Human Impacts Classwork
Name: _______________________________
5th Grade PSI
1. What impact do humans have on the Earth?
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2. What are the two ways we can measure how humans have changed the Earth?
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3. List 4 things humans depend on the natural environment for:
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
4. How does your ecological footprint compare to others around the world?
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5. What are the two types/cause of global change? Give an example of each you
have seen in your environment or ecosystem.
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
Human Impacts Homework
Name: _______________________________
5th Grade PSI
6. What are three areas of the Earth humans have impacted?
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7. Describe how humans are agents of change.
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8. Define Anthropocene Era. When does it start?
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9. What is an ecological footprint? Draw a picture of the three biggest contributors
to your ecological footprint.
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Humans Impact on Earth
Negative Human Impacts Classwork
Name: __________________________
5th Grade PSI
10. Define carrying capacity.
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11. Define pollution and the three main types.
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12. What are three ways humans have impacted the land?
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13. Describe one type of land pollution you have observed in your community. How
did the pollution impact the land?
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14. Humans have changed the ___________________, ___________________ and
___________________ of Earth’s water supplies.
15. What are four impacts of dams on the surround ecosystems?
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
16. What are the three main causes of increased levels of air pollution and
decreased air quality?
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17. What are the main factors behind global warming?
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18. What are five signs of global warming?
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
e. ___________________________________________________________
19. Describe the greenhouse effect.
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20. Is the greenhouse effect beneficial or harmful? Explain why.
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21. What is biodiversity and why is it important?
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
22. Earth is in its ________________ extinction crisis with an estimated
________________ species being driven to extinction every year.
23. List four causes for the increased number of species going extinct.
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
24. Define bioaccumulation.
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25. Describe how humans have impacted space?
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26. Do human impacts in one of the Earth’s spheres impact the other spheres? Why
or why not?
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
Negative Human Impacts Homework
Name: __________________________
5th Grade PSI
27. Define resource depletion. What are the two driving factors behind resource
depletion?
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28. List five negative impacts humans have had on Earth:
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
e. ___________________________________________________________
29. Define the following terms
a. Deforestation: _______________________________________________
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b. Desertification: ______________________________________________
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c. Soil Depletion: _______________________________________________
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30. After mining an area, companies often restore the area. Would this still be a type
of land pollution? Why or why not?
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31. How does land pollution affect the quality of water?
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
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32. There is a fixed amount of water on Earth and a very limited amount of useable
freshwater. With an increasing population, what effect will it have on the amount
of useable water?
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33. Your friend claims that air pollution only comes from human sources. Are they
correct? Why or why not?
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34. What sources of air pollution have you observed in your community?
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35. Define global warming.
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36. What cause the hole in the ozone? Why is it harmful?
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Humans Impact on Earth
37. What are three reason for the increased habitat destruction?
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38. Describe the impacts of an invasive species and how it might drive a species to
extinction.
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39. Draw and label the process of bioaccumulation.
40. Give an example of a negative human impact in one sphere that impacts the
other spheres.
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Humans Impact on Earth
Positive Human Impacts Classwork
Name: __________________________
5th Grade PSI
41. List four positive impacts human have had on Earth:
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
42. Define reforestation.
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43. How do new technologies have a positive impact on the Earth? Give an example.
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44. What are five daily changes you can make to reduce your impact on Earth?
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
e. ___________________________________________________________
45. What are nonrenewable resources? In what ways are they harmful to the Earth?
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
Positive Human Impacts Homework
Name: __________________________
5th Grade PSI
46. What is the difference between recycling and reuse/upcycling? Give an example
of each.
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47. What is one example of how legislation has led to a positive impact on the Earth?
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48. Define sustainable agriculture.
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49. What are four ways you can reduce your impact on Earth?
a. ___________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________
c. ___________________________________________________________
d. ___________________________________________________________
50. Give an example of renewable resources and explain why they are better for the
environment.
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
Humans Impact on Earth CW/HW Answer Key
1)
2)
3)
4)
Answers will vary; may include pollution, deforestation, and species extinction.
Geological and Chemical Evidence
Answers will vary; may include food supply, medicine, energy, recreation, resources
Answers will vary; developed countries have a larger ecological footprint compared
to undeveloped countries.
5) The two types of global change are human and natural changes. Examples should
give examples of each type of change.
6) Answers will vary; land, rivers, oceans, air, space
7) Humans have become one of the most significant agents of change on the Earth.
Human activities in agriculture, industry and everyday life have had major impacts
on the land, rivers, oceans, air and outer space
8) The Anthropocene Era starts at the beginning of the 1900’s and is the age when the
effects of increased human population and economic development severely
impacted the planetary physical, chemical and biological conditions.
9) An ecological footprint is the measure of human demand on the ecosystems.
10) Carrying capacity is the number of people and activities that the Earth can sustain
indefinitely.
11) Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances into the environment. Air, water,
and land are the main areas of pollution.
12) Answers will vary; may include the land has been impacted human agriculture,
mining and expansion of settlements and roads
13) Answers will vary; students should describe one type of land pollution (industrial,
agricultural or human activities) they observed and its impact on the land.
