W- Ensure the students know where the unit is headed and why

• Introduce the essential questions and have the students create prelimanary answers. Also discuss the culminating unit task.

H- hook the students in the beginning and hold their attention throughout

• Begin with an entry question (Can the Earth continue to sustain the human race in the future?) to hook student interest.
• Read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to introduce the concept of humans' role in destroying ecosystems.

E- Equip students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge, and know-how to meet performance goals

• Define core vocabulary words (Ecology, biosphere, biotic, abiotic, organisms, stochastic, habitat, population of species, equillibrium, predation, parasitism, mutualism, commonsalism, amensalsim, ecological collapse, hot spots) to be used throughout the unit.
• Create and interpret food chains, food webs and energy pyramids, nutrient flow diagrams to model simple ecosystems.
• Graph and interpret the dynamic equilibrium of population over time. Infer and predict population changes resulting from environmental disturbances using a food web.
• Define and analyze the relationships present in different ecosystems.
• Read and interpret excerpt's from Thoreau's Walden and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

R- Provide students with numerous opportunites to rethink big ideas, reflect on progress, and revise their work

• Working in cooperative groups, students will focus on a specific ecosystem that is being impacted by human development.
• Based on presentations from other small groups, students will learn about numerous worldwide examples of human development impacting ecosystems.

E- Build in opportunites for students to evaluate progress and self-reflect

• Individual students evaluate the severity of the impact on each ecosystem examined at the Environmental Summit.
• Self-assess work of individual's cooperative learning group and peer assess the work of other cooperative learning groups.
• Return to the essential questions and create a final response.
  

T- Be tailored to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and needs

• Each student designs a different contribution for the environmental summit, ranging from a written paper, verbal presentation, or a visual representation.
• Choice among topics allow students to chose an example that is engaging and interesting.
  

O- Be organized to optimize deep understanding as opposed to superficial coverage

• Unit continually addresses and returns to essential questions as students create a deeper understanding.
• Students examine different ecosystems that have been impacted environmental policies.