Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Record High Gas Prices Await Memorial Day Travelers, 05/26/04
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june04/oil_5-26.html

Initiating Questions:

1. How much does it cost you or your parents to fill up your car's gas tank?
2. What do you think drives the price of gasoline in the United States?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. How might increasing gasoline prices affect the economy?

These price hikes have people worried that consumer spending, the largest measure of how well the economy is doing, could be affected. Economists say that if Americans have to spend more money on gas, they'll have less money to spend on other goods and services and as gas prices go up so do the cost of things like food and other products.

2. What affects the price of gasoline?

The high cost of gasoline is driven by increases in the cost of crude oil - oil in its most natural form - and the current trend in rising oil prices can be attributed in part to high demand around the world. For instance, during the upcoming summer vacation season in the United States, families will use their cars for long trips and require more gas.

Prices also are affected by shortages of crude oil at refining plants that turn it into gas and other products and by uncertainty in the Middle East, where a majority of the world's oil is produced, over the political upheaval in Iraq and terrorist threats elsewhere.

3. Is Iraq a major oil producing country?

In Iraq, the fourth highest producer of oil in the world, oil production has been slow to recover after more than a decade of war and continued acts of vandalism and sabotage.

4. How might rising gas prices affect individual Americans?

Here at home, increases in gas prices may only affect the individual driver by a few dollars and may affect home heating bills, but the largest cost could be the indirect cost of food and other goods.

Because many American cities rely on cross-country truck drivers to deliver their goods, if the cost of gas for an 18-wheeler that uses between 50 and 100 gallons of fuel goes up, the cost to the driver goes up and eventually leads to higher prices for the consumer.

5. What is OPEC and how does it manipulate gasoline prices?

In order to control rising gas prices, U.S. officials have approached OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC's 11 member countries provide most of the world's crude oil.

In a classic supply and demand scenario, if OPEC countries were to increase their oil production and the demand for gas stayed the same, the price of gas would go down.

6. What might people do to save money on gas?

That increase, however, takes time to affect the cost of gas at the pump, since it must first be refined, so prices are expected to continue rising. In the meantime, Americans can try other methods to save on their gas bill:

• Drive the speed limit - according to the U.S. Department of Energy, driving faster than the speed limit uses more gas. Each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional 10 cents per gallon.
• Keep your car in shape - a good tune-up can increase gas mileage by 4.1 percent.
• Use public transportation or carpool.
• When purchasing a car, select one that gets the best gas mileage

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Research OPEC and how its activities affect the oil industry? Why might the organization decide to decrease its oil output? How does lower oil production benefit its member countries?

2. What are the political ramifications of high gasoline prices? Can high gas prices affect the outcome of the November presidential election? What do you think Pres. George Bush should do, if anything, to remedy the situation?

3. What kind of car do you or your parents drive? How many miles to the gallon does it get? Do you think your car helps the environment by using less gas or contributes to the high demand for oil?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.