Dev and Abe found this fact in a book. Do you think it is true? Ask your parents how many cars they have owned and what they think their final total might be.
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The photograph below is called "China's Coal Addiction and it recently won an award at the World Press Photo Contest, 2016. It was taken on November 26th, 2015. "Chinese men pull a tricycle in a neighborhood next to a coal-fired power plant in Shanxi, China.A history of heavy dependence on burning coal for energy has made China the source of nearly a third of the world's total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the toxic pollutants widely cited by scientists and environmentalists as the primary cause of global warming" Commissioned by Getty Images Our new central idea is "Use of energy resources affects environmental sustainability." What do you THINK this photograph has to do with the central idea? What does it make you WONDER?
Below is a news article taken from the npr website. Read the article carefully and then see if you can create your own headline. According to the chart, America burns 6.63 billion kilowatt-hours to shine its end-of-year holiday lights. By comparison, annual kilowatt-hours in the developing world are paltry. In an entire year, El Salvador uses 5.35 billion kilowatt-hours. Ethiopia is at 5.30 billion, Tanzania at 4.8 billion, Nepal at 3.28 billion and Cambodia at 3.06 billion. (Those numbers come from the World Bank.)
Todd Moss and his colleague Priscilla Agyapong put together the graphic. He's a fellow at the Center for Global Development; energy is one of his topics. I spoke to him to learn more about his lights motif. Are you the Grinch who wants to steal holiday lights? No, I think Christmas lights are a good thing. A beautiful thing! I'm not trying to be anti-Christmas at all. Then why do this comparison? The point is twofold. One: just to show the tremendous difference in energy use between rich countries and poor countries. What's the second point? Some organizations have argued that poor countries should only use renewable energy sources in the future because of global concerns. I have no doubt that sub-Saharan countries, for example, are going to have a very heavy use of renewable energy technologies. But these countries have energy needs that go way beyond what current renewable technologies can deliver. Like every country of the world, poor countries are going to pursue an all-of-the-above strategy, including a mix of hydro, wind, solar, natural gas and geothermal. Meanwhile, the U.S. isn't exactly a world leader in renewable energy. I get an annual notice from Pepco, the power company in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, where I live. The fuel mix for D.C. and Maryland is 95.9 percent from coal, gas and nuclear; 4 percent renewable — including 2 percent wind, 0.1 percent solar. It's pretty rich for me to sit in Washington, D.C., and tell Ghana they can't build one natural gas power plant. The numbers for the U.S. are a little old — they're 2007 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Does that concern you? Obviously, energy efficiency is improving, but the average size of homes is going up and incomes go up, and those things drive how much people spend on house decorations. I would be surprised if the number in 2015 was significantly different. What's life like in countries that don't have sufficient and reliable electricity? The obvious things: You don't have lights and a refrigerator, or an air conditioner, but it also means you don't have steady, reliable, affordable electricity to power factories, to help grow jobs. A country can't become wealthy or even middle class without consuming a lot more energy. All poor countries need a lot more energy. How do we provide that in a way that's smart for the planet? If we force sub-Saharan Africa to use renewables only we are forcing them to remain poor. I imagine that poor countries use so little energy compared with the West that even if they do use more nonrenewable energy in the future, the impact on the environment wouldn't be huge. Africa's energy mix has close to zero effect on global carbon emissions. The real action is in rich countries and China. So what might we be thinking this season when we admire holiday lights? Lights are something we take for granted, but a lot of countries around the world don't have enough electricity to run a refrigerator or create jobs. And we should be humble in the kind of advice we give countries about how they should develop energy sources. This is by an author called Kurt Vonnegut. I've just read this and it really made me think about the unit we've just completed.
"Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can .You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something." Here are our second attempts at spoken poetry. How do you feel you've improved? Thanks again to Georgie's mum (and to Georgie) for the photographs. Looks like it was a great trip. Can you spot yourself on any of these pictures? I emerge freshly made from my inner galactic cage
I eat it up that nasty bit to start my life a little bit Soon I eat that hospital that point of birth with monocle I start to eat identical places each as juicy and delicious I grow fat I grow lazy I am shedding all my scalies Soon I’m wrapped in a cocoon trapped within a holy womb I emerge freshly made from my inner galactic cage I try to fly I try to soar but my wings won’t work furthermore I wait and wait and wait and then I take the chance I emerge freshly made from my inner galactic cage I fly I soar I produce more I emerge freshly made from my inner galactic cage First of all, well done to all of you that made it to Moshi and back again. It sounds like a fantastic trip. This week is the last week before the holidays and the last week of our unit. This week you will finish your final poems, learn them and perform them. Also, on Friday, you will be presenting your final art pieces so with this in mind your homework is pretty flexible:
Since we came back, after the holidays, I've been setting you homework from a website called "The Family Dinner Project." The Family Dinner Project is a nonprofit organization currently operating from the offices of Project Zero at Harvard University.
They say "Over the past 15 years, research has shown what parents have known for a long time: Sharing a fun family meal is good for the spirit, brain and health of all family members. Recent studies link regular family meals with the kinds of behaviors that parents want for their children: higher grade-point averages, resilience and self-esteem." I also read another article which said "Harvard Graduate School of Education professor, Catherine Snow – one of the world’s leading experts on language and literacy has conducted research which shows that talking with children leads to a larger vocabulary, and that leveraging this broader vocabulary through further discussion and storytelling leads to improved literacy outcomes." This basically means that you can get better at reading, and writing, by having more conversations with your parents. Easy. Right? Suryansh - It's going pretty good. Most of the time it's me, my mum and my sister. My sister answers the questions sort of. My mum asks me the question back. The conversations last for 5 or 10 minutes. Beth - Normally they're all right. Last week, my sister, my mum and dad gave me a short answer so I asked my dad for a bigger answer and he just went on and on. Normally they are good. When there's something good to talk about my sister joins in. I normally do it on Mondays and it's usually fun because the conversation goes off in different directions. Hanna - I just ask the question and they answer in 2 minutes so I have to ask for a longer conversation. One time, I asked my mum and she thought a lot and said one thing, then she thought some more and said another thing and then she went on and on. Mia - It's good. Well my sister once dreamed she went to a place called "House World" where all she did was play in the house. And then she went to "Nothing World" where she did nothing. My parents said they went on so many vacations they can't compare them because they are so different. Dev - First when we sit down I bring up the project, then they have a minute to answer. When they answer they give a really short answer so my brother then takes the lead in the conversation and I try to bring it back and sometimes I manage to but not always. Abe - It's ok. I ask my mum first and this week she said she wants to go to Switzerland. Then she said she had been there but she wants to go again. Right now my dad is in Korea so I sent him a message and he said he wants to go to Palestine. I didn't ask my little brother but I think he might want to go to the USA because I think he likes it there. William - My mum went to Moshi a lot of times and she really misses it because there are a lot of trees. She also wants to go to Australia one day and I want to go their too. |
AuthorWe are Grade 4IM @ istafrica.com. Check out our blog to see what we are working on this year. Archives
May 2016
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