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I chose this topic because I believe it to be an under reported one. The Deepwater horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger Delta have had to live with the same environmental catastrophes for decades. Oil spills are a commonly talked about sustainability topic because of their uncertainties including the environment and politics. Effects of oil spills are acute as well as long lasting and changing weather condition can cause the oil to move closer towards the coasts causing an even bigger environment disaster. The size of the impact can be so large that it is almost impossible to deal with.

I believe this topic matters because it has an insurmountable effect on humans and their environment. Its important for students to become aware (from a young age) of the issues regarding oil spills so that we can ignite a fire in them to become the change the world needs to see. The world isn't going to be around forever but we can keep it around for longer if we can find a way to change the way we live our lives. The wonderful thing about this topic is, not only does it relate to science it relates to socials studies as well.

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First students will learn about drilling rigs and wells, offshore platforms, and oil tankers and how these can malfunction and cause insurmountable damage to both society and the environment. Second students will participate in an experiment where they will learn about the effects that oil spills have on the environment. third students will learn about detrimental effects oil spills can have on a society. In addition, students will learn about some of the largest oil spills and what happened in their aftermath. The teacher will then go into what happens in third world countries when theres an oil spill vs. what happens in first world countries when theirs an oil spill. Lastly, Students will then do a research project on oil spills in a third world country of their choice and talk about both it's social and environmental effects. In addition to how they can use futures thinking to to solve this issue.
Grade Level: 8th Grade
Subject: Science/Social Studies
Standards:
·      Concept 5: Environment and Society PO 4. Analyze the environmental effects of human use of technology (e.g., irrigation, deforestations, overgrazing, global warming, atmospheric and climate changes, energy production costs and benefits, water management) on the environment.
·      Concept 1: Changes in Environments PO 2. Describe the environmental effects of the following natural and/or human caused hazards:

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Learning Goals:
SWBAT describe how offshore drilling works.
SWBAT summarize how oil spills occur.
The first day is mainly about introducing what exactly oil drilling is and how oil is transported from place to place. The goal is to get students thinking about the process that goes into extracting this natural resource and how it can potentially be very harmful to the environment. The teacher will begin by asking the students if they know what offshore drilling is. After the conversation the teacher will show the students these two videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1HIBIIJU0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTlpzf47MIU. These videos talk about how oil was created and how oil is extracted through a process known as offshore drilling. Students will then work in groups to make a poster that summarizes what they learned from the two videos. Afterwards students will share their posters with the class to show what they learned in the videos. The teacher will then ask the students to discuss some possible negative effects this process could potentially have on the environment. The teacher will be looking for students to bring up topics such as oil spills and how it can effect the surrounding wildlife etc.

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The goal for this day is for students to explore hands on what its really like when an oil spill occurs and how difficult it is to clean up after. Students will work in groups of two to perform this experiment. Students will use a small tin pan to represent their oil spill. They will combine water, oil, rocks and plants. Students will first blow on the oil to represent wind and waves, then they will be given three tools (a pipette, a spoon, and a coffee filter) to try and remove the oil with. Students will learn several things from this experiment. They will first learn that when oil is spilled in the ocean it sits on top of the water, and that when wind and waves blow it around it will first separate, but then it will eventually come back together. In addition to this they will learn how difficult oil is to remove from water and that sometimes in the process of removing the oil you end up removing more water than oil. The teacher will provide the students with an observation worksheet to work on during the experiment as well as some guiding questions to get the students thinking deeper about the process of removing oil from the ocean after a spill. At the end of the lesson students will discuss with the teacher what they discovered in their experiments. Then they will watch this video about what happens to surrounding wildlife when an oil spill occurs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SakDOUlDWDs

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The goal of this day is for students to learn about the social effects of oil spills. When hearing about oil spills its more common to hear about the environmental impacts than it is to hear about the social impacts and that will be something the students will be made aware of this day. The teacher will discuss the repercussions of the largest oil spill in United States history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 that was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig located in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The Rig capsized and sank and without an opposing force, oil began to discharge into the gulf. The volume of oil escaping the damaged well releasing over 60,000 barrels of oil into the ocean per day. Economic prospects in the Gulf Coast states were dire, as the spill affected many of the industries upon which residents depended. More than a third of federal waters in the gulf were closed to fishing at the peak of the spills due to fears of contamination. In addition to this a prohibition against drilling enacted by president Obama left an estimated 12,000 temporarily unemployed. Few travelers were willing to face the prospect of petroleum-sullied beaches, leaving those dependent on tourism struggling to supplement their incomes. Students will then watch a video of locals talking about how the oil spill effected their lives.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCEP54jSKqU

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The goal for this day is for students to learn about another major oil spill, this time in a third world country without the same kind of resources a first world country like the United States has. Students will learn about the oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon by watching a documentary made about this oil spill. In addition to this students will read the article, "oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon" and fill out a questionnaire addressing different issues they read throughout the article. Then students will work individually to compare and contrast these two different oil spills.

