Blackout!
What would it be like during a blackout in a large city?Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. All rights reserved.
Students read news reports and first-person accounts to imagine what it would be like to be in a blackout in a large city. They follow news reports as if the event were unfolding in real-time and keep weblogs or journals of their experience as they imagine it, taking on different roles of people who live in the city or commute there to work. They use their journal accounts to create a play or screenplay that depicts what the August 2003 blackout was like for the people in the U.S. and Canada who experienced it. Although this activity is geared towards fifth-grade and older students, it could be easily adapted for younger students.
One of the biggest concerns for power company engineers is making sure everyone gets electricity when they need it. Detailed regional grid maps of power plant locations and distribution systems throughout the U.S. show the real-time demand and load changes by buildings and equipment as their connections to power plants are turned on and off. Sometimes damaged power lines cause interruption in power or blackouts. The regional grid maps help to determine where the damaged occurred and develop alternative routings so that electricity continues to be delivered to power companies' customers.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Use a full range of strategies to comprehend technical writing.
- Write stories, letters and reports with greater detail and supporting material.
- Choose vocabulary and figures of speech that communicate clearly.
- Draft, revise, edit and proofread for a legible final copy.