Fundamentals and Problems
Lesson One: Humanity's Impact on Earth's Four Spheres
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the Earth’s four spheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere), to help students think about how an exponentially increasing human population is impacting these spheres and the resources that the Earth provides, and to help them understand that the spheres have existed in balance until human intervention began. This lesson leads into lesson two by having students consider the resources at school as being an example of living out of balance with the four spheres.
Lesson Two: Introduction to Field Research and Audits
In order for students to more fully understand and appreciate the processes, protocols, infrastructure and solutions implemented at SMOE, the students first need to gain a better understanding of those that exist at their school site. As such, during this lesson students will be introduced to concepts of efficiency, field research, and audits, the process they will follow to conduct an energy, water, and waste audit at their school site, and webquests that will help them learn more about these areas.
Audit Tools:
Webquests
Lesson Three: On Campus Field Trips (Energy, Water, Waste, and Land Ecosystem Audits)
During lesson two, students were assigned an area of focus (energy, water, or waste), provided a webquest to learn more about that area, and were introduced to the tool that they will use to audit the school’s energy, water, or waste systems. During this lesson, students will perform the audit of their school using the assigned tool.
Audit Tools: