Classroom Activities

Strengthen students’ higher-level thinking skills with activity prompts that are adaptable to any topic or subject area. After watching the career profile video, students will summarize what they have learned and gain a whole new perspective of the career. 

Inspire student career investigation using the power of curiosity to fuel their learning. Students will watch the career profile video and use active questioning to think more critically about their interest in the particular career. 

Stimulate critical thinking with an activity in which students compare and contrast various careers. Students will begin by establishing individual careers of interest, then use comparative analysis to weigh the similarities and differences of different careers. 

Take students beyond their knee-jerk reactions to various careers as they consider their own future. Students will analyze information presented in the career profile video and use it to establish possible career paths they’d like to pursue. 

Bring home the relevance of different career paths using the authentic perspectives offered in the career profile videos. Students will investigate the ways that successful careers can impact individuals, communities, and the greater good. 

Hone-in on the key words that define a career of interest for students with this vocabulary-boosting activity. With the career profile video as a guide, students will use word association to create a career-centered crossword puzzle. 

Take students inside the essential energy sources that power our lives. Students will explore the most common types of fuel sources in their lives, and channel their creative energy with a thought experiment that imagines “A Day Without”.  

Students will find out how the wide variety of petroleum products that we depend on daily are made—from extraction to manufacturing. They will research the ways petroleum products are used in everything from medicine to education to engineering to technology. 

Students will investigate the science that is used to extract oil from the earth and pump it to the surface for human use. They will learn about the viscosity of liquids and how this affects the efficiency of a pump, before drafting a formal hypothesis based on their findings.

Students will break down the differences between renewable and nonrenewable energy sources using data on energy use in the US. They will weigh the benefits and tradeoffs of different energy sources and engage in a group dialogue about making responsible energy choices. 

Explore the exciting possibilities of solar energy as students learn how sunlight is converted into electricity for everyday use. Students will take on a design challenge in which they consider whether solar energy could be transferred from sunny places to colder climates. 

Discover what it takes to protect the energy grid that we all rely on from the dangers of natural disasters. After learning about the relationship between energy companies, utilities professionals, and customers, students will develop a disaster preparedness plan for a hurricane. 

Students will discover how offshore oil rigs are repurposed to create artificial reefs. They will conduct research and create an infographic explaining why fishermen, divers, and others are concerned with the removal of these structures, how artificial reefs are made, and their benefits.

Students get a clear idea of the issue of water scarcity, while exploring their own original solutions to help create easily-accessible clean water. They will utilize everyday materials found at home to create, build, test, and optimize an effective water-filtration design.

Students explore the components of irrigation systems used around the world. They will investigate the challenges of different systems and develop an understanding of how irrigation systems can both contribute to and help our global water crisis. 
 

In this activity, students will assume the role of a petroleum geologist to determine where oil deposits can be found. Students will determine why deserts and arctic areas seem to hold the largest hydrocarbon reserves on Earth. Working in small teams, they will discover how continental drift, subduction, and collision with other continents provide the movement of oil reservoirs from swamps, river deltas, and mild climates to the poles and deserts, where they have ended up today.

Students will dive into the dynamic chemistry involved in obtaining energy from fossil fuels. They will learn about the power of oxidation, then use common household materials or molecular model kits to build the reactants and products during a combustion reaction.

Students will reevaluate the consumer packaged goods in their everyday lives through the eyes of a Product Design Engineer. They will collaborate to solve a need in the marketplace using the design thinking process, then complete a SWOT analysis on their product idea. 

Students will consider the potential benefits and risks of autonomous vehicles using a mechanical engineering lens. They will identify characteristics of community sustainability to help design their own proposal for implementing autonomous vehicles locally.

Students will use the skills of an Artificial Intelligence Research Scientist to help solve a problem in any field of their choosing. They will examine issues in their chosen industry and explore how AI and machine learning could be used to optimize new solutions.

Students will become familiar with American data privacy laws and regulations by stepping into the role of data privacy expert. They will problem solve for privacy issues facing a current tech innovation, and offer recommendations for how that innovation can benefit both the user and society.

