| Title |
Academic Area |
Issue |
| Water: the Miracle Molecule |
Science |
Spring 2006 |
| Students will learn about the nature of water by observing demonstrations that use water, ice, and alcohol. |
|
| Strange Brew |
Science |
Spring 2006 |
| Students will learn about fermentation as a tool of biotechnology, perform fermentation experiments, and make their own root beer. |
|
| What is a Right? |
Social Studies |
Spring 2006 |
| Students will read about Mengele and the Nuremberg Code, discuss human rights, and develop a code of conduct. |
|
| Thinking About a Change? |
Language Arts |
Spring 2006 |
| Students will discuss inductive and deductive research, and examine whether one person can change the world. |
|
| Nitrogen Cycling: Manure in the Mix |
Science |
Fall 2005 |
| Students will identify the components of the nitrogen cycle and create a nitrogen cycle poem, rap, or board game. |
|
| Fungus Among Us |
Science |
Fall 2005 |
| Students will learn about fungi, examine fungus under a microscope, and identify the presence of scientific method. |
|
| The Economics of Your Food |
Social Studies |
Fall 2005 |
| Students will discuss supply, demand, and consumer power, then apply these concepts to real life situations. |
|
| Cows and Effect |
Language Arts |
Fall 2005 |
| Students will analyze cause and effect in their lives, their school, and their world, then create their own poetry. |
|
| Urban Runoff: Flowing Blue and Green |
Science |
Summer 2005 |
| Students will learn about the problem of urban runoff, then identify areas of school stormwater mismanagement and create a "greening" plan. |
|
| Trading Acres |
Science |
Summer 2005 |
| Students will learn about vernal pools, then examine a map and an environmental impact report regarding development on vernal pool land in Placer County, California. |
|
| Big Box Stores |
Social Studies |
Summer 2005 |
| Students will learn about the history of discount stores, then develop their own trade strategy and public relations campaign. |
|
| Wrong Time, Wrong Place |
Language Arts |
Summer 2005 |
| Students will learn about dystopian literature, then write their own short story. |
|
| Irradiate Me! |
Science |
Summer 2003 |
| Students will learn how irradiation kills food-borne pathogens, research critics' concerns, and evaluate ways of remedying food contamination. |
|
| Biodiesel: Back to the Future |
Science |
Summer 2003 |
| Students will prepare a small batch of biodiesel fuel, compare biodiesel emissions to other fuels, and discuss sustainability. |
|
| Blue-Green Alliances |
Social Studies |
Summer 2003 |
| Students will examine the ways in which labor unions and environmental groups have joined forces to pursue common goals. |
|
| Tracking the Truth |
Language Arts |
Summer 2003 |
| Students will experiment with quoting and paraphrasing, determine the many sides of a story, and explore the concepts of bias and marginalized voices. |
|
| The True Costs of Petroleum |
Special Features |
Summer 2003 |
| The Map of the Body exposes the many ways petroleum products affect our bodies. Other maps in the series — World, Community, and House — are available at the Ecology Center and online at www.ecologycenter.org. |
|
| The Seed Story |
Science |
Winter 2002 |
| Students will collect and scrutinize seeds, learn the various methods of seed dispersal, and experiment with seed designs for capturing the wind. |
|
| Blowing Wind or Burning Gas? |
Science |
Winter 2002 |
| Students will compare two energy sources - natural gas and wind power - from a number of perspectives, then construct and test a model windmill. |
|
| California Communities |
Science |
Winter 2002 |
| Students will become familiarized with five native California habitats, the threats to those habitats, and the species that call those habitats home. |
|
| Civil Wrongs |
Social Studies |
Winter 2002 |
| Students will examine the Civil Rights Act, analyze photos depicting forms of discrimination, and debate the issue of environmental racism. |
|
| Waterworks: Public or Private? |
Social Studies |
Winter 2002 |
| Students will explore the issue of water privatization by evaluating various proposals to solve water system problems at a fictional high school. |
|
| Team-Teaching Extensions |
Language Arts |
Winter 2002 |
|
| Competition, Mutualism, & More |
Science |
Summer 2002 |
| Students will use relationships in their own lives as analogies for the variety of evolutionary relationships that exist between species in an ecosystem. |
|
| Down at the Dam |
Science |
Summer 2002 |
| Students will conduct an experiment that demonstrates the siltation process, then discuss problems related to the aging of dams. |
|
| Native American Policy |
Social Studies |
Summer 2002 |
| Students will look at the policies the federal government has held regarding tribes, research land use disputes, and critique films with Indian themes. |
|
| Who Owns Water? |
Social Studies |
Summer 2002 |
| Students will explore the complexities of water rights in California by withdrawing water allocations from a fictional river. |
|
| Cities with Green Thumbs |
Special Features |
Summer 2002 |
| Students will examine the benefits of urban agriculture, research potential cultivation sites, and design a school garden. Includes teacher resource page for urban agriculture. Students will examine the benefits of urban agriculture, research potential cultivation sites, and design a school garden. Includes teacher resource page for urban agriculture. |
|
| Stories and Statistics |
Language Arts |
Summer 2002 |
| Students will compare anecdotal evidence and statistics as persuasive writing techniques, using articles on drifting GMO pollen and nuclear fallout. |
|
| Foggy Notions |
Science |
Spring 2002 |
| Students will discover the conditions that lead to fog along the coast, create a cloud in a bottle, and use data to estimate the fog-dependent redwood range. |
