multiple sources.

S7: Scientific Communication

S7a: Represents data and results in multiple ways.

S7b: Argues from evidence.

This web quest also focuses on the following English Language Arts Performance Standards:

E1c: Read and comprehend informational materials.

E2a: Produce a report of information.

E3c: Prepare and deliver an individual presentation.

E4b: Analyze and subsequently revise work to improve its clarity and effectiveness.