Lesson Plan Background: Pollution and Global Climate Change Essay exam

Lesson Plan Background: Pollution and Global Climate Change Introduction: This lesson about pollution focuses on greenhouse gases. Students will learn about greenhouse gases and how they affect ecosystems. The students will understand the greenhouse affect and how their actions relate increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. In the lesson, students will define the properties of an ecosystem, learn to identify the ecosystems they live in and how they interact within an ecosystem. The students will be able to apply what they learned on a local and global level. The students will be assessed for understanding throughout the lesson as well as at the conclusion of the lesson through activities and discussion. Because the concepts presented are complicated for 4th – 5th grade students, the lesson requires the teacher to continually check for understanding. More detail on the assessments is provided in the â€Å"Assessment† section. This lesson also develops skills that should help the students meet Colorado State standards. These skills reach the sciences as well as language arts and extend across many specific standards such as reasoning and articulating ideas. The students are encouraged to express ideas and interact with each other through discussion and small group activities while reasoning through challenging concepts. This allows the teacher to engage the students and also allows the students to become more comfortable expressing ideas. The students are also expected to propose actions to reduce pollution at the end of the lesson which allows them to think independently and to feel that they can be leaders and effect change. The first building block of the lesson is to... ...n make a pledge to act on the proposals. The students should realize through this that they can be leaders in effecting change and that they can make a difference. Works Cited Cohen, Jordan, and Nick Hopwood. "Greenhouse Gases and Society." University of Michigan. 26 Sept. 2006 . â€Å"CSI: Climate Status Investigations.† The Keystone Center. 26 Sept. 2006. http://www.keystonecurriculum.org/middleschool/too_cool_for_school.html#top â€Å"Global Warming.† Encarta Encyclopedia. MSN Encarta. 27 Sept. 2006. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567022/Global_Warming.html â€Å"Climatic Variation in Earth History.† Class handout. â€Å"Ecosystem.† Encarta Dictionary. MSN Encarta. 26 Sept. 2006. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/Ecosystem.html