Human Energy Systems | Activity 5.1

Display slide 3 of the PPT. Tell students in the last activities we examined how carbon cycles around the globe. In this activity, we will examine how people from all parts of the world use carbon and energy, and how our personal choices and also where we live impacts how we use organic carbon.

• Place the 5.1 Lifestyle Cards around the room.
• Introduce the students to the four different stations around the room: food, electricity, transportation, and buildings.

Display slide 4 of the PPT. Give each student a copy of 5.1 Extreme Makeover: Lifestyle Edition Worksheet.

• Tell students that each station contains four different options and that it is their job to select one at each station.
• They should visit each station, read each lifestyle card at each station, and select a lifestyle from each station (they should record their choices in Table A). They should not make choices in Table B. Table B is for Activity 5.2.
• Give students 10-20 minutes to visit all four stations.
• Students may ask you “How should I decide what to choose?” They should make their decision based on what they see as their ideal lifestyle.

Pass out 5.1 Secrets Revealed! Worksheet to each student and tell students to use the information in the top table to calculate how much carbon emissions are associated with their lifestyle choices. Give them time to make calculations and share with their neighbor.

• Note: students may have a difficult time realizing that the CO₂ levels they record on their 5.1 Secrets Revealed! Worksheet is measured in pounds of CO₂, whereas electricity is measured in kilowatt hours (a different unit of measurement). Help them understand that different amounts of kilowatt hours (the unit for measuring electricity) might not produce the same amount of CO₂ depending on how the energy was produced. For example: using 13,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in a place that uses wind and solar to generate electricity will result in fewer pounds of CO₂ than using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in a place that uses coal to generate electricity.

Display slide 5 of the PPT. Ask students to look at their individual carbon emissions based on their choices and share their results with their partners.

• Encourage students to notice which lifestyle choices lead to the highest emissions and to look for similarities and differences in the choices they made.
• Ask for a raise of hands: “How many people would use more than 5,000 pounds of carbon?”
• “Keep your hand up if you would use more than 10,000 pounds.”
• Continue with this trend so students get a sense of how the range and variation in results.

Ask students who had the highest and lowest emissions to share their choices, and any others who are willing to share their choices and why they made the choices they made.

Display slide 6 of the PPT. Ask students to share any reflections they have on their choices for each station. Ask:

• “Who would like to share the choice they made for each station?”
• “To what extent do your choices affect the planet’s climate?”
• “How do carbon emissions impact the global climate?”

Students are likely to have chosen various lifestyles for a variety of reasons. Answers will vary at this point. Use the discussion to highlight the fact that different people use carbon in different ways depending on their needs, wants, where they live, and what kinds of resources are available to them. Also, have them think about how our individual practices might reflect the lifestyle of the society we live in, and how those practices impact the climate with the carbon emission we produce.

Collect 5.1 Extreme Makeover: Lifestyle Edition Worksheet and 5.1 Secrets Revealed! Worksheet or have students save them for use in Activity 5.2.

You may choose to leave the stations set up around the classroom for use in Activity 5.2.