Save the Earth, My 5th Graders!

So I've got a real, genuine quandry.  This is not a made-up 'doing-it-for-the-class' type of post.

I need to flesh out a rough idea I have for my fifth graders this marking period.  I'm their technology education teacher, and have had the idea that they could get into a project that focuses on environmentalism, but which hits on the ISTE standards at the same time.

I've got my plans set for my 4th graders.  6th, 7th, & 8th grades are all dialed in.  But I'm totally hitting a roadblock with 5th. 


Here's what I've got so far:

• I'm about to do two lessons on internet research, focusing on how to determine the relability of an information source. 
  
  
  
  Thoughts on this topic would be great, expecially in light of our ongoing discussion about the read/write web.  In the era of citizen journalism, how to determine veracity?
  
  
  
  
  
• I'm calling the project 'Earth 2060', and asking my 5th graders to imagine the earth in 50 years - within their lifetimes.  It's a place where non-renewable energy sources have been depleated, and new sources of energy have needed to be instituted. 
  
  
  
  
  
• I want them to work in small groups (I'm thinking groups of 3) to research select energy resources, including:
  
  
  
  
  
  • Wind
  • Solar
  • Geothermal
  • Nuclear
  • Hydroelectric
  • Coal
  • Natural Gas/Oil
  • Biomass
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
• At the end of the project, I'm anticipating that they will be able to:
• Pros and Cons of their energy source
• Defend the energy source they
  
  
  
  
  
• So, I'm asking myself:
  
  
  
  
  
  • What will my students be able to do at the end of this unit?
  • PowerPoint basics
  • Internet research basics
  • MS Word basics (table, list, insert picture, footnotes/endnotes)
  • Use citations
  • Articulate pros and cons for different types of energy
  • Read charts and analyze data!
  • Understand unfamiliar units of measurement (ex: Kwh)
    
    
    
    
    
  • What will student know at the end of this unit?
  • How different energy sources actually work.
  • Energy needs are projected to increase
  • There are tradeoffs for any type of energy (pros and cons)
  • Different websites and information sources have different agendas and points of view.
    
    
    
    
    
  • What will students produce to demonstrate their understanding?
  • A PowerPoint presentation about THEIR selected source of energy, it’s pros and cons, and the ability to argue for it in the face of other alternatives.
  • An accompanying paper articulating their main points.
  • Possible: Research the history of a given energy source, and be able to articulate the positive and hopeful discoveries, along with the discoveries of it’s dangers and negative attributes.
    
    
    
    
    
  
  

Here's what I need help with:

• The PowerPoint & Word skills are ones that I think are necessary at this stage - foundational skills that they can build and expand on in other classes and later in their academic career.  But they feel stultifying and dry.  How to pep them up?  (I'm thinking maybe of using voicestream as an extention for the PowerPoint - you can load a presentation right up in there...)
  
• Any one know of age appropriate resources for students to find this data?  I've been hunting, and so many resources are over their heads.

Something about this whole project feels incomplete.  I'm hoping by posting what I've got here, some of you might help me see what's missing.

Thanks, hive mind!