I chose this area of sustainability because as time goes by all the fossil fuels are starting to disappear and as they disappear they will have to have a alternative to keep our energy consumption up, hopefully by eliminating all the different uses of fossil fuels which are and can be a real threat to our environment we can find less damaging alternatives to our dependence of fossil fuels!

The Carboniferous Period occurred from about 360 to 286 million years ago. At the time, the land was covered with swamps filled with huge trees, ferns and other large leafy plants, similar to the picture above. The water and seas were filled with algae – the green stuff that forms on a stagnant pool of water. Algae is actually millions of very small plants.

Some deposits of coal can be found during the time of the dinosaurs. For example, thin carbon layers can be found during the late Cretaceous Period (65 million years ago) – the time of Tyrannosaurus Rex. But the main deposits of fossil fuels are from the Carboniferous Period. For more about the various geologic eras, go to www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html

As the trees and plants died, they sank to the bottom of the swamps of oceans. They formed layers of a spongy material called peat. Over many hundreds of years, the peat was covered by sand and clay and other minerals, which turned into a type of rock called sedimentary.

More and more rock piled on top of more rock, and it weighed more and more. It began to press down on the peat. The peat was squeezed and squeezed until the water came out of it and it eventually, over millions of years, it turned into coal, oil or petroleum, and natural gas.

Students will be able to define what coal is

Student will be able to Define coals energy use and the minings environmental impact

Part 1: What is coal? Lecture and Video

Coal is a fossil fuel and is the altered remains of prehistoric vegetation that originally accumulated in swamps and peat bogs.

The energy we get from coal today comes from the energy that plants absorbed from the sun millions of years ago. All living plants store solar energy through a process known as photosynthesis. When plants die, this energy is usually released as the plants decay. Under conditions favourable to coal formation, the decaying process is interrupted, preventing the release of the stored solar energy. The energy is locked into the coal.

Coal formation began during the Carboniferous Period - known as the first coal age - which spanned 360 million to 290 million years ago. The build-up of silt and other sediments, together with movements in the earth's crust - known as tectonic movements - buried swamps and peat bogs, often to great depths. With burial, the plant material was subjected to high temperatures and pressures. This caused physical and chemical changes in the vegetation, transforming it into peat and then into coal.

Part2: Energy Use: What is it's use?

Coal is used primarily as an energy source, either for heat or electricity. It was once heavily used to heat homes and power locomotives and factories. Bituminous coal is also used to produce coke for making steel and other industrial process heating. Coal gasification and coal liquefaction (coal-to-liquids) are also possible uses of coal for producing synthetic fuel. Approximately 4% of the coal mined in the United States is exported, and most of the exported coal is used for making steel.

Part 3 : How is it gathered? What are the environmental impacts? Activity!

Depending on the depth of the layers, or seams, coal is extracted in open pit or underground mines. Whatever the technique used, extracting this precious ore from the bowels of the earth is a huge undertaking.

Coal Mining

• chocolate chip cookies – relatively hard cookies work best (1 per student)
• toothpicks (1 per student plus a few extras)
• plates (1 per student)
• Coal Mining worksheets (1 per student)

• Cookie Mining

1. Tell students that they are going to become coal miners. Their job is to use the tool you give them to mine the land and find as much coal as possible while doing the least damage to the land.
2. Hand out the coal mining worksheets.
3. Tell students that they will each be getting a chocolate chip cookie. The cookie represents a parcel of land that is going to be mined for coal. The chocolate chips represent coal.
4. Tell students to draw their cookie first. Then give students time to mine for chocolate chips, draw their cookie again, and answer the questions at the bottom of the worksheet.
5. Ask students what happened to the land around the coal. Discuss what implications strip mining might have on local ecosystems. In general, surface mining takes away topsoil and vegetation and therefore destroys habitat for wildlife.
6. Ask students whether coal is a renewable or nonrenewable resource. Explain that fossil fuels are nonrenewable resources because they take millions of years to form and do not reform on the scale of a human lifetime. Explain that cookie mining illustrated this fact because once they took the coal/chocolate out, there wasn't anymore to replace it.

Student will be able to site the differences between oil and petroleum

Student will be able to understand how oil is extracted

Student will be able to understand how burning fossil fuels pollutes the air we breath and causes changes in the earth

I wanted to teach about the impact oil has on our environment and to point out the differing problems it can cause. I wanted to start by defing what oil is and to also define petroleum. I included some well defined defenitions to the lesson for the day with videos and an activity which can show how oil is devastating when it is spilled. I am a big fan of marine life and I get really upset to see big oil companys dirty the ocean up. We are made of water and without a undertnding of how the diverse life of the ocean is essential to our existance we could very well be living our last days as a species and as a living planet.

