Hydrofracking Pros & Cons: Arguing the Case

• In this activity, students will analyze and interpret information about hydrofracking from the American Petroleum Institute, Water Defense, and the National Institutes for Health. 
• This resource includes a lesson plan, a student handout, a student worksheet, and two video clips. 

Positives

• This lesson requires students to think critically about hydrofracking.
• This lesson does a good job of showing the difference between biased material and unbiased material.

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers must make a free account to use this resource.
• This handout will help students to understand how to analyze media messages.
• Teachers may want to research the sources to understand the different perspectives and biases. 
• The lesson plan refers to a "constructivist media decoding process," details about which can be found here. These materials will help teachers understand the goals and design of the lesson.

Differentiation

• Students could respond to the questions individually or in small groups before discussing the answers as a class.
• Students could create a commercial that explains the risks and the benefits of hydrofracking. After, students could reflect on the challenges of presenting balanced information without expressing their opinion.
• Other resources on this topic include this video on hydraulic fracturing, this TED video on using geothermal energy to power the world, and this video of a youth climate activist working to counter earthquake-inducing fracking in Ohio.

This resource provides insights on how to stem the impact of hydrofracking on the biosphere, human health, and the climate. The resource, including its procedure, is recommended for teaching.