Alternative Energy Solutions

Everyone complains about the high cost of gasoline for our cars. And, this fall and winter, the complaints will be more frequent and even louder as the cost of heating oil to keep us warm doubles. People can drive less to adapt to high gasoline prices, but how low can you set the thermostat?

That's the bad news. Here's the good news! Higher prices for oil products and gasoline have finally hit consumers in the wallet. With no hope of lower prices on the horizon, they are angry and looking for both short term and long term solution from the federal government and the candidates for president in November. Combine the oil shock with a jobs recession, a credit crisis, home values decreasing, the rising cost of health care, and the threat of fossil fuels to the environment, and consumers are ready to vote for major changes in government energy policy in 2009.

Unfortunately, in the 1970s, the first oil and gasoline crisis didn't cause enough consumer pain to create the pressure for initiating long-term solutions to our energy problems. Today, we are twice as dependent on foreign oil as we were in the 1970s. Now is the time to develop a new and totally different energy policy that makes the U.S. energy independent in the future.

Assign students to learn more about alternative and renewable energy sources and why most experts support development of these to replace dependence on oil. ProQuest editors have created a BookCart lesson plan activity for your students to use for this purpose--all you have to do is copy and do some minor editing.

You can copy this BookCart and more than 700 other models from the ProQuest Carts collection:

• Logon to the eLibrary Teacher Edition.
  
  
• Click the BookCart Admin link at the top right of the Teacher Edition.
  
  
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
  
  
• Scroll down the list of Folders and select "Science--Environmental."
  
  
• Click the Copy Icon in the Actions column for "Alternative Energy--Save the Environment, Conquer Global Warming."
  
  
• Return to My Local Carts.

This BookCart is your lesson plan because it includes (a) essential questions for critical thinking (you can create others); (b) a place for you to type specific directions for students); (c) a place for you to list the state standard; (d) a place for you to build a quiz; (e) more than 30 relevant and credible articles and websites for students to select from.

To edit the BookCart for your students to use:

• Click the new BookCart Title (it will include the prefix "Copy of".)
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your first and last name in the Author boxes.
• Type any brief and specific directions for your students to use in the Description box.
• Scroll down and click Save.

Assign students to select and cite at least one website and three articles in creating a written report of about 150 words or a PowerPoint report of at least two minutes and seven slides that address at least three of the essential questions for critical thinking.

Assessments: Easy, Automatic Scoring with QuizCarts

eLibrary QuizCarts are a great way for teachers to assess student knowledge of content before they start the formal research process. This is especially important when a topic/issue has not already been thoroughly introduced through the textbook or classroom discussion.

Teachers can create a multiple choice test of up to ten items and instruct students to use one of the resources such as an encyclopedia to get the necessary background that ensures a successful mini-research activity. What's great about this system is that students can take the quiz within a BookCart and email the answers to the teacher selected email address.

Results are tallied automatically, saving teacher time and ensuring students are prepared for the research activity that will invest three to five class periods in learning or could be wasted.

The key to creating QuizCarts in BookCart Editor is to first select the Product box option, Quizzes, instead of the default, BookCart, when you are creating a new BookCart/QuizCart. You must also include the appropriate email address of the teacher or librarian in the Email box and then check the box at the bottom Show Reading/Websites before Quiz.

For more details, click here.

ProQuest has created some models that you can review to prepare you for creating your own QuizCart collection.

Logon to your eLibrary Teacher Edition (links), click the BookCart Admin tab, select ProQuest Carts, then click our BookCarts with Quizzes folder. Explore by clicking on a BookCart/QuizCart title of interest.

Reminder: eLibrary Support for Professional Development

eLibrary supports educator professional development in two distinct ways:

1. Access to a free professional library: Browse more than 100 education magazines and journals, as well as a variety of magazines that provide the latest news and developments in the worlds of science, literature, history, geography, mathematics, etc. Print articles to update and supplement your textbook in the classroom.
   
   
2. More than 30 ProQuest model BookCarts: Librarians can copy these BookCarts for teachers to use and learn from (yes, BookCarts can benefit teachers too!) BookCarts address many of the hot topics in schools today: Differentiating Instruction, Classroom Discipline, and 21st Century Literacy and Skills as examples. (See the Special Collections tab.)

Download the following resources to get listings of the free professional library and tips on publication browsing:

Professional Library Publications to Browse

Professional Development BookCarts (See Special Collections worksheet)

Back To School Special
Innovative Librarians & eLibrary BookCarts

Each of these librarians had a BookCart vision for increasing librarian-teacher collaboration. Their stories (read here) will provide motivation and strategies for other librarians who subscribe to any of the eLibrary family of learning resources and want to get started on building their own collections of 21st Century resources for learning through inquiry-based activities:

Ana Banos
Sweetwater Union High School District, San Diego, CA

Ann Martha
Philadelphia School District, PA

Diane Gallagher Hayashi
Stelly School, Saanich SD, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Elizabeth Golden + Johanna Lawler
Greater Essex County SB, Ontario, Canada

Carolyn Hoye
Coyle & Cassidy HS, Taunton, MA

All Stories: Read here!