Acton's Virtual Earth Day 2006
WELCOME!
This year instead of having everybody come to Earth Day, Earth Day comes to you by way of the ACES web site. We hope you have an enjoyable - and educational - visit, and would love to know if you found this site helpful. Email comments to info@actonaces.org
This Earth Day site is designed primarily to entertain
and educate the students of Acton Public Schools and Acton-Boxborough Regional
Schools (RJ Grey and ABRHS), but that doesn't mean that parents, teachers, and
other grownups can't join in the fun. This site points to on-line, as well as print resources, which are coordinated with the
Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.
| Resources for High School Students | |
| General Resources | EPA Portal to Resources for High Schoolers |
| Ecology and Biodiversity | |
| US Geological Survey's Ecosystem Resources | |
| What is Our Ecological Footprint? | |
| USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service "Living with Wetlands" | |
| The Galapagos Islands: Suspended in Time | |
| Energy | |
| Global Warming | |
| Alternative Energy Sources | |
| Toxics | Toxics Use Reduction Institue |
Don't Forget the Acton Memorial Library! |
| Books about Water and Alternative Energy can be found at Dewey Number 333 |
| Books about Biodiversity, Ecology and Habitats can be found at Dewey Numbers 575-577 |
| Books about Recycling can be found at Dewey Number 363.7 |
| Periodical articles and other electronic resources can be found in the online databases at the Minuteman Library Network Website |
Copyright 2006 Acton Citizens for Environmental Safety
Relevant Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
Curriculum materials excerpted from:
Massachusetts Department of Education, Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework,
May, 2001.
Massachusetts Department of Education, Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework,
October, 1999.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY/ENGINEERING
Strand 1: Earth and Space Science
Grades 3-5
Learning Standard 10: Describe how water on earth cycles in different forms and in different locations, including underground and in the atmosphere.
Grades 9 or 10
Learning Standards
2.1 Recognize, describe, and differentiate between renewable (e.g., solar, wind water, biomass) and nonrenewable (e.g., fossil fuels, nuclear [Ura-235] sources of energy.
2.2 Explain the advantage and limitations of renewable sources of energy.
2.3 Explain the advantage and limitations of nonrenewable sources of energy.
2.4 Describe the ways in which people have tried to control the use of renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy, e.g., scientific advances, prices.
2.5 Describe the effects on the environment of using both renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy.
2.6 Describe ways in which scientists are addressing effects on the environment of using both renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy, e.g. creation of new technologies.
3.6 Explain how water flows into and through a watershed, e.g., aquifers, wells, porosity, permeability, water table, capillary water, runoff.
Strand 2: Life Science (Biology)
PreK-2
Identify the ways in which an organism’s habitat provides for its basic needs (plants require air, water nutrients, and light; animals require food, water, air and shelter).
Grades 3-5
7. Give examples of how changes in the environment (drought, cold) have caused some plants and animals to die or move to new locations (migration). (suggested investigation: “Investigate how invasive species out-compete native plants, e.g. phragmites and purple loosestrife. Discuss how some native plants die as a result.
8. Give examples of how organisms can cause changes in their environment to ensure survival. Explain how some of these changes may affect the ecosystem. (suggested investigation: “Discuss the importance of wetlands to human survival. Investigate how an invasive species changes an ecosystem. Research local projects where humans are changing the environment to ensure a species’ survival.”)Grades 6-8
13. Give examples of ways in which organisms interact and have different functions within an ecosystem that enable the ecosystem to survive.
14. Explain the roles and relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in the process of energy transfer in a food web.
15. Explain how dead plants and animals are broken down by other living organisms and how this process contributes to the system as a whole.
Grade 9 or 10
6.1 Explain how biotic and abiotic factors cycle in an ecosystem (water, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen).
6.2 Use a food web to identify and distinguish producers, consumers, and decomposers, and explain the transfer of energy through trophic levels.
6.3 Identify the factors in an ecosystem that influence fluctuations in population size.
6.4 Analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from natural causes, changes in climate, human activity, or introduction of non-native species.
6.5 Explain how symbiotic behavior produces interactions within ecosystems.
Technology/Engineering
Grades 6-8
Describe and explain adaptive and assistive bioengineered products, e.g., food, bio-fuels, irradiation, integrated pest management.
Earth & Space Science
Grades 9 & 10
Explain how water flows into and through a watershed, e.g., aquifers, wells, porosity, permeability, water table, capillary water, runoff.
Additional Activities to Enhance the Learning Standards:
Grades 3-5, Standard 4:
- Engage in composting (worm farms)
- Construct a mini-landfill. Unearth and observe decomposition of buried waste, e.g., food, paper, plastic, metal (T/E 2.1, 2.2, 2.3)
Standard 10:
- Have students brainstorm and act out the water cycle.
Grades 6-8
Standard 15
- Observe and document the effects of decay on materials (e.g. fruits) left to rot.
- Establish a compost bin. Analyze the decay of the contents and the gradual appearance of various organisms over time.
- Investigate wetland soil. Discuss how organic material is broken down more slowly in anaerobic conditions.
Standard 17
- Research natural and human-caused changes in some of the large-scale ecosystems (biomes) on earth.
Appendix V
The Historical and Social Context for Science and Technology/Engineering: Topics for Study
IV. Unintended negative effects from uses of science and technology/engineering
- How government, industry, and/or individuals may be responsible for negative effects
- Damage to the environment or ecosystems in this country and elsewhere, e.g., from pesticides, clearcutting, dumping of toxic wastes, overfishing, and industrial reliance on soft coal for energy
- Some sources of damage or pollution, eg, human ignorance, overuse or abuse of natural resources
V. How science and technology address negative effects from uses of science and technology/engineering
- Examples of products ad systems that address negative effects, eg, automobile emission control devices, ceramics in car glass, biodegradable plastic
- Costs and benefits of government regulations
- How to balance risk-taking and creative entrepreneurial activity with social, personal, and ethical concerns
HEALTH
Learning Standards: Ecological Health
Grades PreK-5
13.1 Describe types of natural resources and their connection with health.
13.2 Describe how business, industry, and individuals can work cooperatively to solve ecological health problems, such as conserving natural resources and decreasing pollution.
Grades 6-8
13.3 Describe methods and benchmarks for evaluating the state of the environment.
13.4 Identify individual and community responsibility in ecological health.
13.5 Evaluate solutions generated by science, technology/engineering, and individuals regarding ecological health problems (such as energy use, water use, waste disposal, and food shortage).
Selected Examples: Ecological Health
13.2 Working with family volunteers, students clean up school grounds and plant flowers and other plants that help clean the air (such as spider plant or peace lily). Take before and after pictures and display.
13.3 Using the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Water Test Kit, students identify pollutant levels in local water sources, research the health effects, and send a report to municipal officials.
13.4 Students learn about companies that use environmentally friendly practices and the outcomes of such practices on the environment, then collaborate with a local business that has such practices to develop an environmentally related community service learning project.
Interdisciplinary Learning Objectives: Ecological Health
Grades 9-12
13.a (Law& Policy. Connects with History & Social Science: Geography). Identify the reciprocal relationships among social and economic factors and practices and ecological health.
13.b (Law & Policy. Connects with History & Social Science: Geography). Research strategies for improving global ecological health and evaluate them for their sensitivity to social background issues.
13.c. (Law & Policy. Connects with History & Social Science: Civics & Govt). Analyze the influence and contribution of government legislation and individuals’ actions on environmental health, particularly as related to disease and food production.