This lesson will ask students to analyze their energy use to find out which sources they rely on most and teach how plastics and other products depend on hydrocarbons from fossil fuels.

Time Required:
35 minutes

Materials Needed:
The fuel source graph in Background Information (scroll down below), a calculator, and scratch paper.

Reproducible Activities:
To reinforce this lesson as well as Lesson 1 try this activity and creative writing exercise Energy Word Search and Invent a New Way to Use Energy (PDF).

Reproducible Answers:
Energy Word Search: 1. fossil fuels; 2. natural gas, oil, coal; 3. turbine; 4. plastic; 5. asphalt; 6. carbon; 7. mine; 8. well; 9. pressure; 10. steam.

Student Real-World Connections:
Students discover how their daily energy experiences compare to national energy-use norms and discuss how the effects of these norms ripple out into the world.

Engaging Your Students:
This lesson is structured to promote a sense of discovery as your students analyze their energy use and use the information they gather to launch a compelling discussion.

Getting Started
Print out the Fuel Source Graph for students (see below).

What Students Will Do:
Have each student make a list of when they use energy on an average day (e.g., "electricity to boil water and cook eggs in the morning, gasoline to get to school," etc.). Then have students identify the source of energy for each usage, wherever possible. For example, is it oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower? (See Lesson 1 for more information on how to determine the fuel source of your local electricity.)

Make a chart on the blackboard using the student's various energy sources. Have each student compile his or her results by adding up all the times that he or she used each fuel. Then have each student write his or her results on the chart, and add the numbers to get a class total.

Graph the results from the chart. Now compare your results with the graph in Background Information below to see how your students' energy sources correspond to the national averages. Discuss what you learned from this exercise, and why it's not an exact comparison (your students counted incidents of energy use and not quantity of energy used).

Open up a discussion with questions like these:

Student Call to Action:
Students can research how America's energy usage has changed over time, in terms of quantities and types of energy used. They can use this information to make the following predictions: When students are 40 years old, how might America's energy usage differ from today's usage? How might their personal decisions affect this usage?

Background Information
People use many forms of energy: electricity (from coal, oil, natural gas, water, or nuclear power), gasoline to drive a car, jet fuel (to travel by airplane), natural gas or heating oil to heat homes, and wood to burn in fireplaces (chemical energy converted to heat energy). What types of energy are used most in the U.S.? See the graph below for a breakdown.

Fuel Source Graph
Breakdown for industrial and residential uses combined:¹
*These include hydropower, biofuels, geothermal energy (using the heat from earth's interior), solar power, and wind power.

If you add up the percentages for the three fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal), you will see that they account for nearly 85 percent of the total energy that our nation consumes. And fossil fuels have other, less obvious uses as well. Petroleum products are used to make many of the plastic products you might use, such as DVDs, drink bottles, and clothing, as well as some products you might not think about, like medicines for human health, incubators for premature babies, and asphalt for our roads.

Oil and plastics have a lot in common: They are made from the same ingredients. Fossil fuels are chemicals called hydrocarbons—they are made up only of hydrogen atoms and carbon atoms. Plastics are made from long chains of hydrogen atoms and carbon atoms called polymers.

^1. Energy Information Administration, "Monthly Review, Energy Overview."