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Secondary activity
Oil Project
Use the Deepwater oil spill as a basis for a project on oil.
Use the sites in Find out more and an internet search engine to find out as much as you can about the black sticky stuff that has shaped our world in so many ways.
Try to investigate
- how much power the oil industry has
- how much oil there is left
- what alternatives to oil are out there, or in development.
Experts say the world will run out of oil in your lifetime. How will the world change without oil? Will no more oil necessarily be a bad thing?
In small groups discuss some the issues you've uncovered.
Finally, create your own oil spill using the third site in Find out more (don't worry, the websites aren't really harmed).
Send your thoughts to Have your say or longer stories or podcasts to Be a reporter.
An oil covered bird is rescued from the waters of Barataria Bay, Louisiana
Picture: AP
Teachers' notes
Secondary lesson objectives
- to explore the idea of sustainable development and its implications within the study context
- to select and use secondary sources of evidence
- to use maps to investigate places
- to analyse and evaluate evidence about resource issues and draw and justify conclusions
- to appreciate how people's values and attitudes, including their own, affect contemporary issues such as sustainable development
Curriculum links
Unit 14: Can the earth cope? Ecosystems, population and resources (Year 8)
Section 7: Why should we study resource issues?
Unit 24: Passport to the world (Years 7-9)
Section 9: How can we find out about places? - What's in the news?
Glossary
Channelling running off some of the liquid in a planned direction
Gulf of Mexico the sea surrounding Louisiana, Florida and Mexico
Intact complete, not broken
Pressure readings taking note of how much pressure there is
Temporary not permanent, not forever
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