Applied Ecology - Rough Unit Plan for EdTEch 541 Social Media
Instructor: Wendi Straub
Overview: We are fortunate to live in a technology-rich industrialized nation with a significant percentage of our population accustomed to an exceptionally high standard of living. Most of our population has ready access to clean water, good sanitation, adequate shelter, reliable food sources and more entertainment than we have time to use. However, Americans are also embarrassingly high consumers of energy and resources and producers of pollution, garbage and toxic waste. Can we continue to live in the manner to which we have become accustomed? Do our wants and wealth give us the right to more than our fair share?
In this unit, students will use a variety of research and social media tools to develop basic knowledge about ecology and sustainability, and address one ecological challenge with global consequences by raising awareness about the situation and recommendations for resolution through a social media campaign.
This 4-5 week unit is designed to integrate ecology, digital literacy and bioethics in a comprehensive unit. Students should have prior knowledge about scientific inquiry, basic biochemistry and cellular structure and organization. It is designed for high school students in environmental science, but also suitable for honors biology or AP biology.
Standards Addressed:
Idaho Science Content Standards (2012) (http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/content_standards/science_standards.htm ).
Objectives
Ecology Science Content
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to
Learning Activities
1. Create Ecology Wiki to serve as digital learning resource to collaboratively develop foundational knowledge about
Overview: We are fortunate to live in a technology-rich industrialized nation with a significant percentage of our population accustomed to an exceptionally high standard of living. Most of our population has ready access to clean water, good sanitation, adequate shelter, reliable food sources and more entertainment than we have time to use. However, Americans are also embarrassingly high consumers of energy and resources and producers of pollution, garbage and toxic waste. Can we continue to live in the manner to which we have become accustomed? Do our wants and wealth give us the right to more than our fair share?
In this unit, students will use a variety of research and social media tools to develop basic knowledge about ecology and sustainability, and address one ecological challenge with global consequences by raising awareness about the situation and recommendations for resolution through a social media campaign.
This 4-5 week unit is designed to integrate ecology, digital literacy and bioethics in a comprehensive unit. Students should have prior knowledge about scientific inquiry, basic biochemistry and cellular structure and organization. It is designed for high school students in environmental science, but also suitable for honors biology or AP biology.
Standards Addressed:
Idaho Science Content Standards (2012) (http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/content_standards/science_standards.htm ).
- Goal 1.1: Understand Systems, Order, and Organization
- Goal 1.2: Understand Concepts and Processes of Evidence, Models, and Explanations
- Goal 1.3: Understand Constancy, Change, and Measurement
- Goal 1.8: Understand Technical Communication
- Goal 3.2: Understand the Relationship between Matter and Energy in Living Systems
- Goal 5.1: Understand Common Environmental Quality Issues, Both Natural and Human Induced
- Goal 5.2: Understand the Relationship between Science and Technology
- Goal 5.3: Understand the Importance of Natural Resources and the Need to Manage and Conserve Them
Objectives
Ecology Science Content
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to
- Apply digital literacy skills to collaboratively curate reliable knowledge about ecology to create a classroom wiki resource.
- Define ecology and levels of ecology from organism to biosphere.
- Describe how elements on earth cycle among the living and nonliving components of the biosphere
- Explain how energy is transferred from the sun via photosynthetic organisms to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers
- Explain how organisms cooperate and compete in ecosystems.
- Explain the relationships between population growth, carrying capacity and limiting factors.
- Predict changes in the distribution and abundance of organisms when matter, energy or the recycling capacity of ecosystems are altered.
- Compare renewable and non-renewable resources
- Distinguish between consumption and over-consumption of renewable resources
- Define sustainability
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to
- Explain how humans modify ecosystems (physical, chemical and biological) due to population growth, technology and consumption
- Measure and compare measurements of environmental quality in water, soil or atmosphere.
- Compare ecological footprints from multiple sources and relate that knowledge to place-based factors.
- Develop criteria for determining which issues are global in scope
- Develop a rationale for including local and global perspectives in problem solving
- Explain how science and technology are interrelated to meet human needs while both solving and creating complex problems as human change natural processes.
- Relate science and technology to social, economic and cultural processes.
- Apply knowledge of basic concepts and principles of science and technology and creativity to define cause and effect, assess potential outcomes and brainstorm solutions for an environmental issue.
- Design and implement a social media plan to effectively raise awareness for an environmental issue
Learning Activities
1. Create Ecology Wiki to serve as digital learning resource to collaboratively develop foundational knowledge about
- interactions between organisms and their environment (levels of ecology, habitats and basic needs, niches, predator – prey, competition, cooperation, etc.)
- transfer of energy and matter through nonliving and living systems (food chains, food webs, ecological pyramids, biogeochemical cycles, etc.)
- population and community dynamics in a natural ecosystem (population growth, carrying capacity, limiting factors, environmental change and biodiversity, etc.)
- renewable and nonrenewable resources, overconsumption and sustainability
Students will engage in structured lessons including tutorials online and in the classroom, create a food chain and ecological pyramid, simulate population growth, complete formative assessments, etc. to acquire resources to build shared wiki in each classroom. Ideally, once classroom wiki’s have reached maturity, cross-classroom evaluation through digital comments can occur and revisions be made.
2. Conduct classroom discussion to brainstorm our own environmental needs and the positive and negative impacts of human activities on the environment. Guide students to refine knowledge of renewable v non-renewable resources, consumption v overconsumption and sustainability.
Students should develop criteria for determining what makes an issue global in scope and then brainstorm, categorize, and prioritize the interconnections among the issues and explore solutions. This discussion should help generate engagement and gather information about student interests and concerns that will drive the next set of learning opportunities.
