Lesson Plans for using the Gaia Hypothesis as a means to solving problems in the environment. (adapted from:  http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1997/7/97.07.02.x.html

The focus here is understanding of species in terms of its ecosystem or environment. Using this approach, you can weave in the outlines of classification and a study of representative organisms into ecology.  Use the part of the syllabus found in biological texts on vertebrate and invertebrate phyla/classes and fold them into ecology. The contemporary environmental importance of species diversity is reinforced in this way as a deeper understanding is gained of the inseparable unity between environment and life, which happens also to be the central tenet of the Gaia hypothesis.   Your course out-line for students may then look like the one that follows:

a) Course out line for integrating the unit into ecology and biodiversity

Students will be working on an ecology project that will consist of two parts. The first will integrate the study of four organisms of your choice with the study of four different biomes. In the second, you will choose and research a particular environmental problem, examine it in terms of the Gaia hypothesis and propose a plan for solving the problem. The project will be written up as a mini-booklet using an analytical scoring rubric as guide for self-grading purposes. You will present your environmental problem and proposed solution to the whole class using a science fair type of presentation board. Deadlines for handing in different parts of the project will need to be met to receive full credit. Each week will include a video, a lecture, reading in the library, writing and drawing in class along with a problem solving test and vocabulary/concept quiz on Fridays. 

Part I  How do the organisms below fit into the environment in a Gaia sense?  Discuss their niches, their effects on the environment, their place in the food chain, their connection with other organisms, their importance in terms of biodiversity, how their success or demise might affect other species, and how humans contribute to their success or demise.

1. Introduction to Ecology

2. Organism A and the ocean biome

3. Organism B and the wetland biome

4. Organism C and the desert or grassland biome

5. Organism D and the forest (taiga, deciduous, tropical) biome

Part II  Problems can be about pollution, deforestation, disease, nuclear proliferation, etc.  Be sure to discuss the political, economic, social, cultural, and scientific implications of the problem and the solution.  Problems should be like those set out in Defining a Social Policy - Use this as a guide to the desired outcome of the project.

1. The Gaia Hypothesis: A Method Of Solving Human Created Problems In The Environment .(name your problem you are interested in solving)

2. Materials used in the class presentation.

To grade the written section of part l, the first of the analytical scoring rubrics  will be used. The second analytical scoring rubric will be used for part II. A journal will be used for recording reflections, notes, and epiphanies. A grade point sheet will be kept stapled into the journal for recording and calculating grades or quality of work. In both section I and II of your project, it is important that organisms and a problem are chosen that are personally appealing.

 

 

 

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