Water Planet Challenge

What's the Connection to Me? - High School

Introduction

Students are surely aware of the significant impact the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill has had on the people and environment near the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, students are no doubt aware of the use of petroleum to fuel transportation needs and heat our homes, but they may not be very aware of how dependent we are on petroleum for common everyday products ranging from clothes to cosmetics, cleaners to candy. This lesson explores some of the different forms petroleum takes on as a component or ingredient in various manufactured products, some of the human health and environmental concerns associated with the use and disposal of these particular products, and ways to minimize the harmful effects of petroleum and petroleum-derived products on the environment.

Objectives

1.  Identify consumer products derived from petroleum.

2.  Identify petroleum-derived components and/or ingredients, i.e., chemical substances used to make a variety of common consumer products.

3.  Describe some detrimental environmental effects that are associated with the production, transportation, use, and disposal of these petroleum-derived products.

4.  Describe ways to minimize the harmful effects of petroleum and petroleum-derived products on the environment.

5.  Identify several ways that the Gulf oil spill is connected to individual consumer choices.

Materials

• Computer with Internet access
• Library and/or classroom resources
• Science journal
• List of “Common Consumer Products” found at end of lesson
• Subset of items on the “Common Consumer Products” list (optional)

Time: 1 class period each for “Engage,” Explore,” and “Explain.”

Vocabulary

Conservation
Climate change
Fossil fuel
Hydrocarbons
Oil
Petroleum
Plastics
Recycle
Transportation

Background for Teacher

Petroleum, or crude oil, is a naturally occurring flammable liquid made up of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds. It is most often found deep underground and is recovered by drilling expensive wells. Petroleum is considered a fossil fuel, along with coal and natural gas. Petroleum was formed from the remains of organic material that lived millions of years ago. As ancient plants and animals died and were covered by layers of sand and silt in a marine environment, heat from the earth and pressure from the many layers transformed this organic matter into crude oil.

About one third of crude oil produced by the U.S. comes from wells in the Gulf of Mexico. As demonstrated by the recent Gulf oil spill, however, extracting this petroleum, especially from under water, possesses significant risks to human lives and the environment. Additional risks are incurred with the refinement, transport, and storage of petroleum. On land, the practice of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” involves injecting millions of gallons of water and chemicals into the ground to displace natural gas. This process also impacts water resources through the pollution of water wells.

Most of the petroleum brought to the surface is used for transporting goods and people all over the Earth. Some of it is used to heat homes and generate electricity. Petroleum also provides us with a large range of personal products that we’ve integrated into our daily lives. Such products include CDs, detergents, heart valves, plastic water bottles, pharmaceuticals, and plastic shopping bags. Even though such products consume a small fraction of the petroleum extracted from the ground, they are nonetheless vital to our present way of living; but some of them can have a detrimental impact on the environment if not used and disposed of properly.

When petroleum, along with other fossil fuels, is burned it produces the gas carbon dioxide, CO2, which contributes to climate change and ocean acidification. There are a number of nation-wide efforts aimed at reducing our use of fossil fuels with the goal of mitigating climate change.

Engage

1.  Distribute and review the list of “Common Consumer Products” that appears at the end of this lesson. In pairs or small groups, ask students to discuss items on this list and circle all they believe might contain petroleum-derived components or ingredients, and to then calculate the percentage of items on the list they believe to be derived from petroleum.

2.  Discuss as a class. What percentage of items on the list does each group believe to be derived from petroleum? Discuss individual items. Is there a consensus on any items; i.e., unanimous agreement that the product does or does not contain a petroleum-derived component? End the discussion by revealing that 100% of the items on the list are made with components/ingredients derived from petroleum.

3.  Briefly discuss what petroleum is, where it comes from, and how people use it, in addition to the role it plays in the items on the list. Make note of student conceptions, correct and incorrect, about petroleum and its uses in order to tailor this lesson to your students.

Explore

1.  Assign students to work in groups of two to four for the following activity. Divide the items on the list among the groups. Using the Internet along with classroom and library resources, each group is responsible for researching what component(s) and/or ingredient(s) in their items are derived from petroleum and summarizing the specific human health and environmental concerns (if any) associated with those components/ingredients. Remind students to take into consideration the creation, transportation, use, and disposal of the selected item.

Explain

1.  Gather students together to share and discuss their findings. Make a summary chart on the board or chart paper of the petroleum-derived components or ingredients they discovered in or associated with each of their particular items. Which components or ingredients are the most prevalent? Which are generally considered to be safe? Which are associated with human health or environmental concerns? To what degree does a particular component or ingredient impact the environment? How is climate change connected with petroleum use? How can recycling help reduce the detrimental impact of petroleum-derived products? Keep in mind your students’ initial conceptions about petroleum and its use by humans and compare those early conceptions with those that emerge now that they have looked in depth at the human health and environmental impact of creating and using petroleum-derived products.

2.  As part of this post-research discussion, be sure to encourage students to consider ways humans can reduce or minimize the negative effects they have discovered petroleum-derived products can have on human health and the environment. Be sure students can make a personal connection between consuming these products and their petroleum-based origins. Make certain to reference the Gulf oil spill in this discussion and check for student understanding of their connection(s) to the spill and the larger issue of our petroleum-dependent economy.

Extend

1.  Assign students to read and take notes from this article Prioritizing Plastics Key to Kicking Oil Addiction - Plus Reducing Waste & Pollution on the Internet from Treehugger.com. (There is a link in the first sentence of this article that leads to another Treehugger.com article entitled “Want to Kick Our Oil Addiction? Let’s Get Out Priorities Straight First” that would also be appropriate reading for this topic.)