What is oil?: "Oil is a fossil fuel. Most of the oil extracted today has been formed from prehistoric organisms whose remains settled at the bottoms of oceans and lakes millions of years ago. As layers of sediment covered them, the pressure on them increased which in turn increased the temperature. This process changed their chemical composition, eventually transforming them into oil."

Petroleum is an oil that is found underground. Sometimes we call it oil. Oil can be as thick and black as tar or as thin as water. Petroleum has a lot of energy. We can turn it into different fuels—like gasoline, kerosene, and heating oil. Most plastics are made from petroleum, too. People have burned oil for a long time. Long ago, they didn’t dig for it. They gathered oil that seeped from under the ground into ponds. It floated on the water. PETROLEUM IS A FOSSIL FUEL Long before the dinosaurs, oceans covered most of the earth. They were filled with tiny sea animals and plants. As the plants and animals died, they sank to the ocean floor. Sand covered them. Millions of years passed. The weight of the water and heat from the earth turned them into petroleum and natural gas. Petroleum is called a fossil fuel because it was made from plants and animals. The energy in petroleum came from the energy in the plants and animals. That energy came from the sun. PETROLEUM IS NONRENEWABLE The petroleum we use today was made millions of years ago. It took millions of years to form. We can’t make more in a short time. That’s why we call petroleum nonrenewable. The United States doesn’t drill enough oil to meet our needs. We buy more than half the oil we use from other countries.

Answer these questions:

What is Petroleum made from?

How do we get oil and petroleum what are the extraction methods and where do we find them?

What products are made from oil?

Part 3: Activity

PETROLEUM CAN POLLUTE Petroleum keeps us going, but it can damage our environment. Burning oil can pollute the air. Pollution from cars is a big problem in many parts of the country. Oil companies are making cleaner gasoline and other fuels every year. Oil can also pollute the soil and water, and injure animals. Oil companies work hard to drill and ship oil as safely as possible. They try to clean up any oil that spill

Oil Spill

• plastic tubs (1 per team of 4 or 5 students)
• Dixie cups (1 per team of 4 or 5 students)
• water
• cooking oil
• habitat items: rocks, sticks, feathers
• cleaning items: sponges, cotton balls, spoons
• Oil Spill worksheets (1 per student)

1. Ask students if they have heard about oil spills in the ocean.
2. Remind students of some oil spills in history. See the Teacher Background section for information.
3. Tell students that sometimes ships transporting oil accidentally spill oil into the oceans and that the results can be really harmful for marine ecosystems.
4. Tell students they are going to become part of an oil spill clean up crew.
5. Divide students into groups of four or five.
6. Give each group a plastic tub filled a few inches with water, a small cup with a few tablespoons of cooking oil, and a set of habitat and cleaning items.
7. Tell students to put their habitat items in the tub.
8. Have student pour the oil into the tub.
9. Have students experiment with the various cleaning items.
10. Hand out the worksheets and tell students to record their observations on the Oil Spill worksheet as they experiment with cleaning up the oil spill.
11. After students have finished filling out their worksheets, lead a discussion about how each of the objects interacted with the oil. Then ask students what they think this demonstration can tell us about real world oil spills.
12. There are a few key lessons to point out. It is hard to separate oil and water, so clean up processes can take a long time and a lot of effort. Oil sticks to feathers and is hard to remove, which implies that birds are affected during oil spills. In fact, oil can hamper a bird’s ability to stay warm. When oil coats feathers, the feathers are no longer waterproof. The birds thus get wet and cold, which can lead to death. 

Student will be able to define what Natural gas is

Student will be able to identify various methods of extracting natural gas

students will be able to define fracking

student will be able to understand

Natural Gas:flammable gas, consisting largely of methane and other hydrocarbons, occurring naturally underground (often in association with petroleum) and used as fuel.

What is Natural Gas? Natural gas is a vital component of the world's supply of energy. It is one of the cleanest, safest, and most useful of all energy sources. Despite its importance, however, there are many misconceptions about natural gas. For instance, the word 'gas' itself has a variety of different uses, and meanings. When we fuel our car, we put 'gas' in it. However, the gasoline that goes into your vehicle, while a fossil fuel itself, is very different from natural gas. The 'gas' in the common barbecue is actually propane, which, while closely associated and commonly found in natural gas, is not really natural gas itself. While commonly grouped in with other fossil fuels and sources of energy, there are many characteristics of natural gas that make it unique. Below is a bit of background information about natural gas, what it is exactly, how it is formed, and how it is found in nature.

Natural gas, in itself, might be considered an uninteresting gas - it is colorless, shapeless, and odorless in its pure form. Quite uninteresting - except that natural gas is combustible, abundant in the United States and when burned it gives off a great deal of energy and few emissions. Unlike other fossil fuels, natural gas is clean burning and emits lower levels of potentially harmful byproducts into the air. We require energy constantly, to heat our homes, cook our food, and generate our electricity. It is this need for energy that has elevated natural gas to such a level of importance in our society, and in our lives.

