Unit Activity 9: Energy in the News Article

Unit Activity 9: Energy in the News Article

This week you are studying the chapter on “Energy.” The topic of energy is important in chemistry because it is the reason that most reactions happen. This topic is of particular interest, though, in today’s society since our world consumes a large amount of energy each day, especially in developed countries like the United States. For this reason, the topic of energy is often found in current news sources.

In this assignment, you will research, read, and submit a review of a news article relating to energy. Articles should be 1-3 pages in length and current (within the last 2 years). They may be obtained from non-technical sources such as newspapers, magazines, and internet news sources. The article you use must be a NEWS articles. Encyclopedias and similar sources are NOT news articles! For example, you CANNOT use wikipedia as a source. It is probably a good idea to ask me first if you are not sure about your article.

Your article should fall under 1 of the following topics:

Fossil Fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas)

Nuclear Energy

Alternative Energy Sources (wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, fuel cells, ethanol fuel)

*Note: Many of the topics listed above are broad. The articles that you choose MUST be related to class (i.e. include some discussion of a chemistry related topic).

Sources for articles:

The Library – any library should have copies of the newspapers as well as some magazines that contain environmental- related news stories. Ask a librarian at the reference desk for assistance.

Websites:

Star Tribune – in print or at www.startribune.com

Pioneer Press – in print or at www.pioneerplanet.com

New York Times – in print or at www.nytimes.com

CNN news website - www.cnn.com

Science Daily – www.sciencedaily.com

Magazines/journals (and their related websites)

Science, Nature, Discover, Omni, Scientific American, American Scientist, National Geographic

Assignment:

1. At the beginning, list the following:

a. Topic (e.g., Nuclear Energy)

b. Name of the article you chose

c. Source of the article (including website if you retrieved it from the internet) and author (if you can find him/her)

d. Date of the article (be current)

*while you do not have to submit the article, I must be able to find it myself by using the citation that you supply.

2. In 4-5 sentences, write an overall summary of the article. Make sure you use your OWN words and simply do not copy directly from the article.

3. Describe 2 of the most interesting things you learned from the article and why you find them interesting. Again, these must be in your own words, and not the articles!

4. Describe why your article is related to class, and in particular, for the particular topic you chose to use it for. You may want to reference a specific section from the book.

5. List 1 question that you have, after reading the article. This question must be thoughtful, and prove to me that you are thinking about the material that was presented.