Unit Plan Overview

Name: Jin Soo Park

School: Grand Rapids Christian Middle School
Mentor Teacher: Jackie Noordewier
Grade/Subject: 6th grade/ Social Studies
General Topic: Environmental Science

Context:
(How does this unit fit with students experiences, the school goals, and the larger
societal issues? How does this fit with the broader curriculum- what has come before
and what will come after?)
The students learned about characteristics of culture, cultural
landscape, and cultural traits in our society. The students will use what
they have learned about physical and human geography to examine
the human-environment interaction.
The school coordinates a Paper Free Friday to decrease the usage of
paper so that fewer trees can be cut down for its purpose. Through this
unit, the students will understand at a deeper level why they are
saving paper, recycle, and reuse materials for the environment. They
will understand the variety of environmental issues and solutions in
their local community, state, nation and the world.
Moreover, the society in which these students come from various race,
socioeconomic level, and nationality. Through learning how to be a
steward of Gods creation, the students will begin to come together as
the body of Christ to take care of the environment.
The students have been learning about globalization and diversity of
culture. Therefore, through this unit, the students will gain a better
understanding of the global human impacts on the environment. They
will begin to see how their actions affect the world.

Objectives:

Cognitive Objectives
(What concepts do you want students to remember, understand, apply, analyze,
evaluate, [create]?)
As the students learn how humans adapt, use, and modify the
environment, they will explore how people create and address
environmental problems.
The students will remember the key concepts of this unit such as
human-environment interaction, natural resources, resource depletion,
and distribution.
The students will understand how humans impact the environment,
how natural resources are used or overused, and how products are
made, used and recycled.
The students will apply environmental studies in their daily lives. They
will apply skills of geographic inquiry to analyze a problem of
importance to a region of the world. They will carefully choose what
they eat, use, and recycle to sustain the beauty of Gods creation.
The students will analyze historical texts, articles, and videos to
develop their understanding of the human impacts on the
environment.
The students will evaluate what they have learned by creating a
project on saving the environment. They will create and design a
project to rescue the planet from pollution and other negative human
impacts on the environment in different means of assessment.

Psychomotor Objectives
(What physical skills and processes will students develop?)
The students will move around to talk with partners, point at maps,
and discuss as groups. They will go outside to plant a tree. The unit will
encourage the students on moving around instead of riding a car. The
students will be free to go anywhere inside the classroom to work on
their project.

Socio-Emotional Objectives
(What values and commitments and attitudes will students acquire or wrestle with?)
The students will acquire the value of stewardship. They will learn the
beauty of Gods creation and learn to be an agent of renewal of our
environment. They will wrestle with how they can save the
environment through their daily actions because environmental justice
is hard to see the outcome of change. The students will read and listen
to stories of how people are suffering because of the human impacts
on the environment so that they can feel and think in their shoes. The
students will think how they are being affected by the climate change
or global warming so that the students realize the importance of
learning this unit. Moreover, the students will find themselves with
students from the continent of Africa where many of the resources are
overexploited for the rest of the world.

Content Standards (common core, GLCE, etc.):

(include at least 3)
Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History and Social
Studies:
- Integrate visual information (e.g. in charts, graphs, photographs,
videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
- Explain that the physical environment is modified by human
activities, which are influenced by the ways in which human
societies value and use Earths natural resources.
- Explain how human action modifies the physical environment
and how physical systems affect human systems.
History/Social Studies
- Identify factors that contribute to conflict and cooperation
between and among cultural groups (control/use of natural
resources, power, wealth, and cultural diversity).
Reading: History/Social Studies
- The students will read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from it
Geography
- Use geographic inquiry and analysis to answer important
questions about relationships between people, cultures, their
environment, and relations within the larger world context
- Describe the environmental effects of human action on the
atmosphere (air), biosphere (people, animals, and plant),
lithosphere (soil), and hydrosphere (water).
Civics and Government
- Explain that nations interact with one another through trade,
diplomacy, treaties and agreements, humanitarian aid, economic
sanctions, and incentives.

