Lesson Plan: Will Electric Cars Save the World? 

Essential Questions

• What do we think about when deciding which products to buy?
• How does what we know about a product change over time?

Literature Connection

• Nonfiction: The Way Things Work Now by David Macaulay
• Biography: Who Was Nikola Tesla? by Jim Gigliotti

Build Background Knowledge (10 minutes)

As a class, view our engaging video “Let’s Talk About Climate Change.” Briefly discuss the causes and effects of climate change mentioned in the video, as well as any other causes and effects that students can volunteer. Let students know that the article they’re going to read is about driving electric cars, which is one way to combat climate change.

Preview Text Features (15 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the article’s title and subtitle (the text beneath the title). Make a prediction: In what way might electric cars “save the world”? Why might they be important for the planet? Answers may vary. After viewing the climate change video, students will likely infer that electric cars, unlike gas-powered cars, don’t create conditions that lead to climate change.
• Look at the graph labeled “U.S. Electric Vehicle Sales, 2017-2021.” What does it tell you about how sales of electric vehicles have changed over the past few years? You can tell from the graph that sales of electric vehicles in the U.S. have grown a lot. From 2017 to 2021, they went from 100,000 to about 450,000. 

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the terms (global warming, particles, spews, maintenance, predict) aloud and discuss their definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading 

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading by telling students that the article “Will Electric Cars Save the World?” explains how electric vehicles (EVs) are good for the environment and how people are working to make these vehicles more popular.
• Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.
• Point out the activity at the end of the article, and tell students they will complete it after reading. Encourage them to briefly scan the questions and to keep them in mind as they read.

Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• According to the article, there used to be more electric cars than gas-powered ones. Why did that change? (cause and effect) When gas-powered cars improved and gas got cheaper, gas-powered cars became more popular and more common than electric ones.
• How do gas-powered cars create air pollution? (cause and effect) When you drive a gas-powered car, tiny particles of gasoline fly out into the air.
• How are today’s electric cars different from the electric cars of the early 1900s? (inference) According to the article, today’s electric cars have better batteries than the EVs of the early 1900s and can travel 200 miles or more on just one charge. Based on these details, you can infer that the electric cars of the early 1900s were not able to travel long distances on a single charge.

Critical-Thinking Question (5 minutes)

• Imagine that you’ve always driven a gas-powered car and don’t want to switch to electric. What would it take to change your mind: a clearer idea of how you’d be reducing air pollution, lower prices on EVs, or maybe the knowledge that EVs are quieter and need less maintenance? Explain which of these ideas you care about most and why. (making a personal connection) Answers will vary. 

3. Skill Building and Writing

• Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill activity at the end of the article.
• Go further: Assign students to work independently on our Summarizing Skill Builder, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
• Writing prompt: Imagine that your family is planning to buy a new car. Should it be an EV? Consider the pros (better for the environment, less maintenance, and so on) and the cons (more expensive, fewer places to power up, and so on). Then write a short, well-organized paragraph to let your family know why you think this is or is not the right time to get an EV.