|
| Humans: Selective Force |
Science |
Spring 2002 |
| Students will examine the ways in which humans are affecting evolution, explore the adaptive strategies of urban species, and write a group story. |
|
| Protection Strategies |
Social Studies |
Spring 2002 |
| Students will compare two strategies of the conservation movement, then debate and develop methods to protect the places special to them. |
|
| Talking Trash |
Social Studies |
Spring 2002 |
| Students will analyze waste disposal problems, including environmental racism, redesign a product to reduce waste, and view trash as archaeologists. |
|
| Friend, Stranger, Neighbor |
Language Arts |
Spring 2002 |
| Students will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of community engagement, create cohousing plans, and experiment with group decision-making methods. |
|
| Rites of Passage |
Language Arts |
Spring 2002 |
| Students will become familiar with the classic stages of initiation, then apply those stages to literarary characters, cultural traditions, and their own lives. |
|
| Taking the Heat |
Science |
Winter/Fall 2001 |
| Students will measure and compare the insulating properties of building materials including fiberglass and an environmental alternative, straw bale. |
|
| Swimming Upstream |
Science |
Winter/Fall 2001 |
| Students will explore human and naturally-occuring threats to salmon by placing features randomly on a river map and extrapolating outcomes. |
|
| Power Town |
Social Studies |
Winter/Fall 2001 |
| Students will compare the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non-renewable energy sources, then design an energy portfolio for their town. |
|
| Free Trade Tradeoffs |
Social Studies |
Winter/Fall 2001 |
| Students will examine the implications of NAFTA's Chapter 11 by enacting a role-play based upon California's phase-out of the gasoline additive MTBE. |
|
| Technology's Two Faces |
Language Arts |
Winter/Fall 2001 |
| Using questions posed by the Neo-Luddite movement, students will assess the benefits and sacrifices that accompany the adoption of new technology. |
|
| Picture My Path |
Language Arts |
Winter/Fall 2001 |
| Students will explore their local environment and the genres of journalism and travel writing by documenting nearby locations using photos and text. |
|
| The Underground Flow |
Science |
Fall 2001 |
| Students will investigate the basic concepts of groundwater and saltwater intrusion, then calculate rates of groundwater flow. |
|
| The ABCs of GMOs |
Science |
Fall 2001 |
| Students will explore how crops are genetically engineered, then examine their own beliefs regarding the ethics of this technology. |
|
| Growing, Growing, Gone |
Social Studies |
Fall 2001 |
| Students will examine the difference between linear and exponential growth, predict future populations, and calculate resource consumption. |
|
| Cars Are Us |
Social Studies |
Fall 2001 |
| Students will assess the cultural allure and the internal and external costs of automobile dependence, then design a car-free community. |
|
| Harvesting Health |
Language Arts |
Fall 2001 |
| Students will use the investigative techniques of interviewing and letter writing to explore concepts of health. |
|
| Where Bigfoot Roams |
Language Arts |
Fall 2001 |
| Students will delve into the legend of the Sasquatch as a means to explore story-writing, storytelling, and the use of allegory. |
|
| The Isle of Tam |
Science |
Spring 2001 |
| Students will analyze and plot graphs that explore the rise and fall of species diversity. |
|
| Simulating the Forest Floor |
Science |
Spring 2001 |
| Students will calculate runoff rates using a stream table to simulate the forest floor before and after logging. |
|
| Corporation as Person |
Social Studies |
Spring 2001 |
| Students will debate whether corporations should have the same rights as persons, then draft a local ordinance to protect a fictitious town. |
|
| Behind the Redwood Curtain |
Social Studies |
Spring 2001 |
| Students will design an alternative model of watershed management in Northern California. |
|
| Power Primer |
Special Features |
Spring 2001 |
| A reader to help students and teachers better understand California's energy crisis |
|
| Fired Up! |
Special Features |
Spring 2001 |
| From the students of LEJ (Literacy for Environmental Justice): Students will write advocacy letters and create a game show based on Bayview/Hunter's Point issues. |
|
| My Credo |
Language Arts |
Spring 2001 |
| Students will reflect upon the lives of Henry David Thoreau and David Brower, then write and perform their own creed. |
|
| What's in a Name? |
Language Arts |
Spring 2001 |
| Using Latin roots, students will generate names for schoolyard species, then draft field guide and journal entries. |
|
| Vernal Pool Inhabitants |
Science |
Fall 2000 |
| Students will learn about this seasonal wetland ecosystem and will calculate placement of species in a vernal pool. |
|
| Contamination Plumes |
Science |
Fall 2000 |
| Students will learn about groundwater movement and will calculate the movement of a hypothetical groundwater contamination plume. |
|
| Handling Waste |
Social Studies |
Fall 2000 |
| Students will do a roleplay to debate the issues of dumping large-city sewage in other states, in low-income regions of the US. Students will investigate and discuss alternative methods of sewage treatment and alternatives to landfilling. Students will compare human urban waste systems to a redwood forest's natural recycling system. |
|
| Cultural Forestry: The Maidu Way |
Social Studies |
Fall 2000 |
|
| Glossary |
Special Features |
Fall 2000 |
|
| Patenting Life |
Language Arts |
Fall 2000 |
|
| Identifying the Problem & Principles of Ecology |
Language Arts |
Fall 2000 |
|
