Friday, July 25
1:50 pm    Summer vacation

PREREQUISITE: SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF ALGEBRA I, A 'B' OR BETTER IN EIGHTH GRADE MATH, OR PERMISSION OF DEPARTMENT HEAD

The first trimester of this class is an ecological sequence that includes a greater depth of mathematical and physical analysis than does the college preparatory course above. Students will be introduced to the importance of soils as the foundations of ecosystems and the chemistry that characterizes them, the flow of energy and matter through trophic levels in ecosystems and the physics of these transitions, ecological communities and populations and the mathematics that describe their fluctuations, and terrestrial biomes with emphasis placed on characteristics that can be represented graphically.  Laboratory investigations will comprise a major portion of a student’s grades in addition to projects, tests, and homework.

The second trimester is an environmental sequence that again includes a greater depth of mathematical and physical analysis than does the college preparatory course above. Students will be introduced to the history and demographics of human population growth and biodiversity decline with increased reliance on statistics, present and alternative forms of energy and the physical principles that underlie them, water and soil management and the diverse chemistry within these portions of the biosphere, and global atmospheric change and the underlying chemical and physical principles that explain it. In each unit, students will examine differing viewpoints on key environmental issues and develop opinions supported by independent reading. As with the first trimester, laboratory investigations will comprise a major portion of student’s grades in addition to projects, tests, and homework.

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