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The goal for this day is for students to start researching an oil spill of their choice. Students will work together in groups to put together a powerpoint depicting their oil spill. Power points will contain a background slide of the oil spill (how it occurred, where it occurred, etc), a slide about the environmental effects of the oil spill, and a slide about the social effects of the oil spill.)

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This is a good resource that talks about what Offshore Drilling is. This website also talks about the history of offshore drilling as well as when the first platform was drilled.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/offshore-drilling.htm

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This OCEANA resource talks about the dangers of offshore drilling and how they cons far outweigh the pros. This is a good resource to get the students thinking about some of the negative impacts of offshore drilling.
http://usa.oceana.org/our-campaigns/offshore_drilling/campaign?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_ZrXBRDXARIsAA8KauT0OqabZcqudUDH5Srci8kFH0eqfbVpaDJctQ56PJXzupzp19kfqnEaAn-7EALw_wcB

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This is a great resource that describes how debilitating oil spills are for sea life. This resources explains that not only does it prevent animals from cleaning themselves off it also can poison them in the process.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oilimpacts.html

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This is a great article that talks about the effects of oil spills on wildlife. It talks about three major effects which are, direct contact with oil spill pollution, indirect exposure, and lack of usual food. Direct contact with oil pollution as in the case of humans may enter animal bodies through ingestion, inhalation, and skin absorption. Indirect exposure through the consumption of smaller organisms, and then lack of usual food when mass mortality events occur, affecting large amounts of fish.
https://www.environmentalpollutioncenters.org/oil-spill/marine-life-wildlife/

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Social Implications of Gulf Coast Oil Spill

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Social Implications of Gulf Coast Oil Spill

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This is a great resource that talks about the social impacts that Louisiana and Florida experiences after the record breaking oil spill that followed the explosion in April of 2010.
https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=carsey

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Health Implications of Gulf Coast Oil Spill

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Health Implications of Gulf Coast Oil Spill

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This is an article that talks about some of the major health concerns that people in the surrounding area were effected by after the incident. It goes into some more social effects that I think will be helpful for the students to learn about.
http://masgc.org/oilscience/oil-spill-science-mental-health.pdf

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This articles dives into some of the economic implications of an oil spill. For examples how tourism, fishieries, and other business can be effected in the aftermath of an oil spill.
http://www.itopf.com/knowledge-resources/documents-guides/economic-effects/

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First World vs. Third World perspectives 

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First World vs. Third World perspectives 

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This is an article that compares and contrasts oils spills in third world countries vs oil spills in third world countries. This is a wonderful platform for the fourth day where students will compare and contrast this topic themselves.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/vijaya-ramachandran/a-developing-country-pers_b_596135.html

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This article talks about the oil spills in the Niger delta where no place on earth has been as battered by oil, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf Coast. This article brings light to a less talked about oil spill in a third world country.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html

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Another third world countries perspective on oil spills and the damaging effects forced onto their homelands.
https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/august-2013/slippery-justice-victims-oil-spills

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Lamb. R., How Offshore Drilling Works. 10 September 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved From: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/offshore-drilling.htm

OCEANA. Offshore Drilling: Opening new areas to offshore drilling poses dangerous and unacceptable risks. Retrieved from: http://usa.oceana.org/our-campaigns/climate_and_energy/campaign

NOAA. How does oil impact marine Life: Oil spills are harmful to marine birds and mammals as well as fish and shellfish: 10 October 2017. Retrieved from: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oilimpacts.html

Environmental Pollution Centers. (2017). Oil Spill Effects on Marine Life and Wildlife. Environmentalpollutioncenters.org Retrieved from: https://www.environmentalpollutioncenters.org/oil-spill/marine-life-wildlife/

Ulrich. D. J., (2011) The Social Impact of the Gulf Oil Disaster: Diverging views from communities in Florida and Louisiana. Retrieved from: https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=carsey

Graham. L., (2016). Oil Spill Science: The deepwater horizon oil spills impact on peoples health. Retrieved from: http://masgc.org/oilscience/oil-spill-science-mental-health.pdf

ITOPF. (2017). Economic Effects of Oil Spills. Retrieved from: http://www.itopf.com/knowledge-resources/documents-guides/economic-effects/

Ramachandram. V., (2010). A Developing Country Perspective on the Gulf’s Oil Spill. HuffPost. Retrieved from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/vijaya-ramachandran/a-developing-country-pers_b_596135.html

Nossiter. A., (2010). Far From Gulf, a Spill Scourge 5 Decades Old. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html

Akinbobola. Y., (2013). Slippery Justice for victims of oil spills. African Renewal. Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/august-2013/slippery-justice-victims-oil-spills