Learning Goals and Standards
Part of the Ecology Disrupted Curriculum Collection.
Working through the "Winter Roads" unit, students will develop a deeper understanding of the following big ideas:
1. Ecological and Biological Concepts in the Context of Human Impact
- Abiotic and Biotic Factors
- An ecosystem is comprised of non-living (abiotic) and living (biotic) components.
- Changing abiotic factors of an ecosystem affects the living organisms (biotic factors) in the ecosystem.
- Water is essential to life
- Organisms need a clean water supply.
- Changing abiotic characteristics can make water inhospitable to life.
- Drinking water supplies are often located far from the cities that use them.
- Runoff
- Water circulates through natural and human-made environments.
- Water picks up man-made and natural materials as it moves across surfaces.
2. Human Impact in the Context of Daily Life
- The daily lives of people impact their surrounding environment.
- Daily activities can change abiotic factors of water, which can threaten water supplies.
- Human activity far away from a city can affect a city’s water supply.
3. Nature of Science
- Science is based on evidence, which take many forms and is referred to as data. Inference and conclusions are based upon data.
- Scientists are people who ask questions about the natural world and gather and interpret data to address those questions.
- Communication is central to science so that others can verify data and build upon research.
- Scientific research can help people learn about how daily life affects the natural world.
- Science is a human endeavor.
4. Data Representation
- Scientists use different tools to represent data.
- Scientific tools like graphs help scientists compare and interpret data.
- Some data representations are better than others based upon the needs of analysis and the type of data collected.