The instructional sequence is a recommended instructional sequence. This sequence has been field-tested in 8th grade urban classrooms in three different tracked levels. We recognize that the ability levels of students will range significantly across different locations and some classrooms may complete activities faster or slower than what we have listed as the recommended time frame. We recognize that different teachers may feel the need to provide summative assessment quizzes or additional review activities at specific points during the instructional sequence. Such activities will vary across different teachers and classroom contexts. While we have not included such materials in the instructional sequence, we have provided a sample of such materials used by teachers during the field testing of the Energy unit in the Teacher Resources section.

We have not recommended specific homework assignments for each day in the instructional sequence. We recognize that the assignment of homework will vary significantly across each classroom based on the philosophy of teachers and school districts. We have noted suggested supplemental readings on specific days that can be assigned for homework. These are PDF documents that can be accessed by students on the Energy Unit Student Resource page or reproduced and distributed as hard copies. The completion of student worksheets may also be assigned as homework. We also encourage teachers to assign journaling activities and additional concept mapping activities as homework to help students review the main unit concepts.

Student instructional handouts and teacher support materials are provided in both MS Word and PDF formats. Student handouts can be modified to provide additional supports and step-by-step instructions by adding text passages from the teacher versions of select handouts.

Click on the links below to access a detailed instructional sequence for each day that includes student resources (My World GIS files, Google Earth files, videos, and images), instructional handouts, and teacher educative curriculum materials.

Although this site is designed to be cross-platform, please use the Mozilla Firefox Web browser because the GIS files do not download properly via the Internet Explorer or Safari Web browsers. We also recommend that you back-up GIS and Google Earth files on a USB drive in the event that you have network or Internet problems.

Download the entire instructional sequence document (PDF)