1. Environmental Issues By Jenna Cottone and Ben Belden

2. Purpose Over the past 100 years, the environment has changed in many ways. People have caused the environment to change in both positive and negative ways. With the environment changing everyday, weather patterns have changed, the earth’s surface has changed, pollution has increased, and animals have become endangered. In today’s world, our culture has become very aware of the lasting affects we have had on our environment. Today, people have been inventing ways to change our living styles to help make our environment thrive for many years to come.

3. Purpose Because of this, we developed a driving question that would allow the students to not only examine the environment in its present state, but also reflect on how it has changed. Many students may not fully understand the context when people discuss problems with the environment, and by having them compare and contrast two different time periods, hopefully it will show them exactly why people are so concerned about the environment today and what changes they can expect in their future. What follows is a presentation designed as an example of what a typical fifth-grader might create in response to the driving question posed to them.

4. How has the environment changed over the past 100 years?

7. CHANGING CLIMATES Large cities can produce almost half as much energy as the sun. This energy is added to the sun’s energy and can greatly change the weather in areas.  CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO In addition, the increased release of gases like carbon dioxide can affect the climate in an area in severe ways. These changes in weather are a result of new cities and more people living in previously uninhabited areas. (Discovery Education streaming, 2002) (Discovery Education streaming, 2002)

11. EVIDENCE

13. EVIDENCE

14. EVIDENCE

17. Pollution on the Rise “ Power plants are the nation ’ s largest industrial source of air pollution, fueling global warming and causing other serious public health and environmental problems. ” (Corrigan, 2005) Many of the nation’s largest power plants were built decades ago and use few modern pollution controls. (Corrigan, 2005) Rank State 2003 CO2 Emissions (Tons) 1 Texas 253,984,102 2 Ohio 137,142,616 3 Florida 136,441,856 4 Indiana 128,961,200 5 Pennsylvania 114,621,138

18. Conclusion