Suggested Activity: Have students discuss methods for preparing and cooking their own food. Show the video, then reflect as a class.
Alberta – Science 30 Alignment Guide
Summary
The Switch Classroom Alberta Science 30 curriculum alignment guide connects engaging videos, labs, and debates to Alberta’s provincial standards. Each lesson is mapped to general learner outcomes such as analyzing and interpreting data, evaluating impacts, designing and refining systems, and applying concepts related to energy and technology. This allows teachers to integrate Switch Classroom resources while meeting curriculum goals.
The guide highlights alignment with science areas including environmental chemistry, electrical principles and technologies, energy flow in global systems, and energy choices. It also connects to social studies areas such as local and global resource use, economic and environmental trade-offs, industrialization, and policy decisions.
Featured lessons include the Switch On video series, which examines real-world energy issues such as modern cooking fuels, urban grid expansion, coal use, hydropower in Africa, and solar microgrids. Students analyze impacts, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and reflect on how communities and governments approach energy decisions. Additional lessons include the National Energy Issues Debate, the Energy Impact Dice Game, and hands-on labs for solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear energy.
The Alberta Science 30 curriculum alignment guide gives teachers a structured roadmap for lesson planning while encouraging students to connect scientific concepts with social, economic, and policy dimensions of energy.
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Overview: Matter cycles and energy dissipates through the biosphere and its component ecosystems. The concept of an ecosystem is used to explain energy flow and nutrient recycling and to quantify large-scale and long-term processes.
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Guiding Question: How does matter cycle and energy flow through the biosphere and through ecosystems, and what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of protecting the environment for future generations?
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Learning Outcome: Analyze and investigate the cycling of matter and the flow of energy through the biosphere and ecosystems as well as the interrelationship of society and the environment.
Resources
Switch On Episode 2: Urban Grid Expansion – Video
Suggested Activity: Watch the video and have students identify the hazards associated with grid expansion in Kenya.
Switch On Episode 3: Developing on Coal – Video
Suggested Activity: Watch the video to learn how coal is the fuel that lifts countries out of poverty.
Switch On Episode 4: Hydropower in Africa – Video
Suggested Activity: Show the video to the class and discuss why alternative energy sources might be used.
Switch On Episode 5: Building Solar Microgrids, Part 1 – Video
Suggested Activity: Show parts 1 and 2 of Building Solar Microgrids. Have students identify the cause-and-effect relationship of the solar microgrids on the community.
Switch On Episode 6: Building Solar Microgrids, Part 2 – Video
Suggested Activity: Show parts 1 and 2 of Building Solar Microgrids. Have students identify the cause-and-effect relationship of the solar microgrids on the community.
Introduction to Efficiency – Video
Suggested Activity: Watch the video and explain the importance of energy efficiency and the effect of energy choices on the environment.
National Energy Issues Debate
Suggested Activity: Have students research an assigned stance on energy policy, then participate in a classroom debate
Introduction to Environmental Impacts
Suggested Activity: Review vocabulary and watch the video. Assign student groups to play the Energy Impact Dice Game.
Introduction to Coal
Suggested Activity: Assign student groups to complete the data set and the Power Generation Simulation.
Science of Solar
Suggested Activity: Have students practice experimental design with the hands-on solar lab.
Science of Wind
Suggested Activity: Assign the Wind Computation to develop FRQ math skills.
Introduction to Hydropower
Suggested Activity: Watch the video and listen for vocab terms. Assign the Quiz and Cloze Notes, then a lab activity in groups.
Introduction to Geothermal
Suggested Activity: Students explore heat transfer in the lab activity, simulating geothermal processes.
Developing Media Literacy - Mini-Unit
Suggested Activity: Introduce students to the fundamentals of media literacy through the lens of researching energy topics.