Systems and Scale | Community Connections: Activity 2

Students design infographics to make their community aware of how it uses combustion to power its lifestyle and of the environmental impacts of those uses.

Materials Needed

Blank paper for students to draw infographic plans
Materials for students to make posters, brochures, and/or webpages
(Optional) computers for students to make digital products (This website lists several free apps for making infographics: https://blog.bufferapp.com/infographic-makers)

Resources Provided

(From Previous Activity) Combustion in our Community Worksheet (1 per student)
Assessing Combustion in our Community Worksheet

Setup

Students will need their completed Combustion in our Community Worksheets. Prepare a computer with an Internet connection and a projector to show digital student products.

Directions

1. Students plan their infographic.

You can choose to have students work alone or in groups to plan and make their infographics. We suggest small groups such as pairs. Have students read the requirements for the infographic in Part II of Combustion in our Community Worksheet. The worksheet allows students to choose between a poster, brochure, or webpage as format for their info graphic. You may choose to limit these choices.

Before students make the actual infographic, they should draw up a plan for it. Emphasize the need to represent the ideas primarily pictorially, limiting the amount of text, and emphasizing connections. Layout is important. Connected ideas should be physically close together and their relationship communicated. Students can sketch their plans on a blank sheet of paper using pencil.

2. Students critique each other’s infographic plans.

Have students swap plans with another group. Each group should tell the authors how they are interpreting their plan, ask questions about what they don’t understand, and make sure the plan meets all of the criteria.

3. Students make and share their infographics.

Students make their infographics. You have many options here from entirely hand drawn to digital. This website lists a number of free apps for generating infographics: https://blog.bufferapp.com/infographic-makers.

Some options for sharing: 1) have students take turns bringing their group’s graphic home and getting reactions from family members. 2) post the graphics around the school. 3) have one class pick out the best graphic from another hour and explain why it is best at communicating ideas.

Assessment

Question 1 is the main assessment item. It is an indicator of how well students can apply to a new substance what they learned about combustion of ethanol from the unit.

Tips

Use discussions to make sure that students understand the labels in the graphs and tables.

Extending the Learning

If students are interested and you have time, students can use the iea site to explore the energy sources used by other states. Students can dig deeper into how steam power plants work. Possible places to start are listed at the end of I.B of the worksheet.