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Sustainability Lesson Clearinghouse

Fighting for Control

Lesson Description:

Students will:

Share opinions about who is responsible for protecting the environment, focusing specifically on the air.
Learn about the two sides in the argument for regulating clean air act standards by reading and discussing the article “2 sides do battle in court on whether e.p.a. should regulate carbon dioxide.”
Further investigate the e.p.a., the clean air act , global warming, and the views of the plaintiffs and the defendants in this case; share their findings with their classmates.
Participate in a fishbowl discussion exploring the issues of government responsibility in regulating carbon dioxide emissions.
Draw conclusions about the issue based on the information gathered during class; write a letter to the e.p.a. advocating or opposing their role in regulating carbon dioxide emissions.

Lesson Type:

Discussion

Sustainability Topic:

Other

Time Needed:
1 hour

Standards Addressed:

Grades 6-8

Science standard 7- understands how species depend on one another and on the environment for survival. benchmark: knows ways in which humans can modify ecosystems and cause irreversible effects
Geography standard 8- understands the characteristics of ecosystems on earth’s surface. benchmarks: knows changes that have occurred over time in ecosystems in the local region; knows the potential impact of human activities within a given ecosystem on the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycles
Geography standard 14- understands how human actions modify the physical environment. benchmarks: understands the environmental consequences of people changing the physical environment; understands the ways in which human-induced changes in the physical environment in one place can cause changes in other places; understands the ways in which technology influences the human capacity to modify the physical environment; understands the environmental consequences of both the unintended and intended outcomes of major technological changes in human history
Geography standard 18- understands global development and environmental issues. benchmarks: understands how the interaction between physical and human systems affects current conditions on earth; understands the possible impact that present conditions and patterns of consumption, production and population growth might have on the future spatial organization of earth; knows how the quality of environments in large cities can be improved; understands why different points of view exist regarding contemporary geographic issues
Language arts standard 4- gathers and uses information for research purposes. benchmarks: uses a variety of resource materials to gather information for research topics; determines the appropriateness of an information source for a research topic; organizes information and ideas from multiple sources in systematic ways
Language arts standard 7- demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of informational texts. benchmarks: applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational texts; summarizes and paraphrases complex, explicit hierarchic structures in informational texts; uses new information to adjust and extend personal knowledge base; seeks peer help to understand information; draws conclusions and makes inferences based on explicit and implicit information in texts; differentiates between fact and opinion in informational texts

Grades 9-12

Science standard 7- understands how species depend on one another and on the environment for survival. benchmark: knows ways in which humans can modify ecosystems and cause irreversible effects
Geography standard 8- understands the characteristics of ecosystems on earth’s surface. benchmarks: understands how relationships between soil, climate, and plant and animal life affect the distribution of ecosystems; knows the effects of both physical and human changes in ecosystems
Geography standard 14- understands how human actions modify the physical environment. benchmark: understands the global impacts of human changes in the physical environment
Geography standard 18- understands global development and environmental issues. benchmarks: understands why policies should be designed to guide the use and management of earth’s resources and to reflect multiple points of view; understands contemporary issues in terms of earth’s physical and human systems
Language arts standard 4- gathers and uses information for research purposes. benchmarks: uses a variety of news sources to gather information for research topics; synthesizes a variety of types of visual information, including pictures and symbols, for research topics.
Language arts standard 7- demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of informational texts. benchmarks: applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational texts; scans a passage to determine whether it contains relevant information; summarizes and paraphrases complex, implicit hierarchic structures in informational texts, including the relationships among the concepts and details in those structures; uses new information from texts to clarify or refine understanding of academic concepts; uses discussions with peers as a way of understanding information

Materials Needed: