MODERNIZING ECOLOGY CONTENT IN THE REQUIRED K-12 SCIENCE CURRICULUM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LEARNING PROGRESSION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY Anderson, C. W., C. Wilson, L. Mohan, B. Covitt, K. Gunkel, B. Tsurusaki, A. Sharma, I. Cho, H. Jin Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University. Website: http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.htm Abstract: Both our world and our scientific understanding of the world are changing in fundamental ways: Our world is changing because human populations and the technological systems that support us have grown to the point where we are fundamentally altering the natural environmental systems that sustain all life on earth. Scientists are shifting the focus of their studies from natural systems to coupled human and natural systems for which the interplay between the systems that provide humans with food, energy, transportation, water, and housing and the earth's natural ecosystems has become a primary focus of study. The changing world changes the nature of responsible citizenship. We must try to develop education systems that will prepare all of our citizens to play their roles knowledgeably and responsibly. The required K-12 science curriculum needs to emulate recent developments in science by emphasizing inter-disciplinary accounts that reveal the linkages among environmental systems. We report assessments of K-12 students' reasoning about environmental systems. Trends from elementary through high school that show increasing understanding of both fundamental principles and processes in environmental systems. For example, high school students are much more likely than elementary school students to be aware of atomic-molecular and large scale systems, to suggest mechanisms for processes, and to try to apply fundamental principles such as conservation of matter and energy. Even at the high school level, though, most students' understanding of coupled human and natural systems is disturbingly incomplete. Very few students were able to connect atomic-molecular, macroscopic, and large-scale processes. Important aspects of environmental systems, including gases, decomposers, and connections between human and natural systems, remained "invisible" to most students (and thus were unaccounted for in their explanations of processes in systems). Background – Modernizing Ecology Content Working Groups Both our world and our scientific understanding of the world are changing in fundamental ways: Our world is changing because human populations and the technological systems that support us have grown to the point where we are fundamentally altering the natural environmental systems that sustain all life on earth. Scientists are shifting the focus of their studies from natural systems to coupled human and natural systems for which the interplay between the systems that provide humans with food, energy, transportation, water, and housing and the earth’s natural ecosystems has become a primary focus of study. The changing world changes the nature of responsible citizenship. We must try to develop education systems that will prepare all of our citizens to play their roles knowledgeably and responsibly. The required K-12 science curriculum needs to emulate recent developments in science by emphasizing inter-disciplinary accounts that reveal the linkages among environmental systems. Our work is focused on the question: What scientific knowledge and practices should all students learn that will give them the capacity to be environmentally responsible citizens? We are currently working on developing learning progressions, tests, and teaching materials across four environmental science content areas: Diversity: the role of diversity in populations (genetic diversity and evolution) and ecosystems (biodiversity). Water: the role of water and substances carried by water in environmental systems. Human Systems: the role of systems that provide human populations with food, water, shelter, energy, transportation, and waste disposal. Carbon: the role of carbon and carbon-containing compounds in the functioning of plants and animals and of other environmental systems. Preliminary Findings METHODS Data sources: Written assessments administered by teachers in working groups to elementary, middle, and high school students. Data analysis: Developing rubrics for open-response questions, looking for patterns in data and developmental trends. FINDINGS: DEVELOPMENTAL TRENDS IN STUDENTS’ REASONING Practices 2 and 3: Accounts of processes in systems From stories to model-based accounts: Shift from why to how--purposes to mechanisms, BUT lack knowledge of critical parts of systems. From macroscopic to hierarchy of systems: Increased awareness of atomic-molecular and large-scale systems, BUT little success in connecting accounts at different levels. Increasing awareness of constraints on systems: Increasing awareness of conservation laws, BUT rarely successful in constraint-based reasoning. Increasing awareness of “invisible” parts of systems: Increasing detail and complexity, BUT gases, decomposers, connections between human & natural systems remain “invisible”. Practice 4: Responsible citizenship Enacting personal agency on environmental issues: Limited individual agency or responsibility. Understanding and evaluating arguments among experts: Reliance on media and personal experience, unidirectional connections between human and natural systems, limited awareness of comparative scale of processes. Reconciling actions or policies with values: Generalized good and bad. Acknowledgements: Hasan Abdel-Kareem, Aliah Carolan, Aroutis Foster, John Lockhart, Felicia Moore, Tim Parshall, & Phil Piety. NSF granst ESI-0227557, REC 0529636, DEB 0423627. e-mail: andya@msu.edu Framework for Environmental Science Literacy Students or citizens who are environmental science literate can: Engage in Scientific Practices . . . Inquiry: Learning from experience and developing arguments from evidence. Providing and using scientific accounts: Authoritative scientific knowledge of the material world. Responsible citizenship: Reconciling experience, authority, and values to act responsibly. . . .While Applying Fundamental Scientific Principles. . . Inquiry principles Principles for acquiring and evaluating data or evidence. Principles for developing knowledge based on arguments from evidence. Principles for scientific accounts Structure of systems at atomic-molecular, microscopic, macroscopic, and large scales. Constraints on processes: tracing matter, energy, and information through systems. Change over time: evolution by natural selection, multiple causation, feedback loops. Principles for responsible citizenship Principles for identifying agents and becoming an agent in social contexts. Principles understanding and critiquing experts’ arguments. Principles for reconciling actions and values. . . .to Coupled Human and Natural Systems Earth systems: Water, air, soil. Living systems: Producers, consumers, decomposers, ecosystems. Human engineered systems: Energy, water, food, transportation, shelter. This work was funded in part by the NSF LTER Program at KBS and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station