Mary Fabian, Science, Cato Middle College High School
Final Unit (PDF) Implementing Common Core Standards (PDF)
Synopsis
This curriculum unit integrates topics related to metamorphosis, biodiversity, and pollution. Often, the generic term “water quality” means little to students who have grown up in developed countries. This unit aims to teach students in a more visceral manner that the quality directly impacts every organism that drinks water or lives in it. The original design of the unit was to repeatedly weave the information about water quality through several units of AP Environmental Science by emphasizing its impact on metamorphic organisms. The unit contains a culminating capstone activity that requires students to synthesize the knowledge from all the different units and evaluate impact of multiple sources of contamination on metamorphic organisms. This curriculum unit includes background knowledge on metamorphosis, maintaining biodiversity, pollution, greenhouse gases and the atmosphere and this role in ocean acidification. This unit also includes strategies for engaging students in hands-on science activities. The intent of this unit is that each module can be used individually or as part of the whole, so that educators of different science courses and grade levels can tailor the content to utilize as much or as little as they need for their own classroom enrichment.
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