1. HUMAN IMPACT ON ECOSYSTEMS
Topic 5 Day 2
HUMAN IMPACT ON ECOSYSTEMS

2. Date: 09/20
Topic: Human Impact Day2
Learning target: Evaluate the costs and benefits of renewable and nonrenewable resources

3. DO NOW (10 min)
What is the function of autotrophs in the carbon cycle? A. to use oxygen to produce glucose B. to take in excess water C. to use carbon dioxide to produce glucose D. to feed on herbivoresWhat is the function of autotrophs in the carbon cycle? What is the function of autotrophs in the carbon cycle? A. to use oxygen to produce glucose B. to take in excess water C. to use carbon dioxide to produce glucose D. to feed on herbivores A. to use oxygen to produce glucose B. to take in excess water C. to use carbon dioxide to produce glucose D. to feed on herbivores

4. Humans and Sustainability
Environmental Problems, Their Causes and Sustainability

5. Introduction: Think About It (5min)
What is the author’s purpose in this video?
Do you agree or disagree with the author? Explain
To the Teacher;
Determine your students’ prior knowledge by showing a piece of coal. Have them explain how it was formed, why is it called fossil fuels, how it is used, and how it is contributing to atmospheric pollution.
Show students a log. Have them discuss the benefits of wood as an energy source. Ask students to name concerns that have been raised about cutting forests for lumber and firewood.
Play Interactive Learning video: The Stork Is a Bird of War. Engage students in a conversation about the meaning of the video.

6. What are we learning today?
Objectives
Benchmarks
Predict how the actions of humans may impact environmental systems and/or affect sustainability
Evaluate possible environmental impacts resulting from the use of renewable and/or nonrenewable resources
SC.912.L Predict the impact of individuals on environmental systems and examine how human lifestyles affect sustainability. AA
SC.912.L Evaluate the costs and benefits of renewable and nonrenewable resources, such as water, energy, fossil fuels, wildlife, and forests.
To the Teacher:
Introduce today’s benchmark.
Read or have a student read the day’s objectives.

7. What is the essential question?
How do new technologies use to generate energy impact environmental systems and examine how human lifestyles as a result of these new technologies affect sustainability?
THINK about specific examples.
To the Teacher:
Read the essential question. Check for understanding, but do not accept any attempt to answer the question.
Remind students to reflect on the essential question throughout the lesson because they will be expected to answer it at the end of the topic.

8. Write everything that is in RED
Input Notes (15min)
Write everything that is in RED

9. Input Notes
MAIN IDEA: Effective management of Earth’s resources will help meet the needs of the future.

10. Human Ecological Footprint Map
To the Teacher: Review and discuss with students.
Does this number seem like a lot or a little? Answers will vary, but remind students that 83% is just over 4/5 of Earth surface.
Some areas are more vulnerable to human influence than others, why might this be? Areas that are highly vulnerable are those that are easily accessible to humans and/or those that can supply natural resources that are in demand.
Predict how future human population growth could affect the environment. Accept all reasonable answers. Sample answer: It could lead to an increases human demand for water, food, and land, and thus leave fewer resources for other species.
To the Teacher: Tell students that Americans make up 5% of the world’s population. However, Americans own 30% of the world’s cars and consume 25% of the world’s energy.
Why do different cultures use and consume things at different rates? What do these numbers indicate about contemporary American culture? Possible answers: Answers will vary, but encourage students to make a connection to variables such as average lifespan; income; access to goods; diet; culture; climate.
The United States uses more resources and produces more waste than an other country. How is this resource use reflected in the ecological footprint of the united States? The United States’ ecological footprint is the largest in the world.
Is it possible to have no ecological footprint? To leave no footprint would mean that a person replaces to the environment exactly what he takes. Since the mid-1980s, humankind has been in ecological overshoot, meaning they are taking more than they are giving back.

11. (2 min)
Ecological footprint: the human impact on the environment, expressed as the amount of land, water and natural resources humanity as a whole requires to produce what it consumes

12. What is an environmentally sustainable society? (2min)
An environmentally sustainable society meets the basic resources of its people without degrading the natural capital that supplies these resources.
To the Teacher:
Tell students to imagine they have won a million dollars in the lottery. Ask them what they would do with their money. Accept all reasonable answers.
Propose that they do not touch the money at all, but invest this money at 10% interest per year, and they will have a sustainable annual income of $100,000 without depleting your capital. Wait for their reaction and accept all reasonable arguments for and against.
If you spend $200,000, your $1 million will be gone early in the 7th year.
If you spend $110,000 a year, you will be bankrupt early in the 18th year.
Introduce the verb sustain as the ability to maintain a lifestyle without losing one’s wealth, living within your means.
Tell students that the word sustain comes from the Latin words sub- which means “below,” and tenere, which means to hold.” Ask them how these meanings relate to the term sustainable development. Sustainable development is development that holds or maintains the use of resources at or below the level that allows them to replenish or survive.
Ask students to explain what they think an environmentally sustainable society is. Accept all reasonable answers.
Discuss with students what they would consider to be a basic resource. Basic resources: Clean water, clean air, shelter, food. Natural capital: Planet’s air, water, soil, wildlife, minerals, energy resources, etc.
Imagine you win $1 million dollars in the lottery.

13. How are renewable resources used? (2min)
Resources renewed by natural processes are sustainable if we do not use them faster than they are replenished.
Sustainable yield is the highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely.
Environmental degradation occurs when we exceed a renewable resource’s natural replacement rate
Resources renew by natural processes are sustainable if we do not use them faster than they are replenished.

