Sustainable Energy Activity/Discussion using Compass Points

Sustainable Energy?

I started with the questions: 
If an energy source is renewable does that make it sustainable?
If an energy source is nonrenewable, does that make it unsustainable? 

The students were fairly divided in their response and brought up some good arguments for both sides.   Which led in to the task at hand.

We created these compass point posters (N-Nature, S-Society, W-Wellbeing, E-Economics) for each energy source we have been studying.  The wrote pros (green) and cons (red) in each section.  The discussions that happened during and after this lesson were much deeper.  Students began to think about sustainability as a continuum.  Rather than is it sustainable, we should ask "HOW sustainable is it?".  I love how the Compass Points (from Compass Education) really get the students thinking holistically about a topic and the conversations they spark.