Environmental Science

Lessons

Standards - Scope and Sequence

Unit Focus:

Demographics of the human population, I=PAT equation and resource consumption, the effect of human population on the environment and biodiversity

Students will be able to:

  • Classify and define developed and developing countries
  • Discuss changes and reasons for changes in the human population over time
  • Calculate/predict future population demographics using data
  • Birth rates, death rates, total fertility rates, replacement level fertility, immigration, emigration
  • Describe the 4 stages of the demographic transition model
  • Analyze age structure diagrams to identify the stage of demographic transition of a county
  • Calculate percentage change in a population using birth rates and death rates
  • Analyze and predict impacts of the human population on the earth’s resources and biodiversity using the I=PAT equation
  • Describe possible methods/solutions to reduce human impact on the environment

Suggested activities:

Vernier Labs:
-Modeling Population Growth

Unit Focus:

Terrestrial biomes, energy flow and matter cycling in ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, interactions between abiotic and biotic factors

Students will be able to:

  • Identify the characteristics of major terrestrial biomes and their climate patterns
  • Describe the adaptations of living things in each terrestrial biome
  • Analyze climate diagrams
  • Distinguish between abiotic and biotic factors and their effects on an ecosystem
  • Explain energy flow within ecosystems using the first and second laws of thermodynamics
  • Explain matter flow in ecosystems: water cycle, carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle
  • Calculate energy flow in ecosystems using the 10% rule
  • Explain biomagnification and its effects on organisms
  • Describe symbiotic relations, keystone species and indicator species
  • Provide examples of ecosystem services provided by terrestrial biomes

Suggested activities:

Vernier Labs:
-Primary Productivity
-Eco column Investigations
-Water Cycle column investigations

Unit Focus:

Aquatic biomes, limiting factors in aquatic ecosystems, movement and availability of freshwater resources, Clean Water Act

Students will be able to:

  • Identify characteristics of major aquatic biomes
  • Explain how light, dissolved oxygen and nutrients limit life in aquatic ecosystems
  • Provide examples of ecosystem services provided by aquatic biomes
  • Describe a watershed and determine what factors create watershed boundaries
  • Describe how anthropogenic changes affect the movement of water in a watershed and in the biosphere
  • Analyze availability of freshwater resources worldwide
  • Evaluate competing interests for water resources and the role of water scarcity on local and global conflicts
  • Describe the events leading to the creation of the Clean Water Act
  • Identify the water quality standards required by the Clean Water Act

Suggested activities:

Vernier Labs:
-Water Quality
-Long Term Water Monitoring
-Investigation Dissolved Oxygen
-Biochemical Oxygen Demand
-The Effects of Acid Deposition on Aquatic Ecosystems

Unit Focus:

Importance of biodiversity for human survival, ecosystem services, economic services, conservation and resource management, ecological footprint

Students will be able to:

  • Identify the four components of biodiversity and explain their importance
  • Discuss the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem function
  • Analyze ecological services and economic services provided by biodiversity
  • Explain the importance of Maximum Sustainable Yield in resource management
  • Measure, calculate and compare the biodiversity of two populations using species richness and species evenness
  • Predict the effects of a decrease in biodiversity on human populations
  • Predict how the introduction of an invasive species could affect the biodiversity of a biome
  • Explain tragedy of the commons and provide real world examples
  • Describe conservation methods for endangered species
  • Identify the protections and requirement of the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the CITES treaty
  • Calculate ecological footprint and identify specific changes to reduce ecological footprint

Suggested activities:

Vernier Labs:
-Modeling Population Growth
-Biodiversity in Ecosystems

Unit Focus:

Types, sources and effects of water pollution, water quality tests, water pollution remediation, process and importance of sewage treatment

Students will be able to:

  • Describe the sources, environmental effects and human health effects of the major types of water pollutants
  • Differentiate methods of water quality testing: Dissolved oxygen, turbidity, fecal coliform, bioassessment, temperature and nitrate
  • Analyze data and draw conclusions about sources of water pollution
  • Predict changes to aquatic ecosystems when water pollutants are present
  • Explain possible solutions and prevention methods to the major types of water pollutants
  • Describe the steps of sewage treatment
  • Discuss the role of bacteria in the process of sewage treatment
  • Describe sludge and how it is used or disposed of
  • Explain the environmental and health effects if sewage treatment is unavailable

Suggested activities:

  • Benthic Macroinvertebrate bioassessment
  • Water Quality Index Test Kit
  • Virtual Field Trip: Waste Water
    Treatment Plant

