The Speed of Green, Grade 8: Stem Road Map for Middle School

What if you could challenge your eighth graders to design a racing vehicle with minimum environmental impact, while exploring the role of renewable and non-renewable energy sources? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can!

The Speed of Green outlines a journey that will steer your students toward authentic problem solving while grounding them in integrated STEM disciplines. Like the other volumes in the series, this book is designed to meet the growing need to infuse real-world learning into K–12 classrooms.

This interdisciplinary, eight-lesson module uses project- and problem-based learning to help students explore the potential role of renewable and non-renewable energy sources in transportation, with an emphasis on the auto industry. Using their understanding of the engineering design process (EDP), scientific concepts, and environmental conservation considerations, student teams will develop a plan for a competitive automobile racing team to fuel its vehicle with minimal environmental impact. To support this goal, students will do the following:

• Identify finite energy resources and distinguish between these and renewable energy sources, and identify implications of the use of those fuel sources on the environment
• Conduct life cycle analyses (LCAs) of various fuel sources and apply the results to make decisions about the effects of various fuel sources
• Identify several ways that carbon-based fuels have impacted the U.S. economy and foreign relations
• Identify the effects of human activities on the biosphere with an emphasis on the effects of the widespread use of carbon-based fuels
• Apply the engineering design process (EDP) to solve a problem, and design and build a small-scale electric vehicle
• Synthesize their learning and working collaboratively by creating and presenting a plan for a race team that minimizes its environmental impact
• Create an engaging presentation incorporating oral presentations and visual displays to present projects to an audience of peers, teachers, and industry professionals.

The STEM Road Map Curriculum Series is anchored in the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core State Standards, and the Framework for 21st Century Learning. In-depth and flexible, The Speed of Green can be used as a whole unit or in part to meet the needs of districts, schools, and teachers who are charting a course toward an integrated STEM approach.

Carla C. Johnson is a Professor of Science Education and Office of Research and Innovation Faculty Research Fellow at North Carolina State University, North Carolina, USA.

Janet B. Walton is a Senior Research Scholar at North Carolina State’s College of Education in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

Erin E. Peters-Burton is the Donna R. and David E. Sterling Endowed Professor in Science Education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.