Students will discover how biofuels combined with petroleum can contribute to sustainable travel and transportation. They will analyze the environmental and economic pros & cons of various biofuel sources to decide which would best support the future of travel.

Students can let their creativity soar as they imagine sustainable and innovative energy sources that could be used to propel the aviation industry. They will examine different potential options before making their selection and sharing their ideas with peers.

Students will take the role of School Sustainability Manager as they focus on improving their school’s cafeteria. They will learn about sustainable food plans and create action steps to help decrease environmental impact and increase sustainability with their school lunches.

Students will investigate the textile industry’s impact on global water scarcity using engineering analysis. They will review strategies for reducing pollution while maintaining industry success, and draft clear guidelines to steer textile manufacturers to a more sustainable future.

Students are reminded of the importance of individual citizenship in sustaining a healthy community, including in the digital world. They will collaborate and brainstorm to create a digital citizen “passport” that helps reinforce the need to be kind and responsible members of our community.

Students discover the environmental cost of “single-use” plastics, particularly the negative impacts on the Earth’s waterways. They will think constructively about plastic waste by designing, building, and optimizing their own solutions for re-using waste on a local level.

Students use the ever-popular world of video games to explore computational thinking and diversity. They will create custom-designed video game characters in their image, then develop their own original code to create some cool character movements.

Students take a closer look at energy consumption to understand how this impacts our air and environment. They will analyze how energy is consumed at their school, then use collaboration and creativity to develop recommendations on how to reduce energy consumption.

Students examine the importance of regular physical activity in achieving their best lives. They will brainstorm activities that increase breathing and heart rate, before finally envisioning a redesign for their classroom that would create space for physical activity.

Students gain a better idea of how aviation creates greenhouse gas which affects the Earth’s atmosphere. They will think critically about the effects of greenhouse gas on climate change by investigating the extent to which weight contributes to energy consumption for an airplane.

Students think more critically about the negative impacts of food waste on the Earth by focusing on their own lives and communities. They will analyze the food waste that their class produces, then design and implement a plan to reduce, reuse, or recycle their waste effectively.

Students use the design engineering process and build their own mixtures to better understand the process of distillation. They will synthesize information to determine relationships between hydrocarbon size, boiling points, and final petroleum products made through the distillation of crude oil.

Students learn the amazing range of everyday products that can be created from the highly useful substances known as petrochemicals, including everything from musical instruments to makeup to furniture. They will research petroleum products in schools, then communicate their findings.

Students gain context on the role petroleum plays in food production, while focusing on the importance of fuel efficiency and sustainable infrastructure. They will assess how efficiency varies among freight transportation methods based on factors like speed, cost, and environmental impact.

Students get a sense of the immense strength and versatility of petroleum-based polymers, by taking a closer look at one of its most popular applications – chewing gum! They will examine several types of natural polymers at the molecular level, and analyze the polymer content in different types of gum.

Students step into the role of a security employee at a technology company and explore the importance of cybersecurity. They will research various measures that contribute to cybersecurity, and they will ultimately create a model that explains these measures to the public in a creative way.

Students investigate the different ways electricity can be generated from different types of energy sources. They will consider the efficiency, reliability, cost, and environmental impact of each, and work together to propose an optimal power solution for a ranger station in rural Alaska.

Students explore the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) and the way in which it affects their daily lives. After researching the impact of AI on one career area, they will debate its benefits and risks. They will ultimately apply what they have learned to craft their own opinion on the role of AI in today’s society.

Students explore the components of sustainability, as applied to their school community. They will suggest ways in which the health of their school community could be improved, and they will ultimately create a plan for redesigning a section of their school.

Students examine the health risks associated with climate change. They will identify two key risks as well as what the public can do to maintain their health despite these hazards. Students will ultimately create a design for an app that communicates this health information.

Students investigate the applications of 3D printing in deep space. They will explore the challenges that are associated with a Martian habitat and they will develop a design for additive manufacturing that considers these obstacles and helps humans live on Mars.

Students explore the idea of composting from a national and global perspective. After researching what composting entails and the impact it can have, students will educate a target audience about this process in an effort to decrease waste and/or lessen global hunger.