Environmental Science: Ecosystem Balance and the Human Impact
Syllabus
Course Essential Questions:
- How do natural systems function, and how do human activities impact their balance?
- What are the consequences of environmental changes, and how can we use scientific principles to help develop sustainable solutions?
- How can individuals, communities and governments work together, through a system-based approach, to restore ecosystem balance for an equitable and sustainable future?
Course Learning Objectives:
- Analyze environmental systems and explain the interactions that shape their stability and function.
- Apply systems thinking principles to evaluate human impacts on ecosystems and natural resources.
- Investigate and propose evidence-based, collaborative, and sustainable solutions to environmental problems that consider ecological, social and economic factors.
Unit 1: Foundations of Environmental Science (Weeks 1-3)
Unit Level Essential Questions:
- How are Earth's Systems interconnected, and what are the consequences of disrupting these connections?
- How do human actions contribute to environmental disruptions, and what are the long-term consequences of these disruptions?
Week 1: Introduction to Environmental Science
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Define environmental science and identify its interdisciplinary nature, including connections to biology, chemistry, geology, and social sciences.
- Describe Ecosystem services.
- Identify and explain examples of ecosystem services that impact our own lives.
- Explain how the scientific method is used to investigate environmental issues.
- Apply the Scientific Method to a case study example.
Week 2: Systems Thinking and Earth’s Interconnected Systems
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Define systems thinking and explain its importance in understanding environmental processes.
- Identify and describe the major Earth systems (atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere, cryosphere) and explain their interactions.
- Analyze and interpret simple system data models to explain environmental relationships.
- Analyze a local, real-world environmental issue from a systems perspective, identifying key components, interactions, and feedback loops.
Week 3: Resource Use & Human Impacts
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify shared resources within our environments.
- Differentiate between renewable and nonrenewable resources.
- Define what is meant by sustainability.
- List and explain at least 5 ways humans have impacted the environment.
- Calculate our ecological footprint and analyze our influence on the environment.
- Explain what is meant by the Tragedy of the Commons and provide a concrete example.
Unit 2: Ecosystem Dynamics and Biodiversity (Weeks 4-7)
Unit Level Essential Questions
- How does energy flow through ecosystems, and how do food webs and population dynamics contribute to ecosystem stability?
- What factors determine the characteristics and stability of different biomes, and how do species interactions and ecological succession influence ecosystem dynamics?
- How do biotic and abiotic factors regulate population growth, and what are the implications for ecosystem balance?
Week 4:Species Interactions
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify and explain interactions between species.
- Construct and interpret food webs and energy pyramids to illustrate the flow of energy through ecosystems.
- Analyze how disruptions in food webs (e.g., removal of a keystone species) can impact ecosystem stability.
- Calculate the efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels, using mathematical skills to understand energy flow.
Week 5: Biomes and Biodiversity
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Explain the benefits of variety.
- Identify and describe the major terrestrial and aquatic biomes, including the characteristic climate, vegetation, and animal life.
- Explain and analyze how biodiversity contributes to ecosystem resilience and stability?
- Use the Simpson Diversity Index to calculate biodiversity.
- Identify challenges faced by the different biomes.
Week 6: Changing Ecosystems
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify and compare the environmental threats of the biomes.
- Describe the processes of primary and secondary ecological succession, including the role of pioneer species and climax communities.
- Evaluate the role of disturbance in ecosystem dynamics and succession.
- Explain the science of climate change and the role humans have played in its progression.
- Use a virtual model to analyze boreal forest fires and identify the impacts of climate change.
Week 7: Population Dynamics & Regulation
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify and explain population distribution.
- Analyze and interpret population growth curves (exponential, logistic) and explain the factors that influence population growth rates.
- Identify and explain the roles of density-dependent and density-independent factors in population regulation.
- Compare and contrast different population growth strategies (e.g., r-selected vs. K-selected species), showing the different ways that species survive.
- Evaluate how changes in environmental conditions can affect population dynamics and ecosystem stability.
Unit 3: Human Population & Resource Use (Weeks 8-12)
Unit Level Essential Questions
- How does human population growth impact Earth's carrying capacity, and what are the potential consequences?
- How can we sustainably manage resources like land, water, and food to meet the needs of a growing population?
- What are the critical factors that influence the balance between human population, resource use, and environmental sustainability?
Week 8: Human Population Growth
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify the sources of our food and the unseen impacts on our ecological footprints.
- Explain how human population growth has changed over time.
- Identify historical events that have impacted human population growth.
- Create a 3D model of an age-structure pyramid for two different countries.
- Identify and describe the demographic transition.
- Discuss the basic causes and effects of the Green Revolution.
Week 9: Land Use & Urbanization
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify and describe the trends and patterns of urbanization and the environmental impacts.
- Analyze the effects of different land use practices on ecosystems.
- Analyze real scientific data to explore the impact of urbanization on watersheds.
- Explain and provide examples of urban evolution.
- Analyze historical imagery to identify changes in land use.
Week 10: Agriculture
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify solutions to land use impacts.
- Explain the significant environmental, social and economic complexities that have emerged along side industrial agriculture.
- Analyze sustainable farming practices.
- Evaluate data and draw conclusions about a real-world attempt at increasing biodiversity within agricultural fields.
- Work as a team to propose and evaluate solutions for increasing food production while minimizing environmental impact.
Week 11: Soil & Water Management
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify common themes and challenges in agriculture and explain which sustainable solutions have potential for improving the environmental impact.
- Explain why soil and water are critical resources.
- Identify the ways that humans have negatively impacted soil and water.
- Describe methods humans can use to improve soil and water management practices.
- Identify the reasons for the Global Water Crisis.
- Research and present effective water management strategies that can offer sustainable solutions.
- Actively contribute to the team project to create a sustainable community.
Week 12: Food Security
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Identify areas where we waste food and its significance in relation to global food security.
- Analyze our actions and government actions in respect to food waste and security.
- Explain the cause of food insecurity and why it matters.
- Identify and provide examples of the factors that impact one's food security.
- Identify the reasons for the Global Water Crisis.
- Research and present effective water management strategies that can offer sustainable solutions.
- Actively contribute to the team project to create a sustainable community.
Unit 4: Environmental Equity, Policy & the Future (Weeks 13-15)
Unit Level Essential Questions
- How do social structures and economic systems create and perpetuate environmental injustices, and what actions can be taken to ensure a more equitable and sustainable future for all?
Week 13: Environmental Justice
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Analyze the water problems and discuss the sustainability of potential solutions.
- Explain what is meant by environmental justice.
- Identify examples of environmental justice.
- Analyze case studies to examine the impacts of environmental justice, and propose solutions.
- Actively contribute to the team project to create a sustainable community.
- Prepare for the final exam.
Week 14: Environmental Economics
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Define key economic concepts related to environmental issues.
- Explain how market failures can lead to environmental degradation.
- Identify steps companies are taking to improve their economic sustainability.
- Act as environmental economists to identify hidden costs, analyze market failures and propose some creative policy solutions.
- Actively contribute to the team project to create a sustainable community.
- Prepare for the final exam.
Week 15: Our Environmental Future
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Predict how you think our environmental future will look like.
- Provide feedback to others on the Blueprint for Sustainability project.
- Reflect on the group project and what you've learned.
- Take an exam to demonstrate your knowledge.
- Provide feedback to VHS Learning.