Contemporary World Problems, Environmental Science & English
About this course
This theme-based English course integrates reading, writing, listening, speaking, and critical thinking skills around assignments and activities focusing on Environmental Science and Contemporary World Problems. Topics include population, ecology, climate change, pollution, food systems, environmental racism, and sustainability. Students will specifically focus on environmental issues related to the Pacific Northwest. Laboratories and field trips are included. This competency-based class allows students to work at their own pace, exit at a level appropriate to demonstrated skills and knowledge, and earn possible high school completion English, Lab Science, Contemporary World Problems and/or elective credits.
Course outcomes
At the completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Evaluate information scientifically in the context of his/her own life.
- Explain the importance of observation and hypothesis testing in the scientific process
- Distinguish between science and non-science practices.
- Perform scientific investigations in lab setting, gather, analyze and critically evaluate scientific data
- Communicate scientific results according to appropriate academic standards.
- Define basic principles used in community and ecosystem ecology, and compare the biodiversity of several different habitat types.
- Identify and evaluate instances where population growth and humans' use of resources impacts the natural environment.
- Use the concept of sustainability to critique global and local environmental issues
- Identify the steps that can be taken to improve environmental conditions.
- Actively participate in solutions to environmental problems.
- Interpret and explain basic scientific data represented in graphs and charts.
- Utilize academic research skills; such as evaluate the quality/credibility of information from various kinds of sources.
- Narrow topics and discern the most important information from texts.
- Employ strategies to build and retain vocabulary.
- Identify how authors organize text both written and oral and use vocabulary for specific purposes and audiences.
- Utilize the writing process to write academic essays.
- Improve sentence clarity and structure by addressing errors in the context of their own writing.