Unit 4 — December: Natural Resource Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture
Description
December addresses how humans use and impact natural resources. Students explore the causes of extinction, including overharvesting and overfishing. They investigate how technology and society have changed natural resource use by comparing life before and after the industrial revolution, studying Native American agriculture, and examining sustainable island agriculture. Hands-on activities include simulating overfishing with popcorn and learning about modern growing techniques through hydroponics and aquaponics systems that students set up and monitor.
Essential Questions
- How do human activities affect natural resources and biodiversity?
- What does sustainable agriculture look like?
- How can technology be used to conserve resources?
Learning Objectives
- Understand the causes of species extinction and overharvesting
- Trace how technology has changed human use of natural resources
- Analyze historical and cultural approaches to agriculture
- Set up and monitor hydroponics and aquaponics systems
- Understand sustainable growing techniques
- Apply simulation activities to understand resource management
Supplemental Resources
- Popcorn for the overfishing simulation activity
- Chart paper for recording sustainability findings
- Markers and colored pencils for creating presentation materials
- Index cards for organizing facts about agricultural practices
- Printed images or photographs of different farming systems
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth and Space Sciences
Life Sciences
Science and Engineering Practices
Students engage in reading informational texts, conducting research, and producing written work across all units. They write reports, blog posts, and portfolio updates on agricultural topics; engage in collaborative discussions about food systems, natural resources, and animal science; present findings using multimedia tools; and gather information from multiple sources to support claims about agriculture and the environment.
Students apply mathematical reasoning throughout the curriculum, including calculating food costs and nutrition from grocery advertisements, computing feed amounts and percentages for livestock, determining square footage for chicken coop design, converting units of measurement in food science, analyzing water chemistry data using graphs, and computing ratios and rates related to population dynamics and carrying capacity.
Students apply life, earth, and environmental science concepts across all units, including investigating plant cell structure and function, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration; studying genetics and heredity through Punnett squares and DNA extraction; analyzing ecosystems, food webs, and population dynamics; conducting water chemistry investigations; and examining the roles of organisms in natural systems and the impacts of human activity on the environment.
Students examine the history of agriculture from Native American practices through the industrial revolution, research food policies and cultural practices affecting food production and distribution across the U.S. and the world, investigate the influence of agricultural development on civilizations, and explore how economics, culture, and geography shape food systems and natural resource use globally.
Career readiness, life literacies, and key skills are embedded throughout all units. Students explore careers in agriculture, food science, natural resource management, animal science, agribusiness, and veterinary science; develop personal finance and budgeting skills through agribusiness activities; use technology tools to research and present information; and apply critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills in hands-on and project-based contexts.
Formative Assessments
- Observations during overfishing simulation activity
- Journals documenting hydroponics and aquaponics setup and monitoring
- Pair and share discussions on sustainability concepts
- Group work on resource management simulations
- Self-evaluations of system maintenance
Summative Assessment
Projects analyzing natural resource issues, presentations on sustainable agriculture, portfolio updates with system observations
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to teacher questions about extinction causes and sustainable practices, or by sorting and labeling images of sustainable versus unsustainable resource use instead of written analysis. Visual supports such as cause-and-effect diagrams or labeled system diagrams may be provided to scaffold understanding of hydroponics, aquaponics, and historical agricultural methods.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students benefit from visual supports such as labeled diagrams of hydroponics and aquaponics systems to build understanding of system components and vocabulary before setup begins. Directions for simulation activities and system monitoring tasks should be broken into numbered steps, with key terms highlighted and a vocabulary reference available throughout the unit. Journals may be completed using a structured template that includes sentence starters, labeled diagrams to annotate, or the option to dictate observations aloud rather than write them in full. Extended time and frequent check-ins during hands-on monitoring and project work help ensure students stay on track and can demonstrate mastery of sustainability concepts through multiple output modes.
Section 504
Students should have access to extended time during journal entries, simulation debriefs, and any written project components related to natural resource analysis. Preferential seating near the teacher during direct instruction on topics such as the industrial revolution or extinction causes supports focus and comprehension. Printed copies of any directions displayed on the board — particularly for system setup and monitoring procedures — reduce the cognitive load of copying and allow students to stay engaged with the hands-on work.
ELL / MLL
Visual cues such as photographs, diagrams, and short video clips help make abstract concepts like overharvesting, sustainability, and the industrial revolution more concrete and accessible across language levels. Key unit vocabulary — including terms such as extinction, hydroponics, aquaponics, and conservation — should be introduced with visuals and reviewed consistently throughout the unit, and students may benefit from a bilingual word bank or picture glossary for reference. Directions for hands-on activities like the overfishing simulation and system setup should be delivered in clear, simple language with a demonstration so students understand what is expected before attempting the task independently.
At Risk (RTI)
Connecting unit concepts to familiar contexts — such as local fishing practices, food sources, or water use — helps students build relevance and access prior knowledge before introducing more complex ideas like sustainable agriculture or the effects of the industrial revolution. The simulation activities, including the overfishing model, serve as strong entry points because they are concrete and participatory, allowing students to experience resource management challenges directly before discussing them conceptually. System monitoring journals can be structured with simplified prompts and visual recording options so that students can engage meaningfully with observations without being blocked by writing demands.
Gifted & Talented
Students ready for greater depth can investigate the interconnected environmental, economic, and cultural factors that drive natural resource depletion, going beyond single causes to analyze systems-level thinking around sustainability. Comparing historical agricultural models — such as Native American land stewardship or traditional island farming — with contemporary industrial practices offers rich material for original analysis and evidence-based argumentation. Students may also extend their hydroponics or aquaponics monitoring by designing their own inquiry questions about plant or system variables, documenting findings over time, and drawing conclusions that connect back to broader questions about food security and sustainable resource management.