Natural gas is a combustible mixture of hydrocarbon gases. While natural gas is formed primarily of methane, it can also include ethane, propane, butane and pentane.

answer these questions:

What is the uses of natural gas?

How is Natural gas extracted?

What is Fracking?

Part 3: Fracking Video:

Name some problems involved with Fracking

Part 3 Activity:

Air Pollution

• candle (1 if doing a demonstration. 1 per group if older students are participating.)
• glass jars or beakers (2-3 if doing a demonstration. 1 per group if older students are participating.)

1. Tell students that they will get to see one component of air pollution.
2. Light a candle.
3. Let it burn for a few seconds.
4. Then, put the bottom of a glass jar or beaker above the flame so that the glass touches the top of the flame.
5. Soot will immediately develop on the glass.
6. You can do this with a few glass jars and then pass it around so that students can touch the soot if they want.
7. Ask students what soot is. It is fine black particles, chiefly composed of carbon, produced by incomplete combustion.
8. Ask students what the candle burning represents. It represents the burning of fossil fuels. Most candles are made with paraffin wax, which is derived from oil. It is a hydrocarbon and so burns like other hydrocarbons such as fossil fuels.
9. Spend a few minutes explaining to students why soot was created. Depending on the level of your students, you can go into more or less detail about combustion reactions. 
   
   

   Complete Combustion of Paraffin Wax:

   C₂₅ H₅₂ + 38O₂ ↔ 25CO₂ + 26 H₂O

   Paraffin Wax + Oxygen ↔ Carbon Dioxide + Water

   If complete combustion were to occur as in the equation above, the only products formed would be carbon dioxide and water. Most combustion is incomplete however. This means that only a portion of the paraffin is converted into carbon dioxide and water. Some of the carbon from the paraffin is released as soot. This is what you saw on the glass that was held in the flame. Soot and other air pollutants are released when humans burn fossil fuels.

   Incomplete Combustion of Paraffin Wax

   Paraffin Wax + Oxygen ↔ Carbon Dioxide + Water + Carbon Particles

Student will be able to identify sources of renewable Energy and what if at all it may replace in the fossil fuels family.

What is renewable energy?

1. Renewable energy is a socially and politically defined category of energy sources. Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are continually replenished on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

2. The United States currently relies heavily on coal, oil, and natural gas for its energy. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, that is, they draw on finite resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming too expensive or too environmentally damaging to retrieve. In contrast, the many types of renewable energy resources-such as wind and solar energy-are constantly replenished and will never run out.

   Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. Sunlight, or solar energy, can be used directly for heating and lighting homes and other buildings, for generating electricity, and for hot water heating, solar cooling, and a variety of commercial and industrial uses.

   The sun's heat also drives the winds, whose energy, is captured with wind turbines. Then, the winds and the sun's heat cause water to evaporate. When this water vapor turns into rain or snow and flows downhill into rivers or streams, its energy can be captured using hydroelectric power.

   Along with the rain and snow, sunlight causes plants to grow. The organic matter that makes up those plants is known as biomass. Biomass can be used to produce electricity, transportation fuels, or chemicals. The use of biomass for any of these purposes is called bioenergy.

   Hydrogen also can be found in many organic compounds, as well as water. It's the most abundant element on the Earth. But it doesn't occur naturally as a gas. It's always combined with other elements, such as with oxygen to make water. Once separated from another element, hydrogen can be burned as a fuel or converted into electricity.

   Not all renewable energy resources come from the sun. Geothermal energy taps the Earth's internal heat for a variety of uses, including electric power production, and the heating and cooling of buildings. And the energy of the ocean's tides come from the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun upon the Earth.

   In fact, ocean energy comes from a number of sources. In addition to tidal energy, there's the energy of the ocean's waves, which are driven by both the tides and the winds. The sun also warms the surface of the ocean more than the ocean depths, creating a temperature difference that can be used as an energy source. All these forms of ocean energy can be used to produce electricity.

Part 1 Video

Part 2 Answer these questions:

What are some renewable energy sources

Which one do you like the most and why?

• What are some of the problems associated with using fossil fuels for energy? (mining damages ecosystems, air pollution can harm ecosystems and human health, oil spills, climate change)
• What are some things that we can do to lessen these problems in our world? (conserve energy, use more efficient technology that consumes less energy, encourage the use of renewable energy sources)
• Write about what the problems are with fossil fuels and what can be done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgrUwPWjj2Q

Boose, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0lfs81ZrOE#t=10

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_axZpB0wZI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXi14Dr0Cj4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgrUwPWjj2Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgrUwPWjj2Q

Additional Teacher resources for students:

http://www.fe.doe.gov/education/energylessons/coal/gen_howformed.html

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/fossil.htm

http://joanpyeproject.org/news/problems-with-fossil-fuels/

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fuel-economy/hydrogen-economy1.htm