Vernier Labs:
-Investigation Dissolved Oxygen
-Biochemical Oxygen Demand
-Water Treatment

Unit Focus:

Waste production and disposal by humans, environmental effects, methods and importance of reducing the production of MSW and hazardous waste

Students will be able to:

  • Explain the methods for disposal of MSW
  • Analyze the amount and types of waste that American’s dispose of in landfills
  • Describe environmental risks of landfills
  • Explain the role of bacteria in the production of methane gas in landfills
  • Explain how electricity is generated from methane produced in landfills
  • Evaluate the methods for hazardous waste disposal
  • Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain
  • Explain the 5 R’s of resource conservation
  • Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recycling
  • Provide examples of low waste approaches

Suggested activities:

  • Project Learning Tree: Resources and labs for waste and recycling

Vernier Labs:
-Decomposition Column Investigation

Unit Focus:

Soil composition, the role soil plays in ecosystem function, physical and chemical soil tests, soil conservation methods, modern agricultural practices and their environmental effects, toxicology and human health

Students will be able to:

  • Identify the 4 components of soil
  • Explain the role of physical and chemical weathering, climate and living things on soil formation
  • Distinguish between the different soil horizons and their characteristics
  • Explain the ecological and economic services provided by soil
  • Preform and analyze physical and chemical soil tests
    • Texture, permeability, porosity, pH, nutrients
  • Analyze soil quality based on soil test data
  • Describe major anthropogenic causes of poor soil quality and erosion
  • Describe possible soil conservation methods
  • Analyze the effect of the farming/food production industry before and after the Green Revolution
    • Fertilizers, erosion, pesticides and herbicides, energy use
  • Discuss techniques and technologies of farming and food production that would decrease environmental impacts
  • Evaluate the genetic diversity in the world’s food crops
  • Analyze worldwide eating habits, trends and discuss the environmental impacts of the trends
  • Define toxicology and discuss why it is important in human health
  • Design an experiment to determine the LD50 of a liquid substance on radish seeds
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of LD50 tests in predicting toxicological safety for humans

Suggested activities:

Vernier Labs:
-Soil Temperature
-Soil Salinity
-Soil pH
-Soil Moister
-Soil and Acid Precipitation
-Managing Garden Soil Moisture

Unit Focus:

Renewable and nonrenewable resources, types of mining and their environmental impacts, geological processes that form resources

Students will be able to:

  • Define major components and characteristics of the lithosphere
  • Explain how geologic processes impact earth’s cycles and systems
  • Explain how geologic processes form resources humans use
  • Compare mining techniques and technologies to extract resources from the lithosphere
    • Identify environmental impacts of mining
  • Describe how electrical energy is produced from nonrenewable and renewable resources: fossil fuels, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, solar PV and geothermal
  • Compare the environmental impact of burning coal, oil and natural gas to using nuclear, solar, wind and hydroelectric
  • Analyze the energy infrastructure in the US and world
  • Identify potential issues related to shifting to renewable resources in the future
  • Compare alternative fuel technologies

Suggested activities:

Vernier Labs:
-Fossil Fuel Energy
-Energy Conversion
-Insulation Study
-Wind Energy
-Solar Energy
-An Investigation of Passive Solar Heating

Unit Focus:

Climate and weather forces and patterns, components and characteristics of the atmosphere, types of air pollution, environmental and health effects of air pollution, causes and effects of climate change, and possible solutions to climate change

Students will be able to:

  • Describe major characteristics of the atmosphere
  • Describe mechanisms of wind and ocean currents
  • Identify the major air pollutants
  • Identify the sources of major air pollutants
  • Describe the environmental and health effects of major air pollutants
  • Explain the importance of ozone in the stratosphere and the impact of CFCs to ozone
  • Explain the mechanisms of the greenhouse effect and its importance to humans
  • Compare the global warming potential of greenhouse gasses
  • Describe the major environmental impacts of climate change
  • Predict the effects of climate change in the future
  • Analyze the direct and indirect measurements scientists use measure climate
  • Compare the costs and benefits of the major proposed climate change solutions

Suggested activities:

  • Ozone gumdrop modeling
  • How Nature Measures Climate Change
  • Greenhouse effect and Global Warming Investigation

Vernier Labs:
-Measuring Particulates
-A Pollution Study
-Investigating Indoor Carbon Dioxide Concentrations
-UV investigations
-Sunscreen Comparison