Assessment:
Lesson 1
1. Pre-assessment (for learning):
A. Ask the students what some of the global environmental
issues they have learned about and made a superhero
project out of.
2. Formative (for learning):
A. Students will be asked questions about how humans impact
the environment. Students will be asked to write as they
watch an environmental video.
3. Formative (as learning):
A. They will reflect how they are impacting the environment
negatively and positively.
Lesson 2
1. Pre-assessment (for learning):
A. Ask the students about their reflection on yesterdays video
and activity of planting a tree. Ask the students who planted
their trees yet.
2. Formative (for learning):
A. Ask the students why we planted a tree outside the school
yard and why we took trees along. Ask the students what the
theme of the WED was, what one reason it was a global
problem, and one implementation or progress they have
found.
3. Formative (as learning):
A. Ask the students how they can recreate what was lost other
than planting trees. Give examples such as conserving
 electricity and water, using renewable energy, walking or
biking more instead of driving and gardening without using
pesticides. Ask the students about any progress made
towards recreating the environment in which they lost.
Lesson 3
1. Pre-assessment (for learning):
A. Ask the students, Does anybody remember what kind of
problem each WED tried to solve each year from 2004 to
2013? What are some of the ways we can make a better
place to live?
2. Formative (for learning):
A. What is happening to natural resources? Jot down what you
learned about natural resources and how humans are
destroying them at an alarming rate.
3. Formative (as learning):
A. The students will reflect what they feel about the destruction
of natural resources.
Lesson 4
1. Pre-assessment (for learning):
A. What are some of the examples of natural resources? How
are natural resources overexploited? In what ways?
2. Formative (for learning):
A. The students will be asked what happened to our natural
resources over the years and how humans used resources.
The students will be asked how resources are being taken
away by other countries.
3. Formative (as learning):
A. The students will reflect on how they can be a change in their
society. What can we do to make a change? What are the
three things you need to make a change?
Lesson 5
1. Pre-assessment (for learning):
A. What are the three main societies the humanity has gone
through? How can we be more sustainable or care for the
environment in our age today?
2. Formative (for learning):
A. The students will be asked why there are poverty in the
continent of Africa and how they can
3. Formative (as learning):
A. The students will reflect what they watched and felt about
the injustice of taking away resources from other countries.
Also, they will be asked to find a holistic view of the situation
in Africa.

5 Lesson Plan Topics:

(bullet list)
Lesson 1- How Do Humans Interact with the Environment?
- Understand how human interaction with the environment has led
to global environmental problems.
- Understand the deep complexity of environmental issues by
looking at multiple views of an issue.
- Apply the environmental impact we watched by going outside
and planting a tree as an act of justice.
Lesson 2- World Environment Day Activity
- Apply what they have learned about environmental problems to
understand the different themes of World Environment Day from
2004 to 2013
- Understand the different themes of the World Environment Day
(WED) by analyzing different texts.
- Create their own representation of the different WED themes and
discuss them about the importance of each years WED.
Lesson 3- What Are Natural Resources and How Do People Use Them?
- Analyze different texts to understand what natural resources are
and where we find them
- Apply what the students learned about natural resources to
create a list of renewable resources that we can use to help the
environment.
Lesson 4- History of Resources
- Analyze a text about the History of Natural Resources by reading
for keywords.
- Apply the text to talk with a classmate about environmental
changes that happened throughout the history
- Understand ways in which the students can change the
environmental problems we see today through advocating,
writing a letter or other means.
Lesson 5- Overexploitation of Natural Resources in Africa
- Understand a complexity of how natural resources are overused
in parts of the world by analyzing a map and a chart.
- Analyze a chart of richest countries and the poorest countries by
looking at how the different natural resources are used and
taken away.
- Evaluate the issues of poverty in the continent of Africa by
seeing how unjust the economic system is.
- Understand a holistic view of Africa by watching the two videos.