Classroom Materials On Energy Issues And The Environment

ON THE AGENDA

Will a Delay on the Climate Treaty be Time Well-Spent?

Scott Bittle
Nov 16, 2009

World leaders flatly admitted this weekend what everyone pretty much knew: there won't be a major deal on climate change at the big conference in Copenhagen next month. Instead, leaders will try to keep the process going, in hopes of coming up with a deal next year.

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Listening To Young Americans On The Deficit

Francie Grace
Nov 13, 2009

You wouldn't think the bottom line on the $1.6 trillion federal budget deficit and $11.9 trillion national debt crisis could be summed up in a single sentence, but when the right words whizzed by, the Wall Street Journal's David Wessel was quick to point them out.

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FACING UP TO THE
Nation's Finances

National Debt Clock

Classroom Materials On Energy Issues And The Environment

What kind of fuels should we be using, and how should we be using them? Check out these resources for citizens, teachers and students to learn more about energy issues and the environment:

Our quiz, Facts, Myths & What Most Americans Know About Energy, is a quick way to get students thinking about the facts as we consider changes in the ways we power our world.

"Who Turned Out The Lights? Your Guided Tour to the Energy Crisis", by Public Agenda's Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson, a humorous but very serious, easy-to-read guide to energy and environmental issues, aimed at helping citizens join the debate on how to fuel our future.

Planet Forward, the web site and PBS TV show produced in association with Public Agenda, in which ordinary citizens join experts in debating energy issues. Videos contributed by viewers, scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and more are great ways to help students think and talk about what we ought to be doing – and why. The show can be viewed from beginning to end, one segment at a time, or one video at a time.

Assigning your students to submit content to Planet Forward can be a great classroom exercise. The topic is: should we move off fossil fuels, and if so, how should we do it? Planet Forward's web sequel debuts on May 21st; the content submission deadline is May 15. Students age 13 and up may submit content (videos, essays, poems, photos, songs, podcasts) but minors must have parental permission in order to do so.

Public Agenda's new report on energy issues - The Energy Learning Curve™ - is a good discussion-starter for high school and college students studying the decisions now facing federal, state and local governments regarding energy and the environment.

Planet Forward's Fast Facts About Energy section: charts and graphs with some eye-opening facts about how we find, produce and make energy, and the challenges we face now and in the future.

Public Agenda's Citizen's Survival Kit Guide to Climate Change, which includes comprehensive but short summaries of the issues, as well as different choices on how we could approach the problem, very helpful as a guide for classroom discussions.

High school and college students may also benefit from a related video and pdf, "Facing The Challenges Of Climate Change: A Guide For Citizen Thought And Action."

Public Agenda's issue guide on The Environment, which includes lots of interesting and helpful facts including public opinion on various public policy proposals.