Suggested Activity: Assign the data set and accompanying reflection questions.
BC – Earth Sciences 11 Alignment Guide
Summary
The Switch Classroom BC Earth Sciences 11 curriculum alignment guide shows how lessons and activities connect directly to the provincial standards. Each activity is mapped to competencies such as questioning and predicting, processing and analyzing data, planning and conducting, evaluating, applying and innovating, and communicating. This helps teachers demonstrate alignment while supporting core scientific practices.
The guide connects Switch Classroom lessons to key science areas including environmental impact and stewardship, systems and sustainability, energy transfer and conservation, and resource development. It also highlights social studies standards such as human–environment interactions and decision-making and public policy.
Featured lessons include data analysis on environmental impacts, a hands-on activity exploring energy choices, and a simulation that demonstrates coal-based power generation. Students also engage with current issues through videos and discussions on hydraulic fracturing and modern oil drilling technology, helping them weigh risks, benefits, and trade-offs.
By using the BC Earth Sciences 11 curriculum alignment guide, teachers can simplify lesson planning, meet required standards, and create meaningful opportunities for students to analyze data, practice problem solving, and connect scientific knowledge to real-world energy and environmental challenges.
- Earth Sciences Big Ideas: Earth materials are changed as they cycle through the geosphere and are used as resources, with economic and environmental implications.
- What criteria must be met for an earth material to be considered a “resource”?
- Earth Sciences Content: Economic and environmental implications of geological resources within BC and globally.
- Economic feasibility (e.g., price, concentration, accessibility, environmental concerns)
- Extraction methods (e.g., open-pit versus underground mining, fracking of oil and gas reservoirs, methods of concentrating and refining ore minerals and fossil fuels)
- Site remediation (e.g., government regulations, failed tailings ponds, acid rock drainage, land reclamation)
Resources
Introduction to Energy Choices
Suggested Activity: Use the hands-on activity to explore factors that influence our energy decisions.
Introduction to Coal
Suggested Activity: Assign student groups to complete the data set and the Power Generation Simulation.
Fracking - Risks & Benefits – Video
Suggested Activity: Watch the video and discuss the environmental trade-offs of hydraulic fracturing.
Modern Oil Drilling and Unconventional Sources – Video
Suggested Activity: Watch the video to see modern oil drilling technology.
Developing Media Literacy - Mini-Unit
Suggested Activity: Introduce students to the fundamentals of media literacy through the lens of researching energy topics.