14. Is it possible to live in an environmentally sustainable society?
The world’s population is growing at a rate of about 1.25% a year.
219,000 people a day
9,100 people every hour
7 billion people today (2016)
9 billion people by 2050
36 billion people by 2300
To the Teacher: Discuss with your students
In some areas of the globe, people are already in conflict over a limited amount of natural resources. How will a growing population affect people’s access to food, potable water, and fuel? A rise in population will increase demands on food, water and fuel.
What effect might the population increase have on pollution and encroachment on wildlife habitats? Pollution and habitat loss will also likely increase unless steps are taken to offset the rise in global population.
Explain the relationship between a growing population and the environment? Growing populations will eventually stress the environment and encounter limiting factors.
Why do you think the biggest increase in population is in developing nations, rather than developed nations?

15. Is it a necessity to live in an environmentally sustainable society?
Humans use the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste.
By 2030 we’ll need two Earth’s to support us.
We are turning resources into waste faster than waste can be turned back into resources.
Puts us in global ecological overshoot, depleting the very resources on which human life and biodiversity depend.
To the Teacher:
Explain to students that it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year. Examples of our struggling planet is all around us: collapsing fisheries, diminishing forest cover, depletion of fresh water systems, and the build up of carbon dioxide emissions, which creates problems like global climate change.
Tell students that it is abundantly clear that Earth’s human carrying capacity has exceeded many earlier predictions. How has technology affected human population growth? Technology has improved human health and survival; made agriculture more intensive and productive; increased the speed of construction of living spaces, production of tools, equipment, and clothing; and has provided heating, air conditioning, plumbing sanitation, water purification, transportation, and many other things that have allowed the human population to grow at an exponential rate.

16. Think About It What does renew mean? What does renewable mean?
What does nonrenewable mean?
What does resource mean?
What is a renewable resource?
What is a nonrenewable resource?
To the Teacher:
Discuss with your students the following questions.
After establishing the meaning of renewable and nonrenewable, ask them to identify some of the examples in the image.
Renewable energy is energy which is generated from natural sources i.e. sun, wind, rain, tides and can be generated again and again as and when required. They are available in plenty and by far most the cleanest sources of energy available on this planet. For e.g.: Energy that we receive from the sun can be used to generate electricity. Similarly, energy from wind, geothermal, biomass from plants, tides can be used this form of energy to another form.
Non-Renewable energy is energy which is taken from the sources that are available on the earth in limited quantity and will vanish fifty-sixty years from now. Non-renewable sources are not environmental friendly and can have serious affect on our health. They are called non-renewable because they cannot be re-generated within a short span of time.

17. Energy:
Renewable energy is generated from natural sources (clean energy)
Non-Renewable energy is taken from the sources that are available in limited quantity.

18. What are the types of resources?
Renewable resources
Resources that can be replenished through natural processes
Water Trees
Nonrenewable resources
Exist in a fixed quantity
Fossil fuels Minerals
A resource is anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants.
To the Teacher:
Encourage students to use Power Notes.

19. Group Activity 40 minutes
PART 1 (20min)
Voice Level: Partner Voice (only your group mates can hear you)
Read ALL instructions
Work with URGENCY
Decide who will be the speaker for your group
PART 2 (20min)
Voice Level: Presentation (everyone in the room can hear you)
Groups will have 2min each to deliver their presentation. BE PREPARED
Observe and gather data
Time will NOT be extended!! Stay on task

20. Collaborative Activity: Energy Experts
Background: Renewable energy is a hot topic in science today. Many people assume that renewable or "green" energy sources are always the best solution. We need electrical energy to power our industries, to move from place to place, to grow and cook our food, and to warm or cool our homes. Currently, most electrical energy is generated by burning fossil fuels (non-renewable), which has significant negative impact on our environment. Today, we will explore five types of renewable energy resources and evaluate the costs and benefits of renewable and nonrenewable resources. We will also determine the environmental impact of these technologies.
Essential Question: Are all renewable energy resources feasible
solutions to generate electrical energy?

21. Group Activity 40 minutes
PART 1 (20min)
Voice Level: Partner Voice (only your group mates can hear you)
Read ALL instructions
Work with URGENCY
Decide who will be the speaker for your group
PART 2 (20min)
Voice Level: Presentation (everyone in the room can hear you)
Groups will have 2min each to deliver their presentation. BE PREPARED
Observe and gather data
Time will NOT be extended!! Stay on task

22. Independent Practice (10 min) SC.912.L.17.20

23. Exit Ticket (10min)

24. www.eldridgebio.weebly.com Home Learning
Watch Easter Island video: Lesson in Sustainability (Youtube or classroom website)
Answer questions:
1. Why did the Easter Island civilization disappear?
2. How did the removal of trees affect the climate of Easter Island?
3. Why should we care about Easter Island today and what lessons can we learn?
In the late 1700s, the economist Thomas Malthus made a claim about the ability of
Earth’s resources to support the growing human population. Do you think Malthus’s
claim was correct? In your answer:
• describe Malthus’s claim (1)
• explain what has happened to Earth’s population since Malthus wrote his
controversial essay and why this change was possible (1)
• draw a conclusion about whether Malthus’s claim was correct and explain your
conclusion (1)
Create a poster that illustrates why it is important to conserve natural resources

25. Easter Island: A Lesson in Sustainability
What do you think were the thought processes and discussions amongst the inhabitants of Easter Island leading up to the removal of the last remnants of forest?
Why do societies collapse?