Assess the effectiveness of innovative methods of protecting the environment.
| Name |
Description |
| The Surprising World of Complex Systems | This lesson introduces students to complex systems and to basic concepts from the field of system dynamics that lie at the heart of systems thinking. These concepts include stocks and flows, feedback loops, unintended consequences, and the basic principle that the behavior of complex systems can best be understood by looking at the system as a whole, and specifically by analyzing the system’s underlying structure. The lesson introduces these topics through an immersion in (and a role-play simulation of) the dynamics of urban recycling systems, many of which have been thrown into crisis in the past two years. Through this current-affairs example of complex systems in crisis, we identify some key structural features that help to explain how these systems behave over time. We also discover how well-intentioned action can cause negative unintended consequences when we try to intervene in a complex system without understanding how it operates. |
| Gr 9-12. Water Use and Society, Lesson 3: A Question of Quality | Students will learn about water quality management for the Everglades and will analyze sample data from a Stormwater Treatment Area. |
| Gr 9-12. Everglades Restoration, Lesson 2: Our Changing Watershed | Students will read a passage from Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s The Everglades: The River of Grass and compare the description with the present day Everglades. They will then look at the impacts from the US Army Corps of Engineers project and evaluate whether the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) addresses these issues. |
| Gr 9-12. Everglades Restoration, Lesson 3: A Look at CERP | Students will analyze information about various current and ongoing CERP projects and report on the progress that is being made. |
| Gr 9-12. Water Use and Society, Lesson 2: A Question of Quantity | Students will look at a typical water conservation plan and analyze it from the viewpoint of various stakeholders. |
| Bioremediation: Nature's Way to a Cleaner Environment | In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. This article explains how bioremediation takes place via microorganism digestion of toxic waste generated by human activity. Students will learn how this process occurs naturally and how this natural process has been researched and is now utililized to clean up spills of certain hazardous substances. This lesson includes a vocabulary guide, a Cornell Notes note-taking guide, text dependent questions, and a writing prompt, along with answer keys and a writing rubric. |
| Forests of the Living Dead | In this lesson, students will read a National Science Foundation article that discusses a 200-year study into the mortality of forests. The process of decomposition and the importance of decaying wood in a forest are explained in great detail. The research described has altered and changed the management plans for forest ecosystems worldwide.
This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. It includes a note-taking guide, a vocabulary guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. |
| Looking for the Loris | In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research and efforts by scientists to save the slow loris from extinction. It discusses the complexity of conservation today and details how there are many different layers that need to be addressed on this issue. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. |
| Save Our Planet Now! | The students will create a book containing information about the cause and effect of global warming. The book will include possible solutions to reduce pollution to help Save Our Planet Now! The students will research and record information regarding the impact of fossil fuels on the environment. |
| Dangerous Fog | In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The text discusses the presence of monomethyl mercury in California sea fog and how it is affecting nearby terrestrial environments. The article further explains the research that was conducted and discusses future studies. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. |
| Homestead Farming: Saving Money and Forests in Bangladesh | This lesson plan is intended to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will read an informational text that describes how people in Bangladesh are using homestead farming to provide for their families, while simultaneously contributing to preserving local forests. With the help of USAID, farmers are using higher-yielding seeds and cultivating crops using organic fertilizers and composting. The demand for food grown without pesticides and nourished by compost helps the homestead farmers to make enough money to improve their standard of living, while helping the environment at the same time. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. |
| Flexing Their Mussels | In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text examining scientists' studies of freshwater mussels in an attempt to develop methods for saving threatened species. Students will learn of the researchers' hope to be able to use other species that cohabitate local ecosystems to restore the threatened species. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included. |
| Methods of Protecting Coral Reefs | This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. Students will read a short but complex article that describes the expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (a type of marine protected area) and the benefits of MPAs. The article identifies threats to coral reefs and how creating an MPA can help the coral reefs within this protected area and reefs in adjoining areas as well. The text provides some background information on how similar programs have helped other protected reefs near the Philippines, and both local and global threats to coral reef ecosystems are referenced. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. |
| Not-So-Friendly Spider Venom May Be Used as Earth-Friendly Pest Control | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will analyze a text that addresses the environmental problems caused by insecticides and explains how compounds (toxins) in spider venom may be used to selectively eliminate crop-destroying insects while leaving other insects, vertebrates, and the environment unharmed. |
| Finding the Light in a Jaguar Conservation Challenge | In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses an innovative conservation method designed to protect jaguars in Colombia. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how predation of domestic cattle by jaguars in Colombia was becoming increasingly common due in part to deforestation. A conservation program was implemented to create a corridor for jaguars to pass through, keeping the jaguars separated from the farms and livestock and allowing them a natural pathway to cross through the Andes Mountains to eastern Colombia. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included. |
| Save Our Dunes | Save Our Dunes is a literature-based research project suitable for 9-12 marine science or environmental science students. The lesson requires approximately 160 min. as well as computers/ internet access/ a printer. Students are guided through a series of brainstorming activities about the types of natural events and human activities that could affect dune ecosystems.
