Geothermal energy and geographic location

What you'll need

• "Assessing potential locations" worksheet (one copy for each student)
• "Geothermal energy" handout (one copy for each pair of students)
• "Report summary" handout (one copy for each pair of students)

1. Organize your students into pairs and provide each group with a copy of the "Geothermal energy" handout. Briefly explore the graphic with students, reviewing how geothermal energy can be used to generate electricity.
2. Provide each student with a copy of the "Assessing potential locations" worksheet. Invite groups to use their understanding of geothermal energy and knowledge of B.C. to select three locations in the province that would be the best for future geothermal energy sites. Prompt groups to mark their initial decisions on their maps. 
3. Encourage groups to share their decisions and thinking with the class. As groups share, invite them to suggest the features or characteristics that a favourable location would possess. Prompt groups to note their suggestions at the top of the worksheet. 
4. Briefly explain that the challenge of this activity is to recommend three locations in B.C. that would be favourable for developing geothermal energy. 
5. Provide each group with a copy of the "Report summary" handout. Inform students that in 2016, Geoscience BC completed a report that assessed various geothermal sites across B.C. Review the criteria with students, and invite them to reflect on their initial decisions in light of the criteria. 
6. Ask your students to read the executive summary and to analyze the table at the end of the summary. Invite groups to suggest what characteristics might be common among the highly favourable sites, and any factors that prevented some sites from being considered favourable.  
7. Encourage students to use their observations to recommend three locations for future geothermal sites. Suggest that recommended sites can be in general regions (e.g., “within 150km of Kamloops”) and do not need to be specific locations (e.g., “50.6745° N, 120.3273° W”). 
8. Remind groups to use the criteria from the worksheet to guide the selection of their locations. Prompt groups to note any criteria and evidence that support their recommended sites in the appropriate column on the worksheet. Encourage groups to also record any criteria and evidence that would keep their sites from being viewed as favourable in the appropriate column. Groups could also use other sources of information to support their decisions. 
9. Invite groups to mark their locations on their maps. Prompt students to reflect on their original decisions, and to share their reasoning for how they arrived at their recommended locations. 
10. To conclude the activity, invite groups to reflect on the use of land for sustainable energy sources: 
    • What criteria or factors might be the most important to consider as B.C. searches for sustainable sources of energy?
    •  Which might be the most challenging to meet?