Description
This unit focuses on ecosystems and the services they provide to all communities, including human communities. To do this we are focusing on our local watershed, Big Chico Creek. This unit is scaffolded, culminating in a large, group project exploring how the development of a piece of land can affect our watershed and therefore the ecosystem. The major goals of this unit are for the students to understand how different land use affects a watershed, how water chemistry can change due to land use and what these changes mean for the biotic factors of an aquatic ecosystem. This unit incorporates the engineering design process, modeling, data collection, hands-on cooperative learning, use of technology, and research.