Title of activity: Identifying Careers in Environmental Science

Concept covered in activity: Solving real life environmental issues requires the help of many
different types of scientists and specialists
Grade level or other prerequisites for activity: Undergraduate
Length of lesson: 15 minutes
Standards:
Colorado- 2.1- Matter tends to be cycled within an ecosystem, while energy is transformed and
eventually
exits an ecosystem
Colorado 2.2- The size and persistence of populations depend on their interactions with each other
and on
the abiotic factors in an ecosystem
Learning objectives:
To be able to identify multiple types of environmental careers
To describe some environmental problems that require specialists
Materials:
Ecosystem sheets. Disaster sheets
Instructional planning: prepare the ecosystem and disaster sheets. Give them note cards with list
of jobs, descriptions, pay, work environment, skills and education needed
Procedure/activity
Student Activity
Engage

Students listen and take notes and

list the abiotic and biotic variables
they found.

Students form groups and read their

prompt

Teacher Activity
Watch the video "How Wolves Change Rivers"
(4mins 33sec):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ysa5OBhXz-Q
Activates prior knowledge with brief review
and vocabulary with definitions on the board.
Discuss what variables they found in the
movie. Introduce the idea of indirect effects
Assign students into groups and hand out
ecosystem sheets

EDUC 460: converting a cookbook lab into an inquiry lesson; Fall 2010, Balgopal

Explore

1. Identify:
Abiotic/biotic variables
Key variables
Key interactions

1.4Teacher walks around room to help

students brainstorm by asking
thought provoking questions

2. Identify:
What variables/relationships
will be affected by the
catastrophe?
3. Identify:
What skill/knowledge sets will
be needed to address these
issues?
4. Identify:
What type people would have
the needed skill
sets/knowledge to help solve
the issue?
Explain

1-4 Students write down the

information in their notebooks and
include notes on their thought
process

1-4 teacher walks around an asks questions

and helps critique their work to push them to
think more critically

Elaborat
e

5. Students can draw what they

think the scientists would look like
(what does doing science look like?)

5. teacher walks around an asks questions

and helps critique their work

Tick out the door: What job would

you want?
Evaluate

6. Students with a similar

situation get together and
identify the two most
important specialists they
need. They elect a
representative and that person
introduces their situation and
writes the two specialists on
the board and tries to convince
the environmental consulting
firm that those people are

6. Teacher facilitates process

7. lead discussion, ask questions

EDUC 460: converting a cookbook lab into an inquiry lesson; Fall 2010, Balgopal

needed
7. Classroom discussion of jobs
and what they found surprising
or interesting
(see http://www.csusciencemethods.wikispaces.com for more information on 5E Inquiry model)
Assessment
Formative (informal and/or formal)
Check their lists
Listen to their conversations
Ask them questions in small groups
Summative
Look at the final list and their justifications
Anticipated misconceptions/alternative conceptions
All scientists work in a lab and wear a lab coat
Their future jobs probably would not fit in the environmental science sector- like lawyer
Accommodations/modifications of activity for any special needs students (special education, ELL,
and gifted/talented)
High achieving students will be asked to think more critically
Lower achieving students will be put into groups with higher achieving students

EDUC 460: converting a cookbook lab into an inquiry lesson; Fall 2010, Balgopal