Properties

Title:
Type:
Subject:
Grade Range:
Description:
Duration:
Author(s):

Creative Problem Solving

Lesson Plan
Science
8
2+ Hours
Katlyn Allmon

Instructional Unit Content

Standard(s)/Element(s)
Content Area Standard
S8P2. Students will be familiar with the forms and transformations of energy.
c. Compare and contrast the different forms of energy (heat, light, electricity, mechanical
motion, sound) and their characteristics.

TAG Standard
Creative Thinking and Problem Solving
2. The student designs, applies, evaluates, and adapts a variety of innovative strategies to
when problem solving (e.g., recognizes problems, defines problems, identifies possible
solutions, selects optimal solution, implements solution, and evaluates solution).
3. The student incorporates brainstorming and other idea-generating techniques (synectics,
SCAMPER, etc.) to solve problems or create new products.
Summary/Overview
The focus of this lesson is to creatively identify and solve the conflict between the use of
nuclear energy and the use of fossil fuels.

Enduring Understanding(s)
At the end of this lesson the student will understand
a. The advantages and disadvantages of both nuclear energy and fossil fuels.
b. Many problems and solutions can be attributed to the same set of events.
Essential Question(s)
How do fossil fuels and nuclear energy impact the environment and economy?
Concept(s) to Maintain

Revised April 2009

Nuclear Energy and Fossil Fuels harm the environment

Nuclear Energy and Fossil Fuels possess positive attributes
The Rules of Brainstorming
Evidence of Learning
What students should know:
a. There are several forms of energy.
b. Fossil fuels may lead to an increase of climate change.
c. The Chernobyl incident was due to miscommunication.
d. Neither fossil fuels nor nuclear energy is wholly conducive to the environment.
e. There are many advantages and disadvantages for nuclear energy and fossil fuels.
What students should be able to do:
a. design, apply, evaluate, and adapt a variety of innovative strategies to when problem
solving (e.g., recognizes problems, defines problems, identifies possible solutions,
selects optimal solution, implements solution, and evaluates solution).
b. incorporate brainstorming and other idea-generating techniques (synectics,
SCAMPER, etc.) to solve problems or create new products.
Suggested Vocabulary

nuclear energy

fossil fuels

conservation

Procedure(s)
Phase 1: Hook
1. Students will participate in a Guided Imagery Exercise. Students will record and discuss
feelings that result from the guided imagery.
Phase 2: Examine the Content
2. Mess: Distribute the Comparison of Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power packet. Students
will read the text individually.
3.

Students will work in small group to list all the facts and opinions obtained from the
reading. Each group will generate a list of unanswered questions to research for
homework or in the media center.

Phase 3: Creative Problem Solving

4.

Review the Rules of Brainstorming: 1) Go for quantity. 2) Wild and crazy ideas are

Revised April 2009

okay. 3) Piggy-back on the ideas of others. 4) No judgmentpositive or negative.

5.

Problem-Finding: Each group will brainstorm the problems seen as a result of the mess.
Opportunity is provided for grouping of similar problems and selecting from the top
three. From the top three problems, each group will develop a solvable problem
statement beginning with How might we

6.

Idea-Finding: Each group will brainstorm solutions to the problem statement.

Opportunity is provided for grouping of similar problems and selecting from the top five.

7.

Solution-Finding: Each group will develop criteria to evaluate the five solutions and
use a decision-making grid to determine the best solution. Opportunity is provided for
research to make valid evaluations against the criteria.

8.

Acceptance-Finding: Each group will develop an action plan for implementing the
solution.

Phase 4: Synthesis Activity

9.

Each group will develop a product (e.g., persuasive letter, flow chart, speech, etc.) for
sharing its solution with the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Summarizing Activity
Shapely Debrief
In regards to the conflict between the use of nuclear energy and fossil fuels
Something I learned that squares with my beliefs
Three points to remember
One question still going around in your mind
Resource(s):
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-ofPlants/Appendices/Chernobyl-Accident---Appendix-1--Sequence-of-Events/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#The_Chernobyl_Shelter_Fund
Anchor Text(s):
Comparison of Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power http://www.ieer.org/ensec/no1/comffnp.html
Technology:
Websites and multiple resources for research for a variety of reading level.

Revised April 2009

Handouts:
Handout 1: Hook- Guided Imagery Exercise
Handout 2: Comparison of Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power
by Arjun Makhijani
Handout 3: Rules of Brainstorming
Handout 4: Shapely Debrief

Handout 1
Guided Imagery for the Energy Crisis
Please find a comfortable sitting position. You may rest your head on your desk if you
like. Close your eyes and sit very quietly. Take a couple of moments and notice how
your body feels. Are you holding your breath, or do you breathe evenly? Notice if you
Revised April 2009

