Environmental Science

and Sustainability
Curriculum Essentials
Document
 

Boulder Valley School District

Department of Curriculum and Instruction
October 2013
 Introduction

Science Curriculum Essentials in BVSD

In 2009, the Colorado Department of Education published the most recent version of the Colorado Academic
Standards.
This revision of the Boulder Valley School District Science Curriculum had three main goals:
 align with the revised Colorado Academic Standards
 maintain unique elements of our BVSD curriculum that reach beyond the standards
 maintain a viable list of concepts and skills that students should master in each grade level or course

Inquiry
A new organizational feature of the Colorado Academic Standards is the integration of science inquiry skills
with specific scientific concepts. Instead of having a separate standard for inquiry, the skills associated with
the process of scientific inquiry are embedded in the Evidence Outcomes for each Grade Level Expectation.
In addition, the nature and history of science has been integrated into the Grade Level Expectations under
“Nature of the Discipline”. This approach is echoed by the Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices,
Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas which states that the skills or practices of inquiry and the core ideas
“must be woven together in standards, curricula, instruction, and assessments.”

Scientific inquiry remains a central focus of the revised BVSD Science Curriculum Essentials Documents. The
following definition from the National Science Education Standards serves as the basis for our common
understanding of how scientific inquiry is defined.

Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose
explanations based on the evidence derived from their work. Inquiry also refers to the activities of students
in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how
scientists study the natural world.

The following points serve to clarify the vision of what inquiry means in BVSD.

Inquiry involves five essential features, which are heavily integrated into the wording of Evidence Outcomes
in the Colorado Academic Standards. Students engaged in scientific inquiry should:
 ask or respond to scientifically oriented questions
 give priority to evidence
 formulate explanations based on evidence
 connect explanations to scientific knowledge
 communicate and justify explanations
(Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards)

Inquiry based science instruction involves a continuum of learning experiences from teacher-led to learner
self-directed activities, including but not limited to hand-on labs. Hence, both a structured assignment
involving reading and written reflection and an open-ended, hands-on investigation could be considered
inquiry as long as they involve the five essential features identified above.

The ultimate goals of inquiry-based instruction are to engage learners, develop their conceptual
understanding of the natural world around them, and to overcome misconceptions in science.

Inquiry-based activities should balance students’ application of content knowledge, creativity and critical
thinking in order to analyze data, solve a problem or address a unique question.

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 Environmental Science and Sustainability Overview

Course Description Topics at a Glance

Environmental Science and Sustainability • Matter and energy in ecosystems
(ES&S) is a course intended to build • Basic biochemistry
understanding of scientific processes and • Cell membranes and transport process
concepts and prepare high school students to • Genetics
seek solutions to problems that they will likely • Evolution
face in their lifetime. ES&S is designed to build • Population and community ecology
interest in sciences for students who are not • Photosynthesis and respiration
attracted to the typical scientific disciplines of • Homeostasis and physiology
Physics, Biology, and Chemistry and allow • Cell differentiation and gene expression
students the opportunity to connect what they
are learning with class to real-world issues and
problems. The integration of the two will take
place through the use of extensive laboratory
activities and field trips to various sites in the
Boulder area. This course will satisfy
laboratory science class graduation
requirements for BVSD and as a result will
consist of nearly even split between hands-on
lab activities and lecture days.
Assessments
 12th grade Colorado Summative Asssessment
 Science ACT Teacher-created assessments

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 2. Life Science

Students know and understand the characteristics and structure of living things, the processes of life and how
living things interact with each other and their environment.

Prepared Graduates
The preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all students who complete the Colorado
education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting.

Prepared Graduate Competencies in the Life Science standard:

 Analyze the relationship between structure and function in living systems at a variety of
organizational levels, and recognize living systems’ dependence on natural selection

 Explain and illustrate with examples how living systems interact with the biotic and
abiotic environment

 Analyze how various organisms grow, develop, and differentiate during their lifetimes
based on an interplay between genetics and their environment

 Explain how biological evolution accounts for the unity and diversity of living organisms

