Integrating Energy and Equity in High School Physics
Unit outline, Energy and Equity in Environmental Science course
This semester-long unit moves from the basics of energy, to energy use in our homes, to sources of electric power in our home state of NY. We ended with a self-directed project on one of the following local energy justice campaigns: peaker plants, bus-route redesign, and community-owned solar. Learning goals: Energy is conserved during transformations from one form of energy storage to another. These transformations include heat lost to the surroundings. Electricity use has environmental consequences that vary by type of electricity generation. Issues of energy justice are relevant in our New York City community.
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integrating energy and equity in high school physics.
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Electricity in Our Communities Assignment
An assignment to connect electricity generation to students' lives. Students investigate where the electricity in their home comes from.
Backtracking Your Personal Energy Use
A research project in which students explore the scientific, geographical, and anthropological legacy of an energy resource they depend on.
A Unit on Place-Based Energy Production and Impacts
A unit in which students research energy resources, analyze a local power plant, think critically about impacts, and engage in advocacy.
Kinematics - Tides & Indigenous Fishing Technologies
Conceptual questions using position and velocity graphs to compare the sustainability of industrial and indigenous fishing technologies.
From Motion Tracking to Transportation Justice
An introductory mechanics unit in which students track and analyze their journeys to school and explore energy and equity in transportation.
Heart Health and Microaggressions
1D kinematics problem and reading. Students calculate how far blood moves in a heartbeat and reflect on how microaggressions impact health.
Solar Panels and Energy Sovereignty
Homework questions about how solar panels generate energy to power homes and how Indigenous people use them to pursue energy sovereignty.
Energy Generation and Environmental Justice Unit
A unit in which students debate types of energy generation, research and present on local environmental justice issues, and take action.
Skin Voltage and Wound Healing
Homework question in which students analyze how wound healing depends on electrical properties of skin and varies among demographic groups.
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Energy is a foundational concept of physics and plays an integral role in a web of sociocultural realities, economic issues, and public policies. The Energy and Equity Portal supports high school teachers in teaching a robust model of energy, grounded in the NGSS, and also intentionally constructed to support engagement with current sociopolitical issues.
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Integrating Energy and Equity in High School Physics