Students discuss the importance of dunes and what might happen if some dune organisms disappeared. Students then research background texts and use the research to create and defend a unique dune management plan. |
| It’s Not Waste—It’s Matter! | It's Not Waste—It's Matter is an MEA that gives students an opportunity to review matter, their physical properties, and mixtures. The MEA provides students to work in teams to resolve a real-life scenario creating a design method by which recyclable products are separated in order to further process.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Preserving Our Marine Ecosystems | The focus of this MEA is oil spills and their effect on the environment. In this activity, students from a fictitious class are studying about the effects of an oil spill on marine ecosystems and have performed an experiment in which they were asked to try to rid a teaspoon of corn oil from a baking pan filled with two liters of water as thoroughly as possible in a limited timeframe and with limited resources. By examining, analyzing, and evaluating experimental data related to resource usage, disposal, and labor costs, students must face the tradeoffs that are involved in trying to preserve an ecosystem when time, money, and resources are limited. |
| Community Energy Wars | Students will discuss the costs and benefits of a variety of energy projects in a local area.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Clean Park - Environmental MEA | The environmental conditions in parks can influence the availability of food, light, space, and water and hence affect the growth and development of animals. It can become worse and lead to endangerment and extinction of various species. The following are areas in nature that can be affected: lakes, plants, animal life in and outside of water and many more.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| Name |
Description |
| Bioremediation: Nature's Way to a Cleaner Environment | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. It is designed to introduce the ideas and the research history of bioremediation studies performed by the USGS scientists. This text begins with an environmental spill and moves into the progress gained in cost effective and safe cleanup of toxic substances from the environment using research completed by the USGS. |
| Rangers Use Artificial Intelligence to Fight Poachers | This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text discusses the design of an artificial intelligence (AI) technology called PAWS that was designed as a tool to help wildlife officials stop poachers. PAWS uses data about previous poaching activities and analyzes the data to create smart and efficient routes for wildlife officers to use while looking for poaching activity. |
| Mercury-Laden Fog Swirls over Coastal California, Scientists Find | This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research conducted on the amounts of methyl mercury found in fog samples. Two different studies were conducted, and both indicate that fog is a major contributor and source of the presence of methyl mercury in an inland environment. |
| Organic Fruit and Veggies Help This Farmer-Mom Save Money and Forests in Bangladesh | This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how people in Bangladesh are using homestead farming to provide for their families, while simultaneously contributing to preserving local forests. With the help of USAID, farmers are using higher-yielding seeds and cultivating crops using organic fertilizers and composting. The demand for food grown without pesticides and nourished by compost helps the homestead farmers to make enough money to improve their standard of living, while helping the environment at the same time. |
| Genetics Provide New Hope for Endangered Freshwater Mussels | This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article explains the impact of scientists’ studies on a number of freshwater mussel species and their genetic makeup. The intent of the research was to find ways of protecting threatened and endangered species of mussels. The article explains that the genetic similarities of species that cohabitate a river could lead to development of new methods of protecting mussel species. |
| Jaguar Corridor Lights Up Eastern Colombia | This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how predation of domestic cattle by jaguars in Colombia was becoming increasingly common due in part to deforestation. A conservation program was implemented to create a corridor for jaguars to pass through, keeping the jaguars separated from the farms and livestock and allowing them a natural pathway to cross through the Andes Mountains to eastern Colombia. |
| Good News and Bad News for Coral Reefs | This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. Through discussion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the central Pacific, this text offers perspective on how political factors can greatly influence ecology. The article explains some of the benefits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) like the Marine National Monument, which often include pristine coral reefs and exceptional biodiversity, using the example of MPAs in the Philippines. It also briefly describes global threats to MPAs. |
| Spider Venom Could Yield Eco-Friendly Insecticides | This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. A biochemist is studying spider venom to see if it can be used to control agricultural pests. The venom is harmless to vertebrates but kills insects that may kill crops. If successful, the spider venom could be used to replace chemical pesticides that are harmful to humans, wildlife, and the environment. In addition, insects that destroy crops are becoming resistant to these chemical insecticides but would not be resistant to bioinsecticides. |
| Introduced Species: The Threat to Biodiversity & What Can Be Done | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Invasive species are a global threat to biodiversity for many reasons. This article outlines the scope of the problem, explaining how invasive species are impacting native flora and fauna and offering potential solutions to prevent their spread. |
| Peru Billboard Doubles Up as an Air Purifier | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Students at a university in Peru have erected a billboard near a construction site that filters air. It uses water to rid the air of pollutants like dust, bacteria, and even metal particles. This innovative billboard purifies the same amount of air as 12,000 trees! The billboard uses recycled air and takes little energy to work. The embedded video shows the impact on the construction workers who are near the billboard. |
| Tough Decisions on the Front Line of Nature Conservation | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article expresses its author's opinion about culling animals in zoos, which is reducing a population by selective slaughter. The argument supports the idea of culling as a way to control inbreeding and to control the breeding of animals that will not help the species stay adaptable and immune to diseases. |
| Cool Jobs: Planet Protectors | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists are looking into newer, futuristic technologies to help humans do less damage to our environment. This article focuses on three very exciting solutions—leafy walls, water conservation, and solar cells—that are close to becoming realities. |
| Cultured Beef: Do We Really Need a $380,000 Burger Grown in Petri Dishes? | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the way scientists have created the first lab-grown meat and the possible implications of this new technology. An infographic and video are included that add significantly to the content. |
