Three education modules using EnviroAtlas - Greenway Case Study Puts Students in the Decision-Making Role: Using Technology and Maps to Informs Development Decisions
Citation:
Hartley, J. Three education modules using EnviroAtlas - Greenway Case Study Puts Students in the Decision-Making Role: Using Technology and Maps to Informs Development Decisions. Nat'l Science Teachers' Assoc. Area Conf, Atlanta, GA, March 15 - 18, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Disseminate information to science educators about free, online EnviroAtlas lesson plans (K-12)
Description:
Session #1: Exploration and Discovery through Maps: Teaching Science with Technology (elementary school) - EnviroAtlas is a tool developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its partners that empowers anyone with the internet to be a highly informed local decision-maker. In this session, teachers will explore a K-6 lesson plan that leverages the EnviroAtlas tool, allowing students to engage in highly interactive, hands-on learning where they are introduced to data visualization and can build their analytical, geospatial, and decision-making skills. This lesson-plan encourages students to explore their local watershed through building a model, spending time outdoors, and with an online EnviroAtlas web-mapping session. The EnviroAtlas tool equips students with the skills necessary to navigate data in a technological and visual format, and has over 300 map layers and their large datasets freely available to students. Students can use EnviroAtlas to explore maps and consider real-world connections to their local environment. This session will walk teachers through the lesson package and provide free access to all handouts. The lesson plan covers NGSS 4-ESS3-2, 4-ESS2-2, 5-ESS2-1 and 5-ESS3-1. This abstract has been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Agency. Session #2: Bringing the environment home to you: making big connections between technology, the environment, and human health (middle school) - Calling teachers of all levels: this workshop is not to be missed! It presents one of the most popular lesson plans to come out of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development in the last year. This workshop will guide teachers through a Standards-based lesson-plan package that utilizes the Eco-Health Relationship Browser, an online tool that displays scientific evidence for connections between ecosystems, the services they provide, and human health. The workshop will contain active participant involvement and guarantees that you will learn something new about human health and the environment. Want to differentiate in your classroom? The lesson plan has gotten positive feedback from teachers across all scientific disciplines and grades, from elementary P.E./Health teachers to high school Statistics and AP Biology teachers, and it contains adaptations across grades 4-12. Want to make arguments from evidence for the NGSS? The Eco-Health Relationship Browser provides evidence from 500+ scientific publications. Want to walk away with something that you can use in your classroom tomorrow? This session provides free access to all handouts. This abstract has been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Agency. Session #3: Greenway Case Study puts students in the decision-making role: Using technology and maps to inform community development decisions (high school) - High school students need to be ready to make decisions in a real-world context. They also need exposure to tools that will equip them for future careers. This session will exhibit a learning module that promotes student discovery using available maps and data, engages them to be collaborative decision-makers, and introduces students to the growing field of geospatial analytics. The module involves role-play to integrate ecology, public health, and city-planning. Through this hypothetical case study, which can be completed with or without internet, students must consider whether to support the development of a proposed pilot section of greenway. Using maps, tools, and resources from EnviroAtlas (a mapping tool developed by the EPA), students are asked to justify their support or lack of support for the proposed route of greenway... (see attach