Sustainable Strategies (TEK) - environmental justice & indigenous knowledge

Students sign up for 1 of 19 videos, articles, or websites that feature sustainability strategies that come from local knowledge, indigenous peoples, and Black philanthropists and entrepreneurs.

They analyze the source based on how it affects the ecosystem, then reflect on 3 prompts they choose from a list of 9 in Google Forms.

For each slide, student answers these questions:

1. What people and groups are involved and what is their goal?

2. What does this source tell you about the cultural values about food, land, and community? How does one generation trade knowledge with the other?

3. List the crops, organisms, and methods mentioned/shown.

4. How do these people blend past and present knowledge to heal the future? How effective do you think they are or will be?

Strategies included are:

1. Returning Condors to the PNW (Yurok)

2. Indigenous fire management

3. Improving farming with biodiversity in Peruvian cassava

4. Water Poisoning in Japan, First Nations, and San Francisco

5. Mayan Forest Garden

6. Urban Farm: Detroit

7. Science for a Hungry World

8. Black Philanthropists Tackle Hunter in the Pandemic

9. Urban Farm: Dallas

10. Blossoms of Hope, Oregon

11. 'Homecoming' trailer

12. Heritage Crops in New Mexico

13. First Nations students in Sustainability Careers

14. Ash trees - Akwesasne Mohawk

15. Salmon - Lummi Nation

16. Water - Campo Kumeyaay Nation

17. Wild Rice - Leech Lake Ojibwe

18. White Earth Land Recovery Project

19. American Indian Foods Guide

Reflection

Reflection: Students choose 1 from 3 sets of prompts.

Students choose 1 from 3 sets of prompts.

Multi-level Trophic Pyramid Simulation Webquest

Multi-level Trophic Pyramid Simulation Webquest

Contains instructions for setting up a trophic pyramid, with screenshots and questions.

At the end of this group synchronous activity, students write an individual CER for a claim around carrying capacity.

Option to tie to logarithmic/exponential population growth & covid-19 ("what's the limiting factor for covid-19?").

Lesson (2x): Energy Flow Through Food Webs

Prior knowledge: types of energy & matter, symbiotic relationships, levels of organization (individual -> ecosystem)

Includes:

• review practice for terms & concepts

• role cards & setup instructions

• kinesthetic activities (card sort, role playing simulation)

• graphing tasks (prior class data included)

• discussion using videos to inspire & extend

Agenda

1. Do Now

a) flow chart of morning routine (intro) (skip to #2.)

b) photosynthesis from space & food in body (skip to #5.)

I. Matter, Energy, Symbiotic Relationships

2. Terminology Check

a) Symbiotic Relationship Examples

b) Card Sort: Symbiosis

3. Energy

a) Card Sorts: Types of Energy

b) Venn Diagram: Energy vs. Matter

+ optional HW: Reporting Climate Change

4. Discuss & Elaborate on how to obtain energy

a) Video: Coral - Predator? Producer? Both?

b) Video: Farallones Islands & complex relationships

II. Food Web, Trophic Levels, Energy Transfer

5. Activity: Ocean Food Web

a) Game, Graph, Analyze, Discuss

b) Define trophic level roles (HW)

6. Videos for Discussion

a) Why are detritovores important for the food web? (Explain)

b) Kelp Ecosystem (Extend)

c) Coral Reef Symbiosis (Extend)

d) Ecosystems & Ecological Communities (Explain)

e) How does climate change affect biodiversity (Extend)

f) Food Chains vs. Food Webs (Explain)

6. What’s missing in the trophic pyramid?

7. Exit Ticket

a) energy sources & transfer

b) How is the Internet like a food web?

Sources

• Energy Transfer in a Model Ecosystem

• James Truong’s lesson photos from class

• Alternative activity using water instead of beans; for which printouts are available here.