Science and Sustainability

Course Overview

Science and Sustainability is a four-part integrated science course. Shown below are the four parts of the course, along with the titles of units. Each unit contains 3–5 activities, for a total of 133 activities in the entire program.

Science and Sustainability Course Parts

Unit Titles

Part 1 Living on Earth
This section establishes a foundation for the rest of the course as students explore the relationship between science and sustainable development. Major topics include population growth, thermodynamics, and energy. Activities include measuring energy transfer, growing a population of fruit flies, and analyzing Landsat imagery.

1. Sustainable Living
2. Survival Needs: Food
3. Survival Needs: Temperature
4. Energy Transfer
5. Designing an Insulation System
6. Living in Today’s World
7. Modeling Human Population Growth
8. Population Dynamics
9. Changing Populations
10. Providing for the Population

Part 2 Feeding the World
How can we ensure that enough food will be available for the world’s growing population? Students explore genetics, plant biology, elements, molecules, and energy within the context of food production. Activities include creating models of molecules, measuring nitrogen content of soil, and experimenting with plant growth.

11. Food Production
12. Necessary Nutrients
13. Cell Structure and Function
14. Earth’s Components
15. Classifying Elements
16. Photosynthesis
17. Plant Genetics and the Green Revolution
18. Breeding Improved Crops
19. Genetically Engineering Food
20. The Role of Cloning in Food Production

Part 3 Using Earth’s Resources
How are materials and energy related to standards of living? Students examine this issue as they study the periodic table, chemical bonding, polymerization, and catalysis. There is also an emphasis on the role and impact of technology. Activities include measuring the decomposition rate of hydrogen peroxide, creating a cross-linked polymer, and conducting a fractional distillation.

21. Identifying and Separating Hydrocarbons
22. The Chemistry of Hydrocarbons.
23. Clothing Materials
24. Materials Resources: Metals
25. By-Products of Materials Production
26. Catalysts, Enzymes, and Reaction Rates
27. Breakdown!.
28. Food Preservation
29. Refrigeration Technology
30. Economy of Material Use

Part 4 Moving the World
The use of fuel resources to provide energy is the focus of this unit. Students study mechanics, energy, nuclear chemistry, irradiation, and gas laws. Activities include collecting the byproducts of combustion, measuring motion, and investigating light radiation.

31. Fueling Trade-offs
32. Fuel From Food.
33. Exothermic and Endothermic Interactions
34. Energy From the Nucleus
35. Mechanical Energy
36. Trade-offs of Energy Use
37. Global Perspectives on Sustainability

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