AP Environmental Science classes are learning about energy sources and how California utilizes them.
Students are preparing a report explaining how energy is produced, how available and expensive it is, what California’s current energy plan is. After the fact finding, students will also provide their own opinion about the plan.
Students are also creating an energy plan to meet California’s energy needs in 2050.
“I really want [students] to realize that California has a lot of potential renewable energy resources that we are using and some that we are not using, and I also just want students to know where we get our energy,” APES teacher Tren Kauzer said.
Kauzer wants students to understand how energy is used in California and how changes are being made, such as if the utilization of certain energy resources will increase or decrease.
Kauzer said that there is often a free response question asking about energy on the AP test in May. “I have found that doing this project helps students do better on both free response questions and also multiple choice questions on the AP test,” he said.
Senior Sabrina Wong wants to benefit from the project by learning how to save more energy. “I feel like I waste a lot of energy right now, so I want to be more efficient,” she said. “I think it will be fun to learn about the different kinds of energy,” she added.
Kauzer says that the project is not intended to be difficult or stressful. “I try to give students a list of resources that they can easily use and I hope that it will be a fairly easy project to complete,” he said. He is trying to give students class time to work as well. Wong agrees that it’s not too much stress. “It’s just a lot of reading and writing,” she said.
Students are working in pairs.
According to Kauzer, the project has a high point value and is an important project for the semester. “It’s one of the first projects that we’re doing in the 2nd semester,” he added.
Wong said, “It’s one of the big papers that we have to do.”
Although this is only Kauzer’s 2nd year of teaching the course, he says the project has been going on for a while. “I did it last year,” he said. “It was wonderful.”
