We have been discussing electricity recently. With your turn and talk partner, see how many different ways to generate (make) electricity you can come up with.

With your turn and talk partner, see how many different ways to generate (make) electricity you can come up with.

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Ways to Generate Electricity• .

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Ways to Generate Electricity• Oil• Solar• Natural gas• Coal• Nuclear• Hydroelectric• Wind• Biomass• Geothermal• Tidal

What observations can you make? What can you infer?

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Facts about Coal• Coal is an energy rich fossil fuel made of carbon. • Coal is is the biggest source of electricity in the US (33% of our electricity).• Coal mining has always been one of the most dangerous jobs in the world,

although modern safety regulations, equipment and ventilation make it safer.• Each person in the US uses on average 7600 pounds of coal, two small SUVs worth!

• Coal is obtained from just below the surface through strip mining.

You will be exploring how mining for fossil fuels affects the environment. You are using a cookie to represent an

ecosystem; it might be a forest, grassland, or desert, and the chocolate chips to represent the coal found

beneath the surface.

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Draw cookie and the plants in your imaginary habitat.Answer the three “before” questions about your ecosystem.Raise your hand to have your work checked and get a toothpick.

👷⚠️ Part II: Extraction⚠️👷🏾Use toothpick to remove as many chocolate chips as possible.Draw what your cookie looks like now and what you imagine would happen to your ecosystem.Answer the questions about the habitat after your mining with at least two examples for each question.Raise your hand to have your work checked. Then you may explore the fun website climatekids.nasa.gov

Put the handout in your science folder, log out of your Chromebook and be seated at

your desk when the timer is up.