Environmental science, interdisciplinary academic field that draws on ecology, geology, meteorology, biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics to study environmental problems and human impacts on the environment. Environmental science is a quantitative discipline with both applied and theoretical aspects and has been influential in informing the policies of governments around the world. Environmental science is considered separate from environmental studies, which emphasizes the human relationship with the environment and the social and political dimensions thereof. For example, whereas a researcher in environmental studies might focus on the economic and political dimensions of international climate-change protocols, an environmental scientist would seek to understand climate change by quantifying its effects with models and evaluating means of mitigation.

The image shows an owl pellet. Owls waste products, that they throw up, are great indicators of what organisms are located in an environment. Students get to disect them and produce charts on population totals.

Island biogeography leads to all sorts of unique environments! Islands often will have limited biodiversity, but are also home to all sorts of uniquely evolved organisms! 

Habitat fragmentation is extremely disruptive to organisms. Something as simple as a road can lead to massive disruptions to multiple populations.

Soil chemistry is incredibly important for us to study as it's literally the base for all organisms to feed off or grow from. Paying attention to the soil can allow us to learn more efficient ways to plant.

We only have one planet (currently) to live on and being able to utilize it effectively is of utmost importance. One of our favorite labs in this unit is "cookie mining" where students have to use tools to remove chocolate chips from their cookies without disrupting natural habitats! 

Another massive topic is the "Tragedy of the Commons." This is a reference to when there is a resource that appears in a public space, those who have access to it will use it in its entirety until it is gone forever. I think of the phrase, "A wise man plants a tree for the shade they'll never sit in" for this unit. We have to be forward thinkers to keep our future generations functional as well.

We learn quite a bit about renewable resources, energy usage in our own homes from common household products, and how we can set our planet up for a better future. The switch to renewable energy is happening, we just want to see it happen at a larger scale and faster!

We focus quite a bit on airborne particulates, ozone issues, and acid rain in this unit. These microscopic particulates, much like the smoke we have seen in recent years from the increase in forest fires due to climate change, have a massive impact on our respiratory systems.

Pollution is damaging to organisms in multiple ways. From the physical disruption to the home of an organism, to the endocrine disruption to the chemical balance of an organism, pollution is incredibly damaging. 

There may be no *hotter* topic on the planet currently than Climate Change. Human caused climate change has already caused immense pain and suffering not only to humans, but to organisms across the planet. We are currently experiencing a mass extinction on scale never before seen on the planet. Organisms are going extinct faster than ever and the science is clear... humans are the driver of this change. 

If you'd like a ton more info on this topic, see my "climate change" topic on the top of my google sites page.

One of the things I run into the most with climate deniers is the simple topic of misinformation. 

I often ask students to find scientific literature that is peer reviewed - don't get your information from a 1-2 sentence Tweet/Facebook/TikTok post - and to follow the science.