Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI)

The Education and Environment Initiative (EEI) curriculum develops student understanding of the complex issue of climate change by beginning with lessons about weather (elementary units) and later exploring more complicated concepts regarding changes in climate and impacts in the past, present and future. EEI presents currently accepted science about greenhouse gases and their role in Earth’s atmosphere. The EEI curriculum helps students understand the range of climates and microclimates in California and around the world and illustrates that humans, animals, and plants are adapted to specific climates. In the secondary grades, EEI provides students the opportunity to explore evidence of the current rate of climate change and humans contribution to climate change. They also examine the role of government and the individual in this important environmental issue.

To order a copy of the units, contact Kirk Amato by email: Kamato@calepa.ca.gov.

The following EEI Curriculum units address climate change as described:

10.3.1. - 10.3.5. Britain Solves a Problem and Creates the Industrial Revolution (History-Social Science)

This unit introduces the emergence of the modern industrial world 200 years ago during the dramatic economic transformation known as the Industrial Revolution. Students explore the increased demand for energy that accompanied the development of industry as well as the resources Britain implemented to meet their energy needs. This knowledge provides a foundation for understanding how the transition to an industrial economy led to a demand for energy production. This knowledge will support student understanding of increasing quantities of greenhouse gases being generated over time.

10.3.3. Growth of Population, Cities and Demands (History-Social Science)

Students study large urban centers in Europe and investigate how the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries changed how people lived and used natural resources. They synthesize information about the growth of factories and the migration of people from rural areas to urban centers and how these factors affected natural systems. Students recognize that the demands of human populations and their consumption rates influence the geographic extent, composition, biologic diversity, and viability of natural systems and learn that there are environmental costs related to population growth and industrialization. Students build on this knowledge to examine changes to natural systems that surfaced with the rise of these industrial cities and analyze business and government solutions to these problems.

B.6.b. Ecosystem Change in California (Biology)

In this unit, students explore the complex interactions of natural and human-caused factors that contribute to ecosystem change. Students focus on how human activities have contributed to change in ecosystems by exploring changeover time in one significantly altered ecosystem, California grasslands. This unit highlights the influence of climate on ecosystem change as students review current research and analyze tree ring and pollen core data for evidence of climate change and altered composition of grassland species over the past 24,000 years. Students also consider how decisions are made about ecosystems through an exploration of the interactions between decision makers and stakeholders.

B.8.a. Differential Survival of Organisms (Biology)

Students study abiotic and biotic natural factors and how they influence the differential survival of organisms within a population and expand this knowledge to look at ways in which human activity affects these natural factors. Students explore how species that cannot adapt to changes in the local environment or move to a more compatible environment may eventually die out locally or go extinct altogether. Understanding natural selection and evolution will allow students to understand that changing environments can influence the location and survival of groups of organisms. Students use the knowledge they gain to further explore through case studies how human activities affect change in an environment and the distribution and survival of organisms in that environment.

E.4.c. The Greenhouse Effect on Natural Systems (Earth Science)

This EEI unit explores Earth’s climate and natural greenhouse effect and how this effect creates a climate warm enough to sustain life on Earth. Students study the atmospheric gases that function as greenhouse gases (GHGs), looking at natural and human processes that produce GHGs and the processes that absorb, or “sink,” GHGs into long- and short-term storage. Students learn that human activities can disrupt GHG reservoirs resulting in the release of more GHGs into the atmosphere and that human activities produce some very powerful GHGs. By studying scientific evidence of past and present climatic changes students investigate how changes in GHG concentrations can influence global climate change and look at predictions of how climate change will affect our future.

E.5.e. Rainforests and Deserts: Distribution, Uses and Human Influences (Earth Science)

This EEI unit examines how climate changes over long periods can cause changes to the geographic distribution of an ecosystem and directly influence human communities, economies, and cultures. Students examine the role of weather, climate and latitude in determining the geographic distribution of desert and rainforest biomes. Students explore the human factors that influence the local distribution and characteristics of these biomes. Using geologic climate data and archeological evidence, students learn that climate changes can lead to changes to the geographic distribution of ecosystems and directly affect human communities.

E.7.b. The Life and Times of Carbon (Earth Science)

In this Earth Science EEI unit, students study carbon as an essential component of life. As students study the movement of carbon between Earth’s reservoirs (atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial plants and rocks, soil and sediments) they establish a basis for understanding the global carbon cycle. Students further explore how the United States and other countries consume Earth’s energy sources leading to an understanding of how human activities alter the global carbon cycle and affect global climate change.

E.8.c. Living Under One Roof (Earth Science)

In this EEI unit, students learn that the atmosphere links and interacts with all principal components of Earth’s natural systems—oceans, land, and terrestrial and aquatic organisms, and that the health of Earth’s atmosphere can be affected by human activities. Students study the Earth’s ozone layer and learn how human activity affects ozone as well as the overall atmosphere. Students investigate the effects of ultraviolet radiation on natural systems and look at how changes to the atmosphere can influence human health. Students also learn the importance of science in informing policymakers and guiding consumers in making choices that affect their environment and their health.

12.3.1. The Role of Government in Economics: An Environmental Perspective (Principles of Economics)

In this Economics unit students explores the role of government in a market economy and how that relates to the protection of our nation’s environ¬ment. Students examine various approaches used by govern¬ment to support the economy and protect environmental health, including one of today’s current approaches to environmen¬tal protection associated with greenhouse gas emissions - emissions or carbon trading. A “Cap and Trade” system is examined as one mechanism to work within the market economy to reduce carbon emissions while providing business incentives to comply with environmental standards. The analysis of a variety of case studies helps the students understand and consider the challenges faced by the government in enacting economic and environmental policies.