Alberta – Science 20-4 Alignment Guide

The Switch Classroom Alberta Science 20-4 curriculum alignment guide provides teachers with ready-to-use lessons that align directly with provincial science and social studies standards. Each activity is mapped to general learner outcomes such as analyzing and interpreting scientific data, evaluating impacts, designing and refining systems, and applying concepts related to energy and technology. This ensures teachers can meet outcomes while helping students develop core analytical and problem-solving skills.

The guide highlights connections to science areas including environmental chemistry, interactions and ecosystems, electrical principles and technologies, and energy flow in global systems. It also aligns with social studies areas such as economic and environmental trade-offs, local and global resource use, policy decisions, and the impacts of industrialization.

Key lessons include Introduction to Oil and Introduction to Natural Gas, which use data sets, quizzes, and hands-on activities to help students examine energy resources and their trade-offs. Modern Oil Drilling and Unconventional Sources introduces new technologies, while Science of Coal develops skills in data analysis and interpretation. Additional resources such as the Introduction to Efficiency video and Life Cycle Assessment with Garvin Heath prompt students to evaluate energy choices and technologies from multiple perspectives.

The Alberta Science 20-4 curriculum alignment guide provides a clear roadmap for aligning instruction with standards while connecting lessons to real-world energy challenges.

• Overview: Although energy appears in many forms and is essentially conserved, in each energy transformation the availability of useful energy decreases. Students learn that the technologies for extracting, processing, and using fossil fuels involve converting energy into more useful forms for our use.

• Guiding Question: How do common energy transfer technologies work in meeting our daily needs?

• Learning Outcome: Investigate a variety of important energy conversions occurring in biological, chemical, physical, and technological systems.