The Accelerating Energy Transition
Videos
Grades9, 10, 11, 12, APPhysics, Engineering
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by Stanford Understand Energy
What it is
- In this resource, students will watch a lecture about energy sources, energy usage, and its impact on the environment over the past few decades, as well as efforts to transition to clean energy.
- This resource also contains links to additional resources, a fast fact sheet, and extension resources.
Teaching tips
Positives
- This resource contains various links to different resources that can help students better understand future and ongoing clean energy revolutions.
- The visual data illustrates the efforts put in to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and the harmful environmental impacts of our current energy usage.
Prerequisites
- Students may need prior knowledge in visual data analysis, like pie charts and bar graphs.
- Teachers may need to create an account if they want to request lecture slides.
- There are videos and readings that students may need to view before watching the lecture.
Differentiation
- Since this resource mainly focuses on the United States, students can research energy consumption, its usage, and carbon intensity from select countries in different continents and identify if there are efforts for clean energy transition.
- The teacher can invite guest speakers, like experts in the energy industry, scientists developing clean energy technologies, or climate activists, to help students better understand their role in this effort.
- Students can discuss the effects of fossil fuels' usage on human health, wildlife ecosystems, and the environment. They can also brainstorm possible solutions and mitigations.
- Students can create a timeline of major energy transitions to the present day and indicate their predictions on when the world can achieve net zero emissions according to current trends.
From the scientist review
This resource from Stanford Energy provides teachers with a lecture from a Stanford professor to teach students about the energy transition. Additional links are provided within the lecture that include background information for students and teachers. The references utilized for this lesson plan are from credible institutions and present up-to-date information. This site could be a valuable resource for educators seeking to enhance climate-related learning experiences concerning the energy transition in the classroom.
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