Activity

Coal and Your Community

Curated and Reviewed by Lesson Planet

When I was young, I was afraid of the dark. Now I am afraid of getting the electric bill. This fourth lesson in a series of eight focuses on coal mining, conservation, and energy efficiency. Scholars start by taking data from a table and creating a graph, drawing a best fit line or curve, and predicting future data. Next, they analyze a cross-section diagram to determine the best place to drill for coal. The last part of the lesson discusses the environmental consequences of coal, including many connections to math.

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CCSS: Adaptable
NGSS: Adaptable
Additional Tags
Instructional Ideas
  • Plan a trip to a coal mine if possible
  • Challenge students to reduce the amount of electricity used at their homes; have them bring in a print out of the usage the week before and the week during the challenge, and the household with the greatest percent of savings wins a prize
Classroom Considerations
  • Prior knowledge of how to draw a line or curve of best fit in order to predict future data is expected
Pros
  • Chapter challenge is expanded, encouraging synthesis of materials from the first four lessons
  • Resource stresses energy conservation
Cons
  • Answer key is not included
  • Document permissions do not allow for printing
Common Core