Who Let the Gas Out
Hook | Questions | Procedures | Data Investigation | Analysis | Findings | New Questions
By
Are GAS Prices too high?
 |
How do gas prices today compare to the price over the last 10 years? Are they higher, lower or about the same? Take 5 min and scan the net. Look for the
highest gas price in the United States. Look for the lowest. What state or city has the highest gas prices? Lowest? What makes something valuable? Are we in an Oil crises? At are current oil consumption rates are we going to run out? What can we do to stop this? Download link to entire hook presentation in PowerPoint |
Below are questions a teacher sahoud pose during the hook presentation and discussion afterward.
- Based only on the oil reserves in the United States and current US oil consumption rates when would the US run out of oil if the US did not import any?
- Deterine how much oil each person in the US uses per year? Has then value been stradily increasing, decreasing, or staying constant over the last 30 years
- How can you predict future oil comsumption in the united States for the next 50 years?
Other Future Questions
- Why is the US so relieant on foreign oil?
- What is the importantance of worldwide oil resereves?
- Who has the largest oil reserves and who uses the most oil?
- Based on worldwide oil reserves and consumption when should the world reach an oil crisis?
- What alternatives are available to decrese American's comsumption and depence on oil?
After students have asked questions related to the topic, they will need to decide a number of things, including:
Type(s) of Data Required for Research
US and worldwide population data and predicted US population growth
US and worldwide oil reserves
US and worldwide oil comsumption rates
Price of oil per barrel/gallon
Important Terms
comsumption - the utilization of economic goods in the satisfaction of wants or in the process of production resulting chiefly in their destruction, deterioration, or transformation
natural resource - Materials that are obtained from the earth, such as petroleum, coal, and water and are essential or useful to humans.
finite resource - Materials that are obtained from the earth that exist in limited quantities and can not be replentished
fossil fuels - Nonrenewable, naturally-occurring fuels from ORGANIC MATTER. The altered remains of once-living organisms that are burned to release ENERGY. Examples are coal, oil and natural gas. It takes millions of years to form fossil fuels
curve fitting, best fit line - a mthematical equation for a line that is determined by minimizing the distacne between each point of the data being fit
exponential growth - Exponential growth occurs when some quantity increases by a fixed percentage over a given time period
oil reserves - the predicted amount of oil located in geographical region
census - a count of the population in an area
Investigation Tool(s)
Excel to graph, plot and fit population data, oil reserves, oil comsumption
Internet access to obtain information
At least 1 computer per 2 students
Manipulating Data
Determine average US oil comsumption per person for previous 50 years.
Graphing US population over at least 100 years
Curve fitting US population using excel to predict future US population for next 50 years
Based on average US oil comsumption per person and US population growth determine how longUS oil reserves will last
Expand analysis to worldwide oil reserves, comsumption, population growth using pie charts by region to show worlwdie production and consumption rates for oil. Determine how many days left at current consumption rate until we consume all estimated worldwide oil reserves based on constant oil comsumption rate per person.
List of Web Resources Availalbe on topic:
US Population Data Website
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0774780.html
US Census
British Petroleum (Large Excel Data File Available)
http://www.bp.com/subsection.do?categoryId=95&contentId=2006480
Price of Barrel of Oil 1973 - 200
http://strata.geol.sc.edu/petroleum/petroleum.html
Location of World's Oil Reserveshttp://www.geocomplexity.net/Global_hydrocarbs.htm
Site dedicated to exploring the possibility of a pending oil crisis
Link to Analysis and Findings Page
- Based only on the oil reserves in the United States and current US oil consumption rates when would the US run out of oil if the US did not import any?
The US would run out of oil in 2010 based on current consumption rates and the oil reserves in the US.
- Deterine how much oil each person in the US uses per year? Has then value been stradily increasing, decreasing, or staying constant over the last 30 years?
Over the last thirty years the consumption of oil per person has been roughly constant at 15 barrels per year.
- How can you predict future oil comsumption in the united States for the next 50 years?
Based on out fit to the population data in the US from 1790 to 2002 we can predict population growth out to 2050. If we assume each person will use 15 barrels of oil per year we can calculate future oil consumption. (see analysis section above)
Below are questions that students or teachers may want to find answers for after completing the project.
- Who has the largest oil reserves and who uses the most oil?
- How much oil does the US import per year?
- Where does the imported oil for the US come from?
See http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/rankings/crudebycountry.htm - Based on worldwide oil reserves and consumption when should the world reach an oil crisis?
- What alternatives are available to decrese American's comsumption and depence on oil?