Environmental Science
Grade level: 11-12
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Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability |
Living more sustainably; population growth; economic growth; environmentally sustainable development; globalization; resources; pollution; environmental and resource problems; cultural changes and sustainability |
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Environmental Economics, Politics, and Worldviews |
Economic systems and environmental problems; monitoring economic and environmental progress; environmental quality; reducing poverty to improve environmental quality and human well-being; environmentally sustainable economics; politics and environmental policy; global environmental policy; worldviews; living more sustainably |
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Science, Systems, Matter, and Energy |
Science; environmental science; models; behavior of systems; matter; energy; physical and chemical changes; The Law of Conservation of Matter; nuclear change |
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Ecosystems |
The nature of ecology; the Earth’s life-support systems; ecosystem concepts and components; food chains; food webs and energy flow; primary productivity; matter cycling; ecosystem services and sustainability |
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Evolution Vs. Creationism |
Macroevolution; microevolution; the creation as told in Genesis Ch.1 |
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Climate, Terrestrial Biodiversity, and Aquatic Biodiversity |
Weather and climate; desert and grass biomes; forest and mountain biomes; saltwater and freshwater life zones |
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Community Ecology |
Community structure; species diversity; types of species; competition; predation; parasitism; mutualism; commensalisms; ecological succession; ecological stability and sustainability |
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Population Dynamics |
Population dynamics; carrying capacity; predation and controlling population size; reproductive patterns; survival; conservation biology; human impacts on ecosystems |
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Geology |
Geologic processes; natural hazards; soil resources and erosion; finding, removing, and processing nonrenewable mineral resources; supplies of mineral resources |
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Risk, Toxicology, and Human Health |
Risk, probability, and environmental hazards; toxicology; chemical hazards; biological hazards |
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The Human Population |
Factors affecting human population size; solutions; cutting global population growth; population distribution; urban resources and environmental problems; transportation and urban development |
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Air and Air Pollution |
The atmosphere; outdoor air pollution; photochemical and industrial smog; acid deposition; indoor air pollution and its effects; reducing air pollution |
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Climate Change and Ozone Loss |
The natural greenhouse effect; climate change and human activities; factors affecting change of the Earth’s average temperature; possible affects of a warmer world; ozone depletion; protecting the ozone layer |
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Water Resources and Water Pollution |
Water’s importance and unique properties; supply of water; water renewal; uses of water; flooding; types of water pollutants; effect of water pollutants; sources of water pollutants; freshwater pollution; saltwater pollution; reducing and preventing water pollution |
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Solid and Hazardous Waste |
Wasting resources; producing less waste and pollution; solutions: reuse and recycling; detoxifying waste; burning, burying, and exporting waste; government regulations |
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Food Resources |
Food production; nutrition and environmental effects; increasing the world’s crop production; producing more meat; catching and raising more fish; protecting food resources using pesticides and pest control; sustainable agriculture |
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Sustaining Terrestrial and Aquatic Biodiversity |
Human impacts on biodiversity; land use; managing and sustaining forests; tropical deforestation; managing and sustaining national parks; establishing and managing nature reserves; ecological restoration |
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Sustaining Wild Species |
Species extinction; habitat loss and degradation; extinction from nonnative species, hunting, poaching, and other threats; protecting wild species |
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Nonrenewable Energy Resources |
Evaluating energy resources; oil; natural gas; coal; nuclear energy |
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Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy |
The importance of improving energy efficiency; ways to improve energy efficiency; solar energy; hydroelectricity; geothermal energy; wind energy; biomass energy; the solar-hydrogen revolution |