Science of Natural Gas – Starter Pack

Summary

The Science of Natural Gas – Starter Pack combines all essential student-facing materials in one printable or digital file. It includes a space for the bell ringer, definitions and examples of natural gas vocabulary, a video, and a short quiz. Students define terms like microbe and fracturing, then apply and reflect on their learning. This all-in-one tool strengthens science literacy and comprehension while streamlining classroom prep. Use it for guided instruction, homework, or assessment alongside the full lesson.

Bell Ringer

Instructions: Answer the prompt provided by your teacher.










Vocabulary

Instructions: Watch the Science of Natural Gas video and listen for the vocabulary words.

WordDefinitionExample
Livestocknoun; animals raised on farms for food, fiber or work, such as cows, pigs, and sheep“Livestock makes huge volumes of methane, and so do we.”
Emitverb; to release or send out something, such as light, heat, or gas“Billions of us emit billions of cubic feet of methane every day.”
Microbenoun; a tiny, living organism, like bacteria or fungi, that can only be seen with a microscope“Methane is also found in lakes or ponds, wherever microbes break down plants with limited oxygen.”
Continental shelfnoun phrase; the underwater edge of continent that slopes gently before dropping to the deep ocean floor“Methane is very common in water. Bubbling up from swamps, off continental shelves, in springs and water wells . . .”
Commercial quantitiesnoun phrase; amounts large enough to be sold or used in industry or business“ . . . [the methane is] either not concentrated enough or the technology doesn’t exist to harvest them in commercial quantities.”
Digesternoun; a tank or system that breaks down organic material using microbes, often to make biogas“Some sewage treatment plants now use digesters to turn organic wastes into methane . . . called biogas.”
Landfillnoun; a place where trash is buried under layers of soil to manage waste“All landfills produce methane, and some are capturing it to run small power plants.”
Reservoirnoun; a natural underground area, where oil, gas or water collects and is stored“These conventional reservoirs, like under the Arabian Gulf, are some of the largest natural gas fields in the world.”
Fracturingverb; breaking or causing something to break into pieces or cracks“ . . . we are drilling horizontal wells into source rocks called shale and fracturing them with high-pressure water injection.”
Hydrogennoun; the lightest chemical element, used as a fuel and found in many compounds“We now know that natural gas is mostly hydrogen.”
Kilnnoun; a high temperature oven used to bake, dry, or process materials like clay or limestone“This makes natural gas the usual heat source for most industrial equipment like boilers, burners, and kilns . . .”
Compressedverb; stored under high pressure to reduce the space a gas takes up“ . . . more commonly, [natural gas] is compressed and burned directly in fleets of buses or taxis that have central fueling stations.”

Quiz

Instructions: Circle the correct answer based on what you learned in the Science of Natural Gas video.

Q1. What is the correct chemical formula for methane?

  1. CH4
  2. CO2
  3. C2H4O2
  4. NH4

Q2. Which of the following represents uses of natural gas?

  1. heating homes and buildings
  2. fuel for vehicles
  3. cooking in restaurants and homes
  4. all of the above

Q3. Where is natural gas most commonly found in large enough amounts to be commercially produced?

  1. sewage treatment plants
  2. landfills
  3. underground reservoirs
  4. crop wastes

Q4. What is the source of huge new commercial natural gas resources?

  1. hydraulic fracturing of shale formations
  2. methane frozen in water at the bottom of oceans
  3. composting of food waste
  4. methane bubbling up from swamps