Use the science to investigate a real source, explain the evidence, and communicate a defensible conclusion. The guide supplies the actual reading, data, task, and chosen level before the unit begins.
| Strand | Required evidence |
|---|---|
| History, Reading, Writing | Use an approved source in context and a student-authored response. Separate the original evidence from later explanations; do not force a single-hero story. |
| Geography and ethics | Include location, social context, or ethical trade-offs where they genuinely support the scientific question. |
| Elective extensions | Choose additional depth in data, technology, economics, or art. Extensions do not replace the core work. |
| Quantitative science | Use the unit's mathematical lane at the agreed level. Supply units, denominators, and model conditions; required science is assessed as science. |
Integration is reported separately and cannot lower the science grade or block a science demonstration pass. Science and practical criteria determine that pass.
Use the same approved task in both formats. The web guide explains the source, data, assumptions, student work, and evidence checklist; this packet is its portable summary, not a different assignment.
Use the web guide's approved unit assignment.
| Unit | Environmental Science big idea | Integration anchor |
|---|---|---|
| 01 · Ecosystems & Energy Flow | Energy flows; production and sampling require area/time denominators. | NOAA’s Pacific observations: connect upwelling to a testable food-web response. Assigned lesson |
| 02 · Biodiversity & Populations | Diversity conventions and conditional population models answer different questions. | EPA’s dated DDT history: benefits, resistance, harms and decisions, not a hero/villain verdict. Assigned lesson |
| 03 · Biogeochemical Cycles | Solar, gravitational and solid-Earth drivers move matter across defined boundaries. | USGS water cycles and industrial nitrogen fixation: technology changes fluxes, not conservation. Assigned lesson |
| 04 · Human Population & Resource Use | Population, service demand and energy technology jointly shape resource use. | EIA’s biomass-to-fossil history: compare energy pathways on equal service and stated boundaries. Assigned lesson |
| 05 · Water Resources & Pollution | Concentration, load, exposure, toxicity and health risk are distinct quantities. | EPA DDT and risk-assessment steps: distinguish a historical observation from a health inference. Assigned lesson |
| 06 · Air, Atmosphere & Climate Change | Radiation, circulation and pollutant chemistry require distinct causal explanations. | NOAA ENSO and NASA attribution: separate natural variability from independently supported forcing. Assigned lesson |
| 07 · Land Use, Agriculture & Waste | Equal-output comparisons expose land, water, erosion and waste tradeoffs. | NRCS soil functions and EPA waste hierarchy: judge measured outcomes rather than practice labels. Assigned lesson |
| 08 · Sustainability & Environmental Policy | A defensible decision separates evidence, constraints, uncertainty and values. | Official domestic-law and Montreal/Paris sources: compare purpose, mechanism and implementation. Assigned lesson |
Separate Carson's 1962 warnings from later eggshell-thinning and DDE evidence. The EPA began in 1970; the major U.S. DDT cancellation decision followed in 1972. Compare sourced, dated measurements with matching units. Concentration, dose, biological effect, and population change are not interchangeable. A multiplier alone cannot establish lethality; defend a qualified recommendation and state the additional evidence needed.
Math never drives a unit, but environmental science uses it constantly — always anchored to the survey or measurement in the field. Here is the quantitative skill each unit actually uses, done in the field-and-data context rather than as a parallel curriculum.
| Unit | Applied math at the agreed level |
|---|---|
| 01 · Ecosystems & Energy Flow | NPP; measured/model transfer ratios; quadrat density; worst-case budget bounds. |
| 02 · Biodiversity & Populations | Defined Simpson diversity; logistic/exponential steps; token recapture and its zero boundary. |
| 03 · Biogeochemical Cycles | Storage budgets; mm-to-m³ conversion; concentration × flow; uncertainty bounds. |
| 04 · Human Population & Resource Use | W/kW/kWh/MJ; costs/payback; efficiency versus capacity factor; per-capita use; growth/IPAT. |
| 05 · Water Resources & Pollution | mg N/L to kg N/day; intake/body mass; fictional screening quotient; food-web concentration ratios. |
| 06 · Air, Atmosphere & Climate Change | Radiation balance; matched-season slopes; time-weighted PM; logarithmic pH ratio. |
| 07 · Land Use, Agriculture & Waste | Yield-to-area; applied water and runoff; interval infiltration; diversion including rejects. |
| 08 · Sustainability & Environmental Policy | Annualized net benefit; cost/kg removed; feasibility and benefit-sensitivity bounds. |
Students do the diversity index inside the biodiversity survey, the residence-time arithmetic inside the biogeochemical cycles unit, the concentration math inside the water resources and pollution experiment. The number always means something because it is attached to a result they produced in the field — never a worksheet detached from the environmental science.
Integration is its own strand. Track each unit’s integration level across the year — Developing, Proficient, or Mastery — separate from the science-mastery rubric. Record the evidence reference and date in the final column.
| Unit | Developing | Proficient | Mastery | Evidence / date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Ecosystems & Energy Flow | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 02 Biodiversity & Populations | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 03 Biogeochemical Cycles | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 04 Human Population & Resource | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 05 Water Resources & Pollution | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 06 Air, Atmosphere & Climate | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 07 Land Use, Agriculture & Waste | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 08 Sustainability & Policy | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
A student who walks through all eight anchors finishes understanding that environmental science is how humans learned to see their own effect on the planet, and that every fact on the page was once a discovery someone fought for — the version of the subject a student keeps.