How do ecosystems respond to change?
Global Citizenship
Students will brainstorm ways that they can have a more positive impact on their local ecosystems.
Critical Thinking
Students will think critically throughout the unit about the positive and negative impacts that humans cause to the environment. Students will think critically about how chemicals in the environment can harm the human microbiome and ecosystem.
Responsibility
Students will learn to use lab equipment responsibly and safely so that the equipment can be used in the future. Students will responsibly participate in simulations so that all students have access to their education.
When new land forms, how are ecosystems formed over time?
What are the different types of succession and what does this process create?
How does pollution from humans affect the health of ecosystems and human health?
Students should be able to model both primary and secondary succession.
Students should be able to use research methods to create a poster that shows the causes of a particular type of pollution and its affects ecosystem and human health.
Students should be able to read and analyze a historical short story called Lobo King of Currumpaw by Ernest Seton Thompson. Students should be able to draw connections between the story and current events.
Scientific Modeling - Students use scientific modeling to collaborate on a hypothesis regarding the essential question. Students use scientific models to make meaning of phenomena.
Written and Oral Discourse - Students will communicate ideas and arguments through writing and through speech
Note taking - Students write key ideas in their lab notebooks so that they may use the resource on labs and other assessments.
Reading Comprehension - Students will read a historical story that articulates the early history of interactions between humans and wolves. Students will draw connections to wolf reintroduction today.
Differentiation:
Explicit instruction of expectations for answering questions in complete sentences (TTQA) on formative and summative assessments.
Explicit instruction on lab notebook setup and maintenance throughout the course.
Explicit instruction on reading articles, lab activity instructions, and textbook passages (Bold Words, Headings, Interpreting Diagrams and Charts).
Explicit reading instruction for a complex text. Instruction includes methods of annotation and use of context clues to define foreign vocabulary words.
Explicit instruction on how to use research methods to investigate a complex issue.
Reteach and recall material during the start of the lesson prior about previous concepts in order to develop memory skills and create future study material for exams.
Review activity and instruction on how to study for closed book exams. Students draw connections between concepts through a visual web of ideas.
HS-LS2-6. Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
[Our Hidden Google Drive Resource link]