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2560 Soquel Avenue Suites 201, 204, 205, Santa Cruz, CA 96062 | 831-331-5611 | santacruzlearningcenter@gmail.com
Project-Based
Environmental Science
Instructor: Jay Dane
Price: $600 per semester
This course is designed to show thematic connections between a variety of science disciplines including earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics. It will focus on human population growth, natural resources, and ecosystem dynamics. The aim of this course is to increase students’ knowledge of the environmental challenges of today while continuing to cultivate scientific critical thinking skills. We will satisfy the OG syllabus requirements.
Students will:
- Investigate the flow of energy and cycling of matter within an ecosystem and relate these phenomena to human society.
- Demonstrate an understanding that the Earth is one interconnected system.
- Describe stability and change in ecosystems.
- Understand and describe the availability, allocation, and conservation of energy and other resources
- Recognize that human beings are part of the global ecosystem and will evaluate the effects of human activities and technology on ecosystems
- Use science process skills in laboratory or field investigations, including observation, classification, communication, metric measurement, prediction, inference, and collecting and analyzing data
- Use traditional reference materials to explore background and historical information regarding a scientific concept
- Learn and use, on a regular basis, standard safety practices for laboratory or field investigations.
The syllabus for this course is aligned with the a-g-approved NGSS Project-Based Environmental Science with Ocean Grove Charter School.
Textbook:
Environmental Science: The Study of Interrelationships, 15e
By: Eldon Enger and Bradley Smith
Copyright: 2019
ISBN 10: 0076809870 / ISBN 13: 9780076809875
We will be reviewing excerpts from various texts this year including:
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition: by Marc Reisner
The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
Too Hot to Touch: The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste: by William M. Alley, Rosemarie Alley