14) Availability, distribution and quality
15) Answers will vary; displaces communities, contributes to global warming, reduces
biodiversity, poor water quality, decreased fish populations, blocks fish migration,
disrupts flow of sediments.
16) Increased manufacturing, growing population and higher usage of fossil fuels.
17) The driving factor behind the rise in Earth's temperature is an increase of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere from the usage of fossil fuels.
18) Answers will vary; decrease in glaciers, increased temperatures, decreased snow
cover, rising sea level, increased humidity.
19) The warming of the Earth's surface and air is known as the greenhouse effect.
Energy from the sun is trapped by common greenhouse gasses such as water
vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane.
20) It is beneficial because without it Earth would be too cold for life to exist. However,
the depletion of the ozone and increased pollution leads to an increase in the
amount of solar radiation that reaches Earth. This causes a rise in Earth’s
temperature, increased cancer rates and changes in animal life cycles.
21) Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth at all levels, from microbes to fungi to
ecosystems. Biodiversity is necessary to meet basic human needs such as food,
drinking water, fuel, shelter and medicine.
22) Sixth & 30,000 (answers must be in that order)
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Humans Impact on Earth
23) Over hunting, destruction of habitat, invasive species, climate change
24) Bioaccumulation is the build up of chemicals in a living organism over time.
25) Humans have impacted space through space debris.
26) Human impacts in one sphere can impact all the other spheres because they are all
related.
27) Resource depletion is the use of resources at a rate faster than they can be
replenished. Two driving forces behind resource depletion is economic growth and
population increase.
28) Answers will vary; Global warming, Air/ Ozone depletion, Pollution, Space Debris,
Resource Depletion, Loss of biodiversity, Population Increase, Economic Growth,
Damaged and Destroyed ecosystems or other acceptable answers.
29) Definitions should include:
a. Deforestation is the cutting down and/or burning of Earth’s forests.
b. Desertification is the transformation of habitable land to desert due to a change
in climate or destructive land use.
c. Soil Depletion is a decrease in soil quality causes include loss of nutrients
caused by over farming and erosion by wind.
30) Answers will vary; Even though the area is “restored” the effects of use and resource
depletion still exist. Habitats that were destroyed will take years to recover.
31) Land pollution affects the quality of water because it all flows downstream. Surface
pollution is carried into water sources or can leach into the ground water.
32) Answers will vary; increasing populations and demand for resources (food,
materials, ect) have already put a strain on the amount of useable freshwater.
33) The friend is incorrect, air pollution also comes from natural sources such as forest
fires or volcanoes.
34) Answers will vary; Manufacturing, transportation, farming, natural sources.
35) Global warming is the slow and continual rise in Earth’s atmospheric, ocean and
surface temperature.
36) Human activities, particularly the use of chloroflourocarbons (CFCs), has contributed
to the decline of the amount of ozone and the formation of holes in the ozone layer.
Ozone is a gas in the stratosphere that protects us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet
light.
37) Answers will vary; increased population, competition for food, increased economic
development
38) The introduction of invasive species, replacement of areas with a single crop, and
over harvesting of fish has caused a massive loss in biodiversity due to human
impacts. Invasive species can compete with existing species for resources.
Additionally, if there is no natural predator for the invasive species. It can over take
an ecosystem driving other species to extinction.
39) Answers will vary; pictures should display the buildup of chemical in species over
time.
40) Answers will vary; students should give examples of human impacts effects on
multiple spheres. For example, air pollution creates acid rain which impacts the
hydrosphere and geospheres.
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth
41) Answers will vary; recycling, protection of wildlife, protection of lands, reforestation,
increased crop yields, development of green technologies.
42) After forests and woodlands have been depleted due to human activities, the
process of returning them to their natural form is reforestation.
43) Answers will vary: new technologies reduce human dependence on fossil fuels and
inefficient methods. These technologies help reduce the amount of energy used
while providing sustainable options for the future with minimal impact on the
environment. Examples might include solar panels, wind turbines, LED light bulbs,
ect.
44) Answers will vary: use less heating/cooling, update light bulbs to energy efficient
ones, recycle, unplug unused electronics, buy local goods, use public transportation,
turn off lights when not in the room.
45) Coal, oil and natural gas are nonrenewable resources that exist in limited supply
where once they are used up they are not replaced. They are harmful for the earth
because they require a lot of energy and resources for extraction and produce
harmful byproducts.
46) Recycling is the conversion of waste into reusable materials, such as an empty can
being turned back into a new can. Reuse is using an item for something other than
its intended purpose, such as using empty yogurt containers to store materials in.
47) Answers will vary; Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act
48) Sustainable agriculture is a system that can indefinitely sustain itself without harming
the land, the environment or the people.
49) Answers will vary: Reducing energy consumption, Using alternative sources of
energy, Diversifying crops, Using drip irrigation for agriculture, Developing wildlife
conservation plans , Protecting habitats and lands
50) Renewable resources on the other hand are any resource that can be replenished
naturally over time. Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and
hydropower have the potential to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels while
helping to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions.
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5th Grade PSI
Humans Impact on Earth