The Original Unit Plan as Presented for this Class Project:
Unit Title: Gardening and soil quality – the differences a zip-code can make!
Discipline: Biology
Grade: 9th or 10th Grade (Can be adapted and used by any grade 6-12 - see full list of standards)
Target School(s): Any where the population of Privileged Students is high. Ex. Glenbard West High School, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Approximate Duration - 3 (to 4) weeks. 1 week for introduction of topic and lab, 1 week locate, hypothesize, sample, and analyse soils from other locations, and 1 more week to put together all their learning and prepare for the final project.
Social Justice Goals/Rationale:
What is the purpose of this unit? To introduce students in a privileged area/school to the idea that their norm is not the norm of other populations within a very short distance (zip code analysis). To teach them that they can, and do, make a difference in how others’ lives are affected by their behaviors and how they see the world. To expand their ideas of how pollution affects different populations in different ways. To investigate if environmental in-justice exists (race, class, etc.) as well as the whys and how’s associated with that investigation.
Why is it important to teach in this context, discipline, or moment in time? This is an important lesson to learn as Paulo Freire suggests that the ruling class must also be liberated if society is to be made more just. (Freire, 1970/2000, p. 42). To teach privileged students that they are not the only ones on this earth, and that they MUST respect and treat ALL others with equity is tantamount to the ability of our society to finally find the freedom that true social equality allows. Privileged students tend to “become overwhelmed by the size and scope of the social problems [that surround them, and] reacted by deciding that the problems were unsolvable.” (Seider, 2009, p. 55). In order to teach our students to become an active and beneficial member of society, our students must first learn that they, of all people, are in the privileged position which would allow for them to enact change in their environments and institutions. We need to offer our privileged students education that will let them see the inequalities in the world around them and lead them to become empowered to change the current social narrative(s) to something that they would prefer. Without these sorts of lessons, our society will continue to be divided, only ever slowly moving toward the goal of equality in all things.
To ask, and answer, the question do we currently live in a state where the EPA definition of Environmental Justice (“Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.” (epa.gov, 2015)) Is practiced 100%? How? Why?
Stage 1 – Desired Results
Relevant Standard(s): Taken from - Next Generation Science Standards
http://www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards-dci?tid_1[]=14&field_idea_tid[]=115
MIDDLE SCHOOL STANDARD SET(S):
MS-LS2-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on cause and effect relationships between resources and growth of individual organisms and the numbers of organisms in ecosystems during periods of abundant and scarce resources.]
MS-LS2-2. Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on predicting consistent patterns of interactions in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships among and between organisms and abiotic components of ecosystems. Examples of types of interactions could include competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial.]
MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on recognizing patterns in data and making warranted inferences about changes in populations, and on evaluating empirical evidence supporting arguments about changes to ecosystems.]
MS-LS2-5. Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of ecosystem services could include water purification, nutrient recycling, and prevention of soil erosion. Examples of design solution constraints could include scientific, economic, and social considerations.
HIGH SCHOOL STANDARDS SET(S):
HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of human activities can include urbanization, building dams, and dissemination of invasive species.]
HS-LS1-2. Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on functions at the organism system level such as nutrient uptake, water delivery, and organism movement in response to neural stimuli. An example of an interacting system could be an artery depending on the proper function of elastic tissue and smooth muscle to regulate and deliver the proper amount of blood within the circulatory system.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include interactions and functions at the molecular or chemical reaction level.]
HS-LS1-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis. [Clarification Statement: Examples of investigations could include heart rate response to exercise, stomate response to moisture and temperature, and root development in response to water levels.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include the cellular processes involved in the feedback mechanism.]
Understanding(s):
Students will understand that: Health and environmental conditions are affected by things as small as the quality of the soil upon which your house or community are built. Health and environment are often negated for the betterment of business, political, and cooperate greed and need, especially in poor or highly diverse neighborhoods.
Essential Question(s)
Do we currently live in a state where the EPA definition of Environmental Justice (“Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.” (epa.gov, 2015)) Is practiced 100%? How? Why?
How does soil quality differ across zip-codes and why? How can we fix this?
What is soil quality? How does solid quality affect health of both individual populations and the ecosystem at large? What factors are at play in poor soil quality? What sorts of contaminates/chemicals occur in soils, naturally? Pollution? How can proper gardening affect soil quality? How do plants, in general, affect soil quality? How do toxins in soil transfer into plants and their consumers? How does the food chain work in this context?
Students will know:
How to test soils for pollutants, acidity, salinity, and absorption (etc.). They will be able to determine quality of soils based on test tube analysis and be able to recommend gardening/irrigation/additive techniques to improve soil quality. They will understand how plants take up and store nutrients and how that can affect plant consumers (including humans).
They will be able to analyze the health impacts on consumer populations whom use/consume plants grown in toxic soils.
Students will be able to:
Produce results from data analysis in charts, grids, maps, etc.
They will be able to understand the importance of soil in the environment, and feel empowered to change regulations regarding toxins fed into the environment by corps. Etc.
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Formative Assessments
Classroom participation in both lecture and lab aspects as well as student journals and lab notebooks, blog or classroom online forum participation, and quizzes based on the data analysis done in class.
Summative Assessment (Aligned to Justice-Oriented & Content-Specific EQs)
See Rationale part 2 for this – attached – community forum and presentation!
