BIODIVERSITY
Unit Outline
 By Maria Fleyshgakker

I am a Science teacher at Martha Neilson School, which is one of the schools for pregnant and parenting services. All my students are girls who are either pregnant or have very young, under 18 months old, babies. I teach Foundations of Science, Biology, and Earth Science. I decided to concentrate the topics I teach around solving problems of our environment. I believe that by trying to solve some problems my students will learn Biology, or Earth Science and be ready for the Regents Test. I also believe that my students will be better prepared for life, its problem-solving, decisions-making processes.

So I started to create a series of projects that address the ecological issues. One of the projects on Oil Spills I already did with my students and taking this class with Woodrow Wilson Institute helped me to develop my project further and make it interdisciplinary by including microorganisms in the process of removing oil from the oil spills. Now, thanks to the sessions in the AMNH I managed to create a few new projects that will, hopefully, make the students learn more about the problems we face in our environment and try to participate in solving these problems. Of course, these projects will require further development. Here I only present the general idea and the direction we are going to take.

My personal concern deals with garbage. What do we do with it? What we should do with it? How can we use it for our advantage instead of poisoning our environment? This is why most of the projects I am thinking about right now are about garbage and garbage treatment. It can be a great motivation for the students because it does not feel threatening or too scientific and can make them learn Biology and Earth Science without even noticing it. Facing our environment problems and trying to solve them the girls will also become environment cautious.

To assess my students’ work I usually use rubrics. My rubrics depend on the students I have in the class, so even if I have ready to use rubrics I change them to adjust to the level of the students in the class and measure the progress they made.

Taking this course helped me a lot in making the project assignments and finding new resources for the students I did not use before. Below I underlined all the terms, resources, and techniques I learned while taking this course from Woodrow Wilson Computer Institute for Biodiversity.

Samples of Weekly Work

(Weekly work includes the theoretical part, lab skills, and the problem of our environment connected with the topic)

WEEK 1 – Introduction to Biodiversity

Brainstorm discussion based on Video on "Life in the Balance".

Trip to AMNH Hall of Biodiversity (keeping a journal). Learning about problems in our environment that rise with overpopulation.

Choosing and assigning a project from a list of 6 and forming groups.

Choosing reading materials for the project and setting the experimental process procedures.

WEEK 2 – Microorganisms

Collecting and studying samples of water, soil, etc for microorganisms.

Lab skills - Learning techniques and procedures for growing colonies and separating cultures and using a microscope.

Theoretical part: learning about recycling in nature and decomposition.

WEEK 3 – Insects

Lab Skills – learning techniques and procedures of collecting and identifying insects.

Field trips to the Central Park Ramble to collect insect and related samples

Identification of organism (arthropod) samples

Examination of samples under a microscope

Identification of samples using a dichotomous key

Theoretical part: learning about soil formation and recycling of nutrients.

 

WEEK 4 - Plants

Lab Skills – learning techniques and procedures of collecting and identifying plants.

Field trips to the Central Park Ramble to collect leaf samples

Identification of trees based on an examination of leaf samples.

Examination of samples under a microscope

Identification samples using a dichotomous key

Theoretical part: gas exchange in nature, photosynthesis and respiration.

 

Week 5 – Animals

Research and report on extinct animals and the reasons of the extinction. Resources: Internet. The students will learn how to use the Internet to search for the information they need.

Weeks 6-8 – Projects that arranged around the problem solving and solutions.

 

 

Samples of the Project Assignments

(All inquiry questions address more problems solving than identifying and studying the problem)

Project #1 – What is garbage made of?

Inquiry questions: a) What do we throw into garbage?

b) Organic and inorganic parts of our garbage. c) What happens to our garbage after it is picked up?

(Soil, water, and air pollution from garbage)

e) What can we change about this process?

Project #2 – Plastic recycling

Inquiry questions: a) What is plastic?

b) What happens to plastic when you throw it out?

c) What is recycling? Study the process.

d) What do we make out of recycled plastic?

e) What can we do better?

Project #3 – Oil degrading

Inquiry questions: a) What is oil? Where does it come from?

b) What happens to oil in nature? Study oil degraders.

c) Oil spills problem.

d) What is being done with oil spills now,

how can we improve?

Project #4 – Metal recycling

Inquiry questions: a) What are metals and where do we use them?

b) Where do we get metals? Study ore processing.

c) What do we do to used metals?

d) What metals are recycled and how?

e) What can we do better about metal recycling?

 

 

Interdisciplinary Project. Biology and Humanities

Project 1: Human Population Control

1. Problem: Biodiversity and Humans. Trip to AMNH, Hall of Biodiversity.

How overpopulation affects our planet?

Give as many examples as possible

2. Study how education, especially female education, affects growth of population. Explain why? Use Internet for more information.

3. Study modern methods of birth control. (Parenting or Health class).

4. What laws connected to control of overpopulation do exist now? Use Internet to study the laws in other countries.

5. How laws in our country can be changed to address the problem of overpopulation?

6. How can we change our education system to address the problem of overpopulation?

 

Project 2: Jobs Related to Conservation.
  1. Make a list of as many as possible jobs that associate with biodiversity, ecology, problems of animal extinction and human overpopulation. Use library, Internet, interview, ect. for information.
  2. Choose three jobs you like the most and study them.
  3. Make a report on the jobs you picked answering the following questions: responsibilities, education, location, and more.
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