Curent Events

Picture used with permission from coopcoopbware

I believe keeping students up to date on world events is important, even in the non-social studies classroom - especially with large-scale, important events, like the current BP oil spill.

There are lots of resources available that teachers can introduce students to, which they can then explore further on their own, to learn more about the spill - here are the ones I think are the most informative as well as being appealing to students.

• BP's Official Website is currently brimming over with information about the spill and cleanup efforts. Unique information I found here were videos explaining the technology being used to try and stop the spill - just make sure to remind students that this information may be biased.
  
• The House Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has a multimedia, frequently updates press release on the spill that is almost as big as their name! At this site, students can find comprehensive coverage and a multitude of links detailing how the spill happened and current cleaup and stoppage efforts.
  
• Finally, we have the PBS/NPR Gulf Oil Tracker Widget, displayed below.

This widget not only displays the live video feed coming from the BP ROV at the site of the spill, but also has an adjustable estimated gallons leaked to date meter, which can be adjusted to accomodate the wide variety of estimates currently circulating.

You could present or explore these resources in class as much as you wanted - from devoting a whole class period to a brief overview in as little at 10 minutes. The important thing is that students can continue to explore these resources outside of the classroom.