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Key readings/resources:
Learning Activities:
Discipline: Biology
Grade: 9th or 10th Grade (Can be adapted and used by any grade 6-12 - see full list of standards)
Target School(s): Any where the population of Privileged Students is high. Ex. Glenbard West High School, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Approximate Duration - 3 (to 4) weeks. 1 week for introduction of topic and lab, 1 week locate, hypothesize, sample, and analyse soils from other locations, and 1 more week to put together all their learning and prepare for the final project.
Social Justice Goals/Rationale:
What is the purpose of this unit? To introduce students in a privileged area/school to the idea that their norm is not the norm of other populations within a very short distance (zip code analysis). To teach them that they can, and do, make a difference in how others’ lives are affected by their behaviors and how they see the world. To expand their ideas of how pollution affects different populations in different ways. To investigate if environmental in-justice exists (race, class, etc.) as well as the whys and how’s associated with that investigation.
Why is it important to teach in this context, discipline, or moment in time? This is an important lesson to learn as Paulo Freire suggests that the ruling class must also be liberated if society is to be made more just. (Freire, 1970/2000, p. 42). To teach privileged students that they are not the only ones on this earth, and that they MUST respect and treat ALL others with equity is tantamount to the ability of our society to finally find the freedom that true social equality allows. Privileged students tend to “become overwhelmed by the size and scope of the social problems [that surround them, and] reacted by deciding that the problems were unsolvable.” (Seider, 2009, p. 55). In order to teach our students to become an active and beneficial member of society, our students must first learn that they, of all people, are in the privileged position which would allow for them to enact change in their environments and institutions. We need to offer our privileged students education that will let them see the inequalities in the world around them and lead them to become empowered to change the current social narrative(s) to something that they would prefer. Without these sorts of lessons, our society will continue to be divided, only ever slowly moving toward the goal of equality in all things.
To ask, and answer, the question do we currently live in a state where the EPA definition of Environmental Justice (“Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.” (epa.gov, 2015)) Is practiced 100%? How? Why?
Stage 1 – Desired Results
Relevant Standard(s): Taken from - Next Generation Science Standards
http://www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards-dci?tid_1[]=14&field_idea_tid[]=115
MIDDLE SCHOOL STANDARD SET(S):
MS-LS2-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on cause and effect relationships between resources and growth of individual organisms and the numbers of organisms in ecosystems during periods of abundant and scarce resources.]
MS-LS2-2. Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on predicting consistent patterns of interactions in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships among and between organisms and abiotic components of ecosystems. Examples of types of interactions could include competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial.]
MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on recognizing patterns in data and making warranted inferences about changes in populations, and on evaluating empirical evidence supporting arguments about changes to ecosystems.]
MS-LS2-5. Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of ecosystem services could include water purification, nutrient recycling, and prevention of soil erosion. Examples of design solution constraints could include scientific, economic, and social considerations.
HIGH SCHOOL STANDARDS SET(S):
HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of human activities can include urbanization, building dams, and dissemination of invasive species.]
HS-LS1-2. Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on functions at the organism system level such as nutrient uptake, water delivery, and organism movement in response to neural stimuli. An example of an interacting system could be an artery depending on the proper function of elastic tissue and smooth muscle to regulate and deliver the proper amount of blood within the circulatory system.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include interactions and functions at the molecular or chemical reaction level.]
HS-LS1-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis. [Clarification Statement: Examples of investigations could include heart rate response to exercise, stomate response to moisture and temperature, and root development in response to water levels.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include the cellular processes involved in the feedback mechanism.]
Understanding(s):
Students will understand that: Health and environmental conditions are affected by things as small as the quality of the soil upon which your house or community are built. Health and environment are often negated for the betterment of business, political, and cooperate greed and need, especially in poor or highly diverse neighborhoods.
Essential Question(s)
Do we currently live in a state where the EPA definition of Environmental Justice (“Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.” (epa.gov, 2015)) Is practiced 100%? How? Why?
How does soil quality differ across zip-codes and why? How can we fix this?
What is soil quality? How does solid quality affect health of both individual populations and the ecosystem at large? What factors are at play in poor soil quality? What sorts of contaminates/chemicals occur in soils, naturally? Pollution? How can proper gardening affect soil quality? How do plants, in general, affect soil quality? How do toxins in soil transfer into plants and their consumers? How does the food chain work in this context?
Students will know:
How to test soils for pollutants, acidity, salinity, and absorption (etc.). They will be able to determine quality of soils based on test tube analysis and be able to recommend gardening/irrigation/additive techniques to improve soil quality. They will understand how plants take up and store nutrients and how that can affect plant consumers (including humans).
They will be able to analyze the health impacts on consumer populations whom use/consume plants grown in toxic soils.
Students will be able to:
Produce results from data analysis in charts, grids, maps, etc.
They will be able to understand the importance of soil in the environment, and feel empowered to change regulations regarding toxins fed into the environment by corps. Etc.
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Formative Assessments
Classroom participation in both lecture and lab aspects as well as student journals and lab notebooks, blog or classroom online forum participation, and quizzes based on the data analysis done in class.
Summative Assessment (Aligned to Justice-Oriented & Content-Specific EQs)
See Rationale part 2 for this – attached – community forum and presentation!
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Key readings/resources:
Learning Activities: