Jake Rutan

UNIT 2
Global Science

Learning Goals:
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Set up ground work for making ethical decisions

able to identify an ethical dilemma
able to apply ethical decision making model to real world example to make decisions

Activities/Accommodations (45 min period)

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Organization emphasis (5 min)- Right away tell students to get a picture of the H.W. or put it in their
agenda.
o Introduce handing in habits for homework
Homework is handed in on the front desk in a pile for the secondary teacher to collect.
o Introduce Folder Check Fridays
Every Friday the secondary teacher will check everyones folder during class to make
sure they have everything. (to teach organization skills)

Section 3 notes: Making Informed Decisions (will need book, pg 48-51) (10 min)
Segway- Once you have completed the experiment, in many cases you will have to figure
out what to do with the results, and the impact they might have on others or the
environment
o Read aloud Hypothetical Situation section of book (pg 48-51)
Student expectations- follow along in book
o Guided Notes Take students through the decision making process that Michael Price goes
through in the book. Each section with a read heading is a section in the notes packet students
already have. Pre-filled out notes are on desk for reference
Student expectations- write down the answers to the guided notes on how to use a
decision making model

Utilizing the decision making model (25 min)

Groups of 3 (Ms. Hitchcock is assigning them)
o Intro an ethical/environmental dilemma for students to apply decision model to.
Dilemma: Due to the new renovations that happened at Hempstead, waste water run-off
from sinks/faucets is being diverted to a new area. While initially harmless, the effects of
this supposedly clean waste water are now being seen. Bird populations in the
surrounding area are decreasing, due to the fact that whatever is in the waste water is
killing the birds food source (insects, worms, etc) in the soil. Plants are also showing
signs of death due to the new path of the run off. It is unknown yet what level of pollution
is in the drinking water itself. In order to fix this problem, the high school can either: pay
to have filters put in (cost ~2 million initially then 50,000 annually to upkeep), pay the
city to clean this water for them along with their sewage water (extra 10,000 dollars a
month) with no guarantee that seepage wont occur, hire a water contracting company to
find the run off and fix it so the run off goes to the same place (~500,000 for the survey
and between 1 million 5 million to fix depending on how bad the problem is), or pay

off the city officials yearly to keep the situation hush hush (50,000 a year per official 5 officials). DCSD total revenue last year: $132,938,457. Remember, for any money
taken out of the revenue, cuts must be made (sports are cut, industrial/fine arts programs
cut, those teachers get cut).
Important info for students will be on Ethical decision making ch2 ppt

o Student expectations- groups of 3 will apply model and decide what the best decision would be.
Write on their own piece of paper
Information gathered- students will take the information from a slide I have made.
Consider Values- make table and apply personal values to it.
Explain that they need a 4x3 table looking like this
Environmental

Economical

Recreational

Short term Positives

Short term Negatives
Long term Positives
Long term Negatives

Explore consequences- students will explore the consequence of each action the school
could take.
Make the decision

Once decision is made and turned in, have students work on Homework review questions

Exit large group discussion question (5 min)

o What do you need to take into account when making an informed decision

Assessment/Homework
Exit slip- decision making paper with each step and the chart.
H.W. ch 2 Review pg 53-54: Qs 1, 3, 5-9, 10, 12, 15, 17-19
Materials/Accommodations
Students already have notes, or written notes, or Spanish vocab words
7th period- One on One with Alfonso