3. Set up ePals collaboration with another classroom in a different country; or if that is not feasible, a community with a significantly different economic/resource base, population size, or biome. For example, Idaho Falls is suburban/agricultural, pop.~ 50,000 surrounded by plentiful temperate forest resources and small communities, so a very urban area with a high population or manufacturing base, or a coastal community would provide contrasting lifestyles. Once established, ePals could be employed in so many productive ways.
2. Conduct classroom discussion to brainstorm our own environmental needs and the positive and negative impacts of human activities on the environment. Guide students to refine knowledge of renewable v non-renewable resources, consumption v overconsumption and sustainability.
Students should develop criteria for determining what makes an issue global in scope and then brainstorm, categorize, and prioritize the interconnections among the issues and explore solutions. This discussion should help generate engagement and gather information about student interests and concerns that will drive the next set of learning opportunities.
3. Set up ePals collaboration with another classroom in a different country; or if that is not feasible, a community with a significantly different economic/resource base, population size, or biome. For example, Idaho Falls is suburban/agricultural, pop.~ 50,000 surrounded by plentiful temperate forest resources and small communities, so a very urban area with a high population or manufacturing base, or a coastal community would provide contrasting lifestyles. Once established, ePals could be employed in so many productive ways.
- Have all students determine their ecological footprint at http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/ and post to collaborative ePals project site. Students in each class should generate class averages for both groups. Students compare their individual to both class averages.
- Have students use a classroom skype to discuss possible reasons for classroom discrepancies and what they think the footprints says about them or their community.
- Extend the human issues discussion to the Epals classroom. Are we concerned about the same issues, why or why not?
4. Develop and implement a social media campaign to raise awareness about a global problem.
a. Have students consider what they want the world to be like in the future and choose 3-5 issues that they think are the most pressing: examples include climate change, food production, water quality/availability, pollution, overpopulation, habitat degradation/ destruction, biodiversity loss, or other relevant topics generated in discussion.
b. Students choose or are assigned (randomly or non-randomly) to a collaborative group addressing one of the topics selected.
c. Research using the following Issue Analysis Tool (Source: McKeown-Ice, R. and Dendinger, R. 2008. Teaching, learning, and assessing environmental issues. Journal of Geography, Vol. 107 pp. 161-166).
d. A Facebook page, Weebly site, Edublogs, or other public host will act as the launch site for the topic. Students use their analysis to inform readers of problem in an engaging format including a description of the issue, who is impacted and where, links to reliable evidence from science about cause and effect and potential solutions, plus at least two creative personal or community actions of their own.
e. Students will also need employ at least two other social tools for a period of 10 days to increase exposure of their launch site: Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, Digg, Delicious, Google Plus+. They must start one unique thread (hashtag, circle, video channel, board/bookmark) and participate in one related existing thread and link to their launch page.
a. Have students consider what they want the world to be like in the future and choose 3-5 issues that they think are the most pressing: examples include climate change, food production, water quality/availability, pollution, overpopulation, habitat degradation/ destruction, biodiversity loss, or other relevant topics generated in discussion.
b. Students choose or are assigned (randomly or non-randomly) to a collaborative group addressing one of the topics selected.
c. Research using the following Issue Analysis Tool (Source: McKeown-Ice, R. and Dendinger, R. 2008. Teaching, learning, and assessing environmental issues. Journal of Geography, Vol. 107 pp. 161-166).
- What are the main historical and current causes (i.e. physical/biotic, social/cultural or economic) of the issue?
- What are the geographic scale, the spatial distribution and the longevity of the issue?
- What are the major risks and consequences to the natural environment?
- What are the major risks and the consequences to human systems?
- What are the economic implications?
- What are the major currently implemented or proposed solutions?
- What are the obstacles to these solutions?
- What major social values (e.g. economic, ecological , political, aesthetic) are involved in or infringed on by these solutions?
- What group(s) of people would be adversely impacted by or bear the cost of these solutions?
- What is the political status of the problem and solutions?
- How is this issue interrelated with other issues?
- What is a change you can make or have made in your daily life to lessen the issue?
- Beyond daily changes, what next steps could you take to address the issue?
d. A Facebook page, Weebly site, Edublogs, or other public host will act as the launch site for the topic. Students use their analysis to inform readers of problem in an engaging format including a description of the issue, who is impacted and where, links to reliable evidence from science about cause and effect and potential solutions, plus at least two creative personal or community actions of their own.
e. Students will also need employ at least two other social tools for a period of 10 days to increase exposure of their launch site: Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, Digg, Delicious, Google Plus+. They must start one unique thread (hashtag, circle, video channel, board/bookmark) and participate in one related existing thread and link to their launch page.
Assessment: formative assessments during wiki
development, participation in discussions, project rubrics for group
issue analysis, launch site and social threads
Extensions:
Extensions:
- Collaborate with ePals classroom on social media campaigns - mirror projects or additional topics
- Use ePals students to monitor effectiveness of campaign outside of community or to advance dissemination
- Design and conduct an experiment that examines the effect of a human generated pollutant related to their topic on a living organism or system
- track hits/likes etc. over school year
- Center for Ecoliteracy. (2010). Philosophical Grounding. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from http://www.ecoliteracy.org/teach/philosophical-grounding.
- Center for Economic Education at Virginia Tech (2003). The Curriculum - Volume 2: High School. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from http://susdev.agecon.vt.edu/curriculum.htm.
- Facing the Future. (2008). Global Sustainability Lesson Finder. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from http://www.facingthefuture.org/sitemap.aspx.
- Sørensen, L. (2013). Sustainability | An Open Access Journal from MDPI. Retrieved from http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability.
- Wright, S. (2011). Life in a inquiry driven, technology-embedded, connected classroom: English. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from http://plpnetwork.com/2011/11/30/life-in-a-inquiry-driven-technology-embedded-connected-classroom-english/.