2.  Treehugger.com has an extensive list of continuously updated posts (articles) relating to the Gulf oil spill. One way to incorporate some of this material into this lesson would be to assign a group of students to read and summarize a particular post then have them share their summary with the rest of the class.

3.  Organize students or a subset of students into two groups: those who advocate for the use of petroleum-derived products because they make our lives easier and those who oppose the use of petroleum-derived products because of human health and environmental concerns. Give both groups the opportunity to conduct additional research and provide time for them to prepare for a debate between the two viewpoints. Since this issue is not clear cut (students would not likely advocate prohibiting the use of a petroleum-derived product such a medication), be prepared for the two sides to moderate their approach and debate the degree of use of such products.

4.  A variation of Extension #3 would be to have individual students create a blog entry elaborating their position on the impact of petroleum and petroleum-derived products on human health and the environment.

5.  Assign individual students or a group of students to use one of the resources listed at the end of this lesson to learn more about specific aspects of petroleum use by humans: finding petroleum reserves, extracting the crude oil, the refining process, transport and storage, the many uses of petroleum, and finally the environmental impacts of petroleum.

Evaluation

1.  You are about to check out at the grocery store and glance down at your rather full shopping cart. Name some of the items you see in your cart that probably are made from petroleum or contain an ingredient that is derived from petroleum. Given that all the items in the cart probably got to the grocery store by truck, how else are the items in your cart dependent on petroleum?

2.  Name two items in your cart and describe at least one petroleum-derived ingredient found in each item.

3.  Your class wants to sponsor a school party and the planning committee reports they are going to purchase plastic plates, drinking cups, and tableware. Comment on the ways in which this could be environmentally unfriendly and ways that the situation could be improved.

4.  Summarize the ideas you and your classmates talked about in this lesson that humans can act on to minimize the harmful effects of petroleum and petroleum-derived products on the environment.

5.  Draw a possible connection between personal consumer items you might use and the Gulf oil spill.

Students who have successfully mastered the objectives of this lesson will be able to provide responses to the evaluation questions similar to the following.
1.  Some items in my cart that are made from petroleum or have petroleum-based ingredients include the plastic egg carton, a sponge, the mouthwash, and the plastic jug holding the milk.

2.  The shampoo in my cart contains propylene glycol, a petroleum-derived product. Another item is my lip balm—it is made using a petroleum jelly base.

3.  The best choice for the party would be to use dishware, utensils, etc., that can be reused again and again, whether or not they are plastic. If we were to use disposable plastic products for our party, it would be important to recycle them so that the trash does not end up buried in a landfill. The problem though is that plastics don’t easily decompose or break down, if they ever do.

4.  One of the ways we talked about yesterday was to try not to use so many plastic things. Things like plastic water bottles, plastic shopping bags, and plastic bowls can all be replaced with non-plastic substitutes. Another way to use less petroleum we talked about is to try to get our parents not to use the car as much or to replace our old car with a more fuel efficient one. We also talked about when it comes time for us to make or buy a house, we would insist that it makes use of the latest in insulation so it doesn’t use as much heating oil or propane to heat it in the winter.

5.  One way I’m connected to the Gulf oil spill is by riding my bus to school every day. The bus uses gasoline and the gasoline is made from petroleum, the very stuff that is being pumped from under the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. Getting this petroleum from deep under the ocean is complicated and sometimes things can go wrong as it did with the Gulf oil spill. Another way I’m connected to the oil spill is through some of the many gadgets I own. Many of them, like my computer and radio, are made using materials that can only be made with petroleum and are possibly made in a factory that uses oil as a fuel to operate.

Standards

National Science Education Standards (NSES) (Grades 9 – 12)

Science as Inquiry: Content Standard A
• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understanding about scientific inquiry

Physical Science: Content Standard B
• Structure and properties of matter
• Chemical reactions
• Interactions of energy and matter

Life Science: Content Standard C
• Matter, energy, and organization in living systems
• Behavior of organisms

Earth and Space Science: Content Standard D
• Energy in the earth system
• Geochemical cycles
• Origin and evolution of the earth system

Science and Technology: Content Standard E
• Abilities of technological design
• Understanding about science and technology

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Content Standard F
• Natural resources
• Environmental quality
• Natural and human-induced hazards
• Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges

History and Nature of Science: Content Standard G
• Nature of scientific knowledge

Additional Resources

• http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/5-human-habits-highly-harmful-to-the-ocean.html
• http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/50-surprising-fashion-and-beauty-products-made-from-oil.php
• http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20100628_GreenSpace__GreenSpace__How_oil_has_seeped_deep_into_our_lives.html
• http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/fracking-finally-getting-attention.php
• http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=oil_home-basics#top-container
• http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/oil-refining.htm
• http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/index.html
• http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/How-Plastics-Made.htm

Common Consumer Products

Circle all items on this list that you believe might contain petroleum or be derived from petroleum.
1. Sandals and flip flops
2. Computers
3. Ball point pens
4. Cameras
5. Footballs
6. Bath soap
7. Pepto-Bismol
8. Aspirin
9. Band-aids
10. Cough syrup
11. Egg cartons
12. Jars
13. Utensils
14. Fabric softener
15. Sponges
16. Styrofoam
17. Cologne and perfume
18. Lipstick
19. Contact lenses
20. Shampoo
21. Sunglasses
22. Bubble bath
23. Curtains
24. Rugs
25. Water pipes
26. Toilet seats
27. CDs and DVDs
28. Bubble gum
29. Credit cards
30. Mouthwash
31. White vinegar
32. Vaseline
33. Rubbing alcohol
34. Mosquito spray
35. Q-tips
36. Umbrellas