• Develops literacy, vocabulary, geography, politics!
• Improves research skills!
• Explains the global issue simply and clearly, without bias!
• Helps make the current situation clear to the student!
• Encourages the student to "connect up", understand & look for solutions to problems!
• Hands-on activities make civics relevant to the student!
• Develops critical thinking skills!
• Develops study in a self-determined manner!
• Lesson plans are complete and ready to use!  Start now!

Another in STEPS series of Current Events courses for ages 9-adult, used with success by hundreds of students.

These courses each start by defining a global problem. Then, the course leads the student through directed research, so that the student can get a real grasp of the current situation for that issue. The student follows this up with creative exercises which help define the issue and the student's response to it as a concerned citizen of the world.

Few greater concerns confront us today than those of energy. Since the 1840s, our use of energy has exploded. Nonrenewable energy supplies...energy sources of which there is a limited amount such as gas and oil...powered the industrial and information age revolution. But we appear to be running out of these fuels, and fast. 

What will we do when the gas runs out? This course, providing lots of information and structured research projects to be done by the student, hands our young the keys to a far brighter tomorrow than the merchants of woe generally present. The student will learn about ideas and inventions that could guarantee an energy paradise where the stars are, quite literally, the limit.

The truth is that there are four forms of renewable and sustainable energy that are under used today. Any single one of them might replace our fossil fuel usages thousands of times over, providing the human race with nearly infinite, inexpensive and low or no-pollution energy! That’s right, the answers to the problems of energy shortages that could utterly halt civilization in its tracks over the next 30 years are already in place and in limited use.

Too many "answers" to our "energy crisis" involve "cutting back" our use of energy. This is not only unnecessary given what is available, it's foolish. Yes, we should (and must) cut down our use of fossil fuels, and we need to do this today. They're dirty, they pollute, they endanger life on Earth. But clean, powerful sources of energy are waiting for us make full use of them. This hands-on course teaches the student about both renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, providing the student a clear-eyed view of where we’ve been, and where we could go.

Our children are the future. The future of our world's environment and use of energy may be in our hands today, but our students will inherit them. No student, no human being can afford to remain ignorant about the sources of energy that power his computer, his car, his life, where they come from and what they’re doing to our planet.

It's a hard truth to face, perhaps, but no nation can ever be truly free that is enslaved to foreign "suppliers" by energy needs. No people can ever be secure who are unsure if the damage we're doing to our world will result in a difficult or impossible life for our children. The answers are here, and your student can learn how to help build a bright future for human beings everywhere.

15-30 hours of work, no other materials required. 11 lesson plans.

Subjects covered in this course include:

• Energy defined
• Sources of energy used by people, each defined:
• Solar Energy
• Wind power
• Fossil Fuels
• Hydroelectric (water) power
• Biomass energy
• Geothermal energy (heat from inside the Earth)
• Nuclear Power
• How each source of power works, its good and bad sides, the pollutants created, the energy and how usable it is
• Renewable vs Non-renewable energy source
• Sustainable energy
• What we should be investing in