feel any tension or stress in any part of your body. Now youre going to relax your body
as you relax your breath.
Breathe in and out and in and out. Feel the tension in your body
created by a hard day at school. Breathe in and out Feel the tension run from
your body and out your toes. Breathe in and out exhale. Allow yourself to let
go of any thoughts or worries. Continue to breathe in and out.
Imagine that you are child living in Pripyat, Ukraine. You are sitting on the roof over
your apartment home thinking about your future career. It is a cloudy day, but you can
imagine the steam from the nuclear power plant cooling towers billowing into the sky and
take a deep breath. You then begin to cough when a truck drives down the road belching
black smoke into the air. You know that the work that your father is doing at the plant is
helping to produce a clean form of energy. Nuclear energy is a step up from the oil dug
from the Earth polluting the air that you breathe and the water that the creatures depend
on. When will the oil tycoons see that their precious money stream will soon dry up after
the Earth has been pitted with oil rig holes? You take another deep breath and close your
eyes confident that you want to also be a part of that change. All of a sudden you begin to
feel sick and cough violently. You run to your mother in your apartment and discover the
news. They are beginning to evacuate Pripyat. There has been an announcement:
For the attention of the residents of Pripyat! The City Council informs you that due to
the accident at Chernobyl Power Station in the city of Pripyat the radioactive conditions
in the vicinity are deteriorating. The Communist Party, its officials and the armed forces
are taking necessary steps to combat this. Nevertheless, with the view to keep people as
safe and healthy as possible, the children being top priority, we need to temporarily
evacuate the citizens in the nearest towns of Kiev Oblast. For these reasons, starting from
April 27, 1986 2 pm each apartment block will be able to have a bus at its disposal,
supervised by the police and the city officials. It is highly advisable to take your
documents, some vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food, just in case,
with you. The senior executives of public and industrial facilities of the city has decided
on the list of employees needed to stay in Pripyat to maintain these facilities in a good
working order. All the houses will be guarded by the police during the evacuation period.
Comrades, leaving your residences temporarily please make sure you have turned off the
lights, electrical equipment and water and shut the windows. Please keep calm and
orderly in the process of this short-term evacuation.
Evacuation announcement in Pripyat, 27 April 1986 (14:00)
Now bring yourself back to the present as I count to five. Open your eyes at the count of
five. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Slowly open your eyes and write how you felt and reacted as a child in
Ukraine who has just felt the effects first hand and learned of the Chernobyl incident.

Revised April 2009

Handout 2
The Earth appears to have the capacity to absorb carbon dioxide emissions at a level of 3
gigatons per year, although the exact level of tolerance and absorption is uncertain.
Today's emissions total about 9 gigatons, about two-thirds of which is due to fossil fuels.
The remainder is the result of biomass burning.

Revised April 2009

Besides carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuel mining and technologies for controlling
emissions other than carbon dioxide to the air and water contribute to environmental
degradation, which is often very severe in its local and regional impacts. Further, fossil
fuel use in the present mode presents risks of climate change that are not yet well
understood, but may be catastrophic and irreversible. Of the fossil fuels, natural gas
provides the highest level of energy content per unit of carbon emissions. However,
natural gas could not by itself fulfill global energy requirements with current technology,
especially taking into account that the energy needs for a majority of the world's
population are unmet today. Moreover, natural gas (methane) leakage from pipelines
contributes to global warming to a much greater (although not well understood) extent
than carbon dioxide on a molecule-for-molecule basis.
Under today's conditions, nuclear power has far lower routine emissions than energy
from burning fossil fuels. However, it presents hazards of its own, notably the risk of
accidents like Chernobyl, with severe, long-lasting consequences over huge regions. In
addition, the security risks posed by large inventories of nuclear weapons-usable
materials have no counterpart in fossil fuels.
Clearly, neither nuclear nor fossil fuel use is currently conducive to sound environmental
and security policy. In addition, neither breeder reactors nor renewables (the two possible
sources of an indefinite energy supply) are economical at present fuel prices so as to
immediately constitute the basis of global energy supply. What are the options for a safe,
sustainable, and ecological energy supply for the future? If fossil fuel use can be reduced
and biomass burning done on a renewable basis so that emissions are below 3 gigatons
per year of carbon, fossil fuels would be a sounder form of energy than nuclear, but
would need to be accompanied by other energy sources. Economical, environmentallysound carbon sinks, which would allow carbon dioxide to be absorbed and stored or
disposed of without being released to the atmosphere as a gas, could also make fossil
fuels a better energy source. Fossil fuels can be used at reduced levels as transition fuels
to a renewable energy economy, or at higher levels if carbon sinks prove to be
economical.
Natural gas could serve as a transition fuel to hydrogen derived from solar energy, since
the infrastructure for use would be similar for the two gaseous fuels. Natural gas can be
complemented by renewable energy sources such as solar energy, biomass fuels
(renewably produced and used), and wind energy. Wind energy and solar energy are
economical under some circumstances (such as areas with high wind speed or high
insolation and low precipitation). The resource base for these technologies could extend
to the indefinite future under "present economics" with a reduction in the cost of these
technologies or an increase in uranium or coal and oil prices. Moderate fossil fuel use
(with engineering measures to prevent releases of carbon dioxide gas into the
atmosphere) and renewable energy sources joined with increased energy efficiency
measures provide the best alternative for economical, sustainable energy in the future.

Revised April 2009

Handout 3

Rules of Brainstorming

Revised April 2009

1)Go for quantity.

2) Wild and crazy ideas are okay.
3) Piggy-back on the ideas of others.
4) No judgmentpositive or
negative.

Handout 4

SHAPELY
DEBRIEF
Revised April 2009

A question going around

in that square with your
Four things
Three points to remember
beliefs
my mind