ChangeOlogy - Learning Science Through Writing Essential Questions
Activity #2
Why is change so scary? How can science help us make successful changes? What’s your favorite kind of science? How does science help us understand the changes that are happening around us all the time? How can you change the world for the better?
• Have students read the article Bad Petrol by Vanessa C. below. Activities could include researching and writing about other methods that could be used to clean up the oil or researching why the UK has banned dispersant use. • Bonus Research Questions: What other chemicals has Europe and the UK banned that the US has not? How is an ecosystem affected by an oil spill? How is an economy affected by an oil spill (think food production, oil sales, tourism, etc.)? • Send all research papers, stories, newspaper articles, art, videos and question responses to KidzEra for possible publication! Be sure to include a submission form with each entry.
Curriculum Connections Science: NS.K-4.3; NS.K-4.4; NS.K-4.6; NS.5-8.3; NS.5-8.4; NS.5-8.6; NS.9-12.3; NS.9-12.4; NS.9-12.6 Geography: NSS-G.K-12.3, NSS-G.K-12.5 English: NL-ENG.K-12.1; NL-ENG.K-12.3; NL-ENG.K-12.4; NL-ENG.K-12.5; NL-ENG.K-12.6; NL-ENG.K-12.7; NL-ENG.K-12.8; NL-ENG.K-12.11; NL-ENG.K-12.12 Art: NA-VA.K-4.2; NA-VA.K-4.3; NA-VA.K-4.5; NA-VA.K-4.6; NA-VA.5-8.2; NA-VA.5-8.3; NAVA.5-8.5; NA-VA.5-8.6; NA-VA.9-12.2; NA-VA.9-12.3; NA-VA.9-12.5; NA-VA.9-12.6 Technology: NT.K-12.1; NT.K-12.2; NT.K-12.3; NT.K-12.4; NT.K-12.5
Activity #1 • Discuss the Essential Questions. • ChangeOlogy Challenge: Imagine you are an Earth-saving superhero. What superpowers would you need to save the world? Where would you start? What would you wear? Feel free to illustrate your answer, turn it into a story, whatever you want! • Have students respond to the ChangeOlogy Challenge and submit their answers to KidzEra to become ChangeOlogists!
Resources • ChangeOlogy project videos on YouTube.com/KidzEra • For information about teaching controversial subjects, see: http://www.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=2016 http://www.tolerance.org/handbook/beyond-golden-rule/chapter-4teaching-controversy
BAD PETROL
Art submitted by: Samuel P., 6th Grade, Westchester Lutheran School, Los Angeles, California
Article submitted by: Vanessa C., Age 13, John Marshall High School, Los Angeles, California
On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana. The reasons why are unknown. The explosion killed 11 rig workers and opened the floodgates to a river-like flow of oil that spilled relentlessly into the Gulf of Mexico until July 15, 2010. People who rely on the Gulf’s fish, and the fish themselves, were deeply impacted. The destruction is beginning to become understood. Many aquatic birds are slick with oil, turtles and dolphins are dying, and the oil is making a huge impact on deep water corals and much more. Many people think that dispersants* will remove the oil, but it’s a dispersant! Truth is, it doesn’t do anything to remove the oil. From a bird’s eye view, the area where the dispersant was used looks good, but the oil is still somewhere in the ocean. It is still making it onto shorelines and wetlands, causing horrific damage. Using
dispersants only makes it harder to clean up the oil. Since dispersants were used, it is to the point where there is no definition between oil and water. The water is murky with oil droplets that stick to people and the fish. That’s gross!
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This is probably the largest environmental disaster that I have experienced in my 13 years of life.
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In the UK, dispersants are banned. In the US, dispersants are spilled in monstrous amounts into the Gulf. It is untested as to what it does when used on this scale. No one has the slightest thought of how the dispersants will hurt the environment. Now the oil and the dispersants are making their way into major nursery grounds through the entire Gulf of Mexico. Those eelgrass marshes and tidal
*Dispersants: a substance that is used to separate particles and prevent clumping
wetlands, which are filled with eggs and juveniles every year, and provide the foundation for whole populations, are going to suffer in oil. These animals might die! BP is being fined for every barrel of oil that has spilled. Sadly, that is why they are using dispersants, like the old saying, out of sight out of mind. Nobody has had actual access to the site of the disaster. Now is the peak of fishing season so many people and seafood industries are starting to suffer. Many communities are dependent on the seafood industry, such as Louisiana, Alabama and northern Florida. Louisiana stands to lose the most. Not only because it was closest to the spill, but because of its complicated coastline consisting of bays, marshes, bayous, and the biodiversity and nursery grounds it provides for many species. This is probably the largest environmental disaster that I have experienced in my 13 years of life.