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Subject and grade level: Mixed-grade(9-12) Biology (Ecology)
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NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)
- Source: The National Research Council (NRC), the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve have completed a two-step process to develop the Next Generation Science Standards.
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Why NGSS?
- As I mentioned in the last activity, my school (science department in specific) is pushing the NGSS, because it is performance expectation based rather than content based. And a high-quality science education means that students will develop an in-depth understanding of content and develop key skills—communication, collaboration, inquiry, problem-solving, and flexibility—that will serve them throughout their educational and professional lives.
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Students Proficiencies
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SWBAT(Students Will Be Able To)
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- Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.
- Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity
- Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.
- Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
- Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity
Essential Question:
How do living and non-living things interact in the ecosystem?
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Assessments
- Role Play: students being a conservation ecologist give a speech/presentation about why we shouldn’t build a new factory in the town.
- A quiz about the key concepts and vocabulary about ecology.
- Video: students making a video with statistics and evidence to encourage a more environmental friendly way of life.
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Activities
- Field Trip to a nearby national reserve park with ecosystems
- Case study about ecology in action (Case study 1: Atmospheric Ozone, case study 2: North Atlantic Fisheries, case study 3: Climate Change)
- Web quest: students looking for information online to build data tables and graphs about the biodiversity of the area.
Reference:
- “Next Generation Science Standards”. org. N.p., 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
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