Utilitarian Science

Objective: Create a sustainable travel proposal for 2026 that adheres to the "Three Pillars of Ecotourism": Environmental, Social, and Economic impact. During this activity, students will design and present a 7 day itinerary for a trip which focuses on ecotourism. I did not give students a budget to work with, however you could do this. Students choose their destination, plan their transportation, activities and meals which should be as carbon and waste neutral as possible. There is a rubric to

Once again, I couldn't find what I wanted, so I made it. This poster project not only requires students to identify and explain the different parts of the water, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycle, but also requires them to connect the cycles to each other and determine human impacts on each cyle. Interactivity allows students to be creative and provide kinesthetic learning opportunities.

GATACA is a dystopian movie who's premise is a society that uses DNA to disriminate. It is full of ethical conversations. I love showing it in my freshmen bio classes when I actually have time in the year. The movie is thought provoking, and its amazing how much Biotech has advanced since the movie was releaased in 1997.

The Elephant in The Living Room is a fabulous documentary that addresses the issues of keeping exotic pets, specifically large cats as pets. You can find the documentary on Amazon prime. My students find this documentary fascinating. I use it with the environmental science chapter on biodiversity when we discuss invasive species and the black market animal trade.

I have found a fill in the blank worksheet works well with the crash course videos if we are watching as a class because Hank (while I love him) talks entirely too fast. So, I made a fill in the blank worksheet for my students and am sharing it with you!!

Once again, I couldn't find what I wanted to reinforce and teach the concept of karyotyping so I created my own activity. This activity is to be used with the Arizona Biology Project's Karyotyping activity which is a fantastic virtual resource. I find the students have a really hard time matching up chromosomes in a cut and paste activity, this virtual activity does most of the matching for them and has students find and analyze chromosomal abnormalities.

For use in environmental science with the TedX video, Feedback Loops, How Nature Gets Its Rhythm. Used as an ancillary activity to explain how feedback loops work in nature.

I couldn't find a cabbage juice pH lab with a bit more rigor so I created one. I wanted a lab that not only tested different substances for their pH with cabbage juice, but I also wanted students to observe how a buffer affects the color change as well. I also wanted students to make connections to the human body.

If you aren't using the NSTA case study collection to enhance your Environmental Science class you are missing out completely. This is a great case study which demonstrates how science is hard work but also provides evidence how water runoff can pollute and affect wildlife.

For use with the TedEd video, What Really Happens to The Plastic You Throw Away. I created this for my environmental science class for accountability purposes. I like to have students fill it out at their own pace rather than show to the entire class. It can move a little too quickly.