Monitoring Methane: Human Health and Abatement

Our Climate Our Future

This resource from Our Climate Our Future explores the variety of health and social issues associated with gas extraction and unregulated methane emissions. This activity has students learning about different abatement options for methane pollution, and communicating the effects of methane pollution on human health.

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Notes from our reviewers

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Consider assigning the infographic activity as homework and then have students present their graphics in a walkthrough style gallery. Students can then observe different creative styles and information from their peers. The lesson plan does not provide suggestions for how to adapt it for diverse learners so teachers may need to consider this. The activity does ask students to think more deeply about social issues, for example, when it asks if they agree with the point of view of the video narrator.
Students are asked to watch and reflect on a personal account of a community advocate who lives in the Permian basin area of Texas, which experiences disproportionate and negative impacts of extraction. Students will then work with an online database, the International Energy Agency (IEA), to understand and compare methane emission types and abatement strategies between countries. Lastly, students will demonstrate their understanding by creating an infographic about the negative impacts of unregulated methane emissions. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
Learning outcomes are clearly stated in the activity. Students review information (a video and webpages with data and information) and then they work in small groups to interpret data and create posters to communicate concerns about methane pollution and human health. Before starting the activity, both teachers and students would benefit from some prerequisite knowledge about the connection between methane and climate change and the reason that oil and gas production lead to methane escaping to the atmosphere. Without this, some parts of the video might be hard to understand. The activity consists of a set of manageable tasks which are outlined in the teacher's guide. Analyzing the data on the IEA webpage allows students to practice understanding graphs.