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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Making the grade: Health indicators in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/14/g912/chesapeakescience.html

A lesson plan for grades 9–12 Science

Provider: National Geographic


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In this Xpeditions lesson, students use online tools and data to explore how the sciences can identify clues about the health of the environment and the ways in which geography can help make connections between human actions and environmental conditions. Activities in this lesson engage students in collaborative group work, whole class discussion, and online research.

Students will:

  • find and interpret data regarding the health of the Chesapeake Bay and other natural resources;
  • use scientific evidence to evaluate different indicators of bay health;
  • identify human activities and other factors that contribute to watershed health issues;
  • use geographic skills to identify connections between indicators and the factors that influence them; and
  • develop a local action plan to improve the environmental health of a local resource.

Xpeditions provides detailed directions for completing the lesson, suggestions for assessment and extension activities, discussion questions, and links to handouts, graphic organizers, and necessary web resources.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Science (2005)

Grade 9–12 — AP Earth and Environmental Science

  • Goal 4: The learner will build an understanding of the distribution, ownership, use and degradation of renewable and nonrenewable resources.
    • Objective 4.01: Analyze sources and uses of freshwater and oceans.
      • Renewal rates.
      • Agricultural, industrial and domestic water uses.
      • Increasing water supplies: Dams and desalination.
      • Fisheries and aquaculture.
      • Water management and conservation.
    • Objective 4.04: Analyze biological resources.
      • Benefits of biodiversity.
      • Threats to biodiversity.
      • Endangered species management.
      • Nutrition and food supplies.
      • Green revolution.
  • Goal 5: The learner will build an understanding of air, water and soil quality.
    • Objective 5.01: Analyze the sources of major pollutants.
      • EPA Criteria Pollutants.
      • Indoor air pollutants.
      • Thermal pollution.
      • Pesticides.
      • Acid deposition.
      • Units and measurements.
      • Point and nonpoint sources.
    • Objective 5.03: Analyze and investigate pollution reduction, remediation and control measures.
      • Legislation.
      • Historical examples and global case studies.
      • Waste water treatment plant.
  • Goal 7: The learner will build an understanding of environmental decision making.
    • Objective 7.03: Recognize significance of major environmental laws and regulations: regional, national and international.
      • Clean Air Act.
      • Clean Water Act.
      • Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.
      • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
      • Endangered Species Act.
      • Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Control Act.
      • Kyoto Protocol.
      • Lacey Act.
      • Mining Act.
      • Montreal Protocol.
      • National Environmental Policy Act.
      • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
      • Wilderness Act.

Grade 9–12 — Earth/Environmental Science

  • Goal 4: The learner will build an understanding of the hydrosphere and its interactions and influences on the lithosphere, the atmosphere, and environmental quality.
    • Objective 4.01: Evaluate erosion and depositional processes:
      • Formation of stream channels with respect to the work being done by the stream (i.e. down-cutting, lateral erosion, and transportation).
      • Nature and characteristics of sediments.
      • Effects on water quality.
      • Effect of human choices on the rate of erosion.
    • Objective 4.04: Evaluate water resources:
      • Storage and movement of groundwater.
      • Ecological services provided by the ocean
      • Environmental impacts of a growing human population.
      • Causes of natural and manmade contamination.