Exploring Alternative Fuels in
Middle Schools
By John F. Donley and Gary A. Stewardson
Students were given the Price per barrel of crude oil
opportunity to learn about a $160.00
$140.00
current, global issue and how $120.00
$100.00
they might have an impact. $80.00
$60.00
$40.00
$20.00
$-
Oct-07 Jan-08 Apr-08 Jul-08 Oct-08 Jan-09
Table 1. Fluctuation of crude oil prices.
in only nine months and then fell to half the original price
in the next six months (see Table 1). Americans felt the
effects of this phenomenon in many aspects of their lives:
travel to work, vacations, groceries, buying products that
required shipping, and the cost of heating their homes. This
Introduction uncontrollable change in oil prices will happen again as
our nation’s demand continues to increase while domestic
Alternative energy sources have become increasingly production and future foreign production diminish
important as the production of domestic oil has declined (Pickens, 2008, pp. 127-131). The general population needs
and our dependence on foreign oil has increased. Pickens to be technologically literate concerning alternative fuels in
(2008) believes the greatest threat to ever face the United order to make intelligent decisions on meeting our energy
States is “our crippling dependence on foreign oil” (p. 3). needs.
Historically, there have been four time periods during which
the United States was in fact crippled by oil shortages. These This article focuses on a new unit of study that teaches
time periods include: the early 1900s, World War II, the concepts relating to alternative fuels—specifically, ethanol
early 1970s, and most recently, a fifteen-month period from and biodiesel. Also covered will be the responses from
2007-2009 (Energy Information Administration, 2008b). students, parents, and administrators concerning the
During this most recent time period, oil prices doubled new unit of instruction. This article does not claim to be
20 • The Te c hnolo gy Te ac her • april 2010
the definitive answer to alternative fuels, but the unit has Finally, learning activities were developed to bridge the
proven successful and will, hopefully, encourage teachers to standards and objectives to the evaluation outcomes.
explore curricular activities covering all aspects and types of
alternative fuels. A variety of instructional strategies were utilized to
appeal to various learning styles. Probing questions and
In 2007, experiments with biodiesel were suggested during classroom discussion were used to facilitate a Socratic
an experimental laboratory cla