Environmental Systems
Micros – Grading Cycle: 1
S. Martinez
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Unit 0: Lab Safety, Scientific Method
TEKS Covered: 1,
Objectives:
 Develop rules to perform safe labs.
 Identify the components of the scientific method.
 Demonstrate the process of the scientific method while safely
performing a lab.
Unit One: Human Issues
Activity 1: Population – More is Less
TEKS Covered:
Key Vocabulary: birth rate, carrying capacity, death rate, demography,
doubling time, emigration, exponential growth, immigration, per capita, and
population
Objectives:
 Evaluate Population Growth (groups will develop graphs for different
values of exponential growth)
 Differentiate between factors that could be generally classified as
“good” or “harmful” for people and the environment.
 Summarize and evaluate the long-term effects of population growth.
Unit One: Human Issues
Activity 27: Food Chains (Unit 6: Energy)
TEKS Covered:
Key Vocabulary: abiotic, decomposer, herbivore, biomass, ecosystem,
omnivore, carnivore, food chain, photosynthesis, consumer, food web, and
producer
 Review the concept of a food pyramid of a pyramid of biomass
Activity 2: Food? What Food?
Key Vocabulary: food chain, malnourished, per capita, undernourished,
vegan, and vegetarian
Objectives:
 Students will demonstrate a food chain or a pyramid of biomass by
playing the roles at each trophic level. Discussion to follow about
limiting factors and their observations
 Students will relate what they observed in the food chain activity to
what is taking place world-wide.
Unit One: Human Issues
Movie: Food, Inc.
TEKS Covered:
Key Vocabulary: antibiotic resistance, blacklist, CAFO, DNA, E. Coli, economic,
efficiency, false dichotomy, feedlot, GMO, grain-fed, intellectual property,
libel, NAFTA, organic food, patent, rBST-Free, settle, and sue
Objectives:
 Think through their (student’s) own perceptions, ideas, and solutions
so that they are better prepared to make thoughtful choices about
Environmental Systems
Micros – Grading Cycle: 1
S. Martinez
Week 5
Week 5
food.
 Make connections between ways of thinking about the food-related
issues presented in the film and the big questions we face in life.
 Develop the knowledge and skills they need to participate in a
meaningful public dialogue about food and food systems.
 Take action to address food-related issues in their own lives.
Unit One: Human Issues
Activity 3: We “Auto” Drive Less
TEKS Covered:
Key Vocabulary: Carpool, public transit, and subsidy
Objectives:
 Discussion over the advantages and disadvantages of the use of
private transportation.
 Discuss survey taking methods.
 Discuss how to graph data.
 Students will interpret the data gathered via the surveys and
determine what changes could be made in the infrastructures of cities
to promote the use of public transportation.
Unit One: Human Issues
Activity 4: Toxins in the Home
Key Vocabulary: caustic, corrosive, flammable, ingest, leachate, toxic, and
volatile
 Survey their homes for hazardous substances
 Examine labels of house hold products for warnings
 List alternatives for hazardous substances
 Identify proper means of disposing of hazardous substances
 Increase awareness of toxins in the home
End of Grading Cycle Exam:
 Students will select essay topics over previous topics covered in the
course during current grading cycle.