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Content Area: Science - High School Biology
Standard: 2. Life Science
Prepared Graduates:
Explain and illustrate with examples how living systems interact with the biotic and abiotic environment
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATION
Concepts and skills students master:
1. Matter tends to be cycled within an ecosystem, while energy is transformed and eventually exits an ecosystem
Evidence Outcomes
Students can:
a. Analyze how energy flows through trophic levels
b. Evaluate the potential ecological impacts of a plant-
based or meat-based diet
c. Analyze and interpret data from experiments on
ecosystems where matter such as fertilizer has been
added or withdrawn such as through drought
d. Develop, communicate, and justify an evidence-based
scientific explanation showing how ecosystems follow
the laws of conservation of matter and energy
e. Define and distinguish between matter and energy, and
how they are cycled or converted through life processes
f. Describe how carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water
cycles work
g. Use computer simulations to analyze how energy flows
through trophic levels
h. Extension: Describe how human activity has
affected the biogeochemical cycles and propose
possible solutions to those changes which have
had negative impacts
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21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. How does a change in abiotic factors influence the stability or
progression of an ecosystem?
2. What happens when the cycling of matter in ecosystems is
disrupted?
3. What energy transformations occur in ecosystems?
4. How does the process of burning carbon-rich fossil fuels
compare to the oxidation of carbon biomolecules in cells?
5. Extension: How does a specific change within an
ecosystem impact the ecosystem as a whole?
Relevance and Application:
1. When the matter or energy flow in an ecosystem is disturbed,
there are measurable effects such as the eutrophication of
water.
2. Matter and energy are cycled in natural systems such as
wetlands in both similar and different ways than in human-
managed systems such as waste water treatment plants.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Address differences between experiments where variables can
be controlled and those where extensive observations on a
highly variable natural system are necessary to determine
what is happening – such as dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.
2. Share experimental data, and respectfully discuss conflicting
results emulating the practice of scientists.
3. Design ecological experiments in a closed system.
5
Content Area: Science - High School Biology
Standard: 2. Life Science
Prepared Graduates:
Explain and illustrate with examples how living systems interact with the biotic and abiotic environment
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATION
Concepts and skills students master:
2. The size and persistence of populations depend on their interactions with each other and on the abiotic factors in an ecosystem
Evidence Outcomes
Students can:
a. Analyze and interpret data about the impact of
removing keystone species from an ecosystem or
introducing non-native species into an ecosystem
b. Describe or evaluate communities in terms of primary
and secondary succession as they progress over time
c. Evaluate data and assumptions regarding different
scenarios for future human population growth and
their projected consequences
d. Examine, evaluate, question, and ethically use
information from a variety of sources and media to
investigate ecosystem interactions
e. Discuss the environmental impacts of human
population growth
f. Extension: Understand exponential and logistic
growth rates and be able to mathematically
determine rate of growth in a population
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21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. How do keystone species maintain balance in ecosystems?
2. How does the introduction of a non-native species influence
the balance of an ecosystem?
3. How is the succession of local organisms altered in an area
that is disturbed or destroyed?
4. What are the interspecific relationships within a community?
5. How does modern agriculture affect biodiversity?
6. Extension: To what degree is disturbance a “natural”
component of ecosystem level processes?
7. Extension: How does the growth rate within a
population change over time?
Relevance and Application:
1. Earth’s carrying capacity is limited.
2. Exponential human population growth has directly impacted
the biosphere.
3. Exploration of possible alternative resources is vital.
4. Using resources in a sustainable manner allows for continued
use of the resource.
5. The extraction of resources by humans impacts ecosystems.
6. Extension: Factors such as climate change, la Niña, and
el Niño impact ecosystems.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Critically evaluate scientific explanations in popular media to
determine if the research methodology and evidence
presented are appropriate and sufficient to support the claims.
6
Content Area: Science - High School Biology
Standard: 2. Life Science
Prepared Graduates: Explain how biological evolution accounts for the unity and diversity of living organisms
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATION
Concepts and skills students master:
3. Evolution occurs as the heritable characteristics of populations change across generations and can lead populations to become
better adapted to their environment
Evidence Outcomes
Students can:
a. Develop, communicate, and justify an evidence-based
scientific explanation for how Earth’s diverse life forms
evolved from a common ancestor
b. Analyze and interpret multiple lines of evidence such as
molecular studies, comparative anatomy, biogeography,
the fossil record and embryology supporting the idea that
all species are related by common ancestry
c. Analyze and interpret data suggesting speciation can
occur as a result of gradual or discrete bursts of rapid
changes over geologic time
d. Analyze and interpret data on how evolution can be
driven by three key components of natural selection:
heritability, genetic variation, and differential survival
and reproduction
e. Generate a model, such as an evolutionary tree, showing
how a group of organisms most likely diverged from a
common ancestor
f. Extension: Describe the events resulting in the
structure of modern cells through the
endosymbiotic process
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21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. How do subtle differences among closely related fossil
species provide evidence of environmental change and
speciation?
2. How does studying extinct species contribute to our current
understanding of evolution?
3. How can patterns of characteristics shared among organisms
be used to categorize life's diversity according to
relatedness?
4. Extension: How can you use a Hardy-Weinberg
equation to determine direction and speed of
evolution in a population?
Relevance and Application:
1. Resistance can occur when antibiotics and pesticides are
overused or abused.
2. Human activities can generate selective pressures on
organisms, such as breeding new kinds of dogs and
improving livestock.
3. Species undergo natural selection due to environmental
pressures.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Understand that all scientific knowledge is subject to new
findings and that reproducible, corroborated, and converging
lines of data yield a scientific theory.
2. Differentiate among the use of the terms “hypothesis,”
“theory,” and “law” as they are defined and used in science
compared to the usage of these terms in other disciplines or
everyday use.
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 3. Earth Systems Science

Students know and understand the processes and interactions of Earth's systems and the structure
and dynamics of Earth and other objects in space.

Prepared Graduates:
The preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all students who complete the Colorado
education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting.

Prepared Graduate Competencies in the Earth Systems Science standard:

 Describe and interpret how Earth's geologic history and place in space are relevant to
our understanding of the processes that have shaped our planet

 Evaluate evidence that Earth’s geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere

interact as a complex system

 Describe how humans are dependent on the diversity of resources provided by Earth
and Sun

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Content Area: Science - High School Earth, Space, Geophysical Science
Standard: 3. Earth Systems Science
Prepared Graduates:
Evaluate evidence that Earth’s geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere interact as a complex system
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATION:
Concepts and skills students master:
1. Climate is the result of energy transfer among interactions of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere
Evidence Outcomes
Students can:
a. Develop, communicate, and justify an evidence-based
scientific explanation that shows climate is a result of
energy transfer among the atmosphere, hydrosphere,
geosphere and biosphere
b. Analyze and interpret data on Earth’s climate
c. Explain how a combination of factors such as Earth’s
tilt, seasons, geophysical location, proximity to
oceans, landmass location, latitude, and elevation
determine a location’s climate
d. Identify mechanisms in the past and present that have
changed Earth’s climate
e. Analyze the evidence and assumptions regarding
climate change
f. Interpret evidence from weather stations, buoys,
satellites, radars, ice and ocean sediment cores, tree
rings, cave deposits, indigenous knowledge, and other
sources in relation to climate change
21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. How can changes in the ocean create climate change?
2. How is climate influenced by changes in Earth’s energy
balance?
3. How have climates changed over Earth’s history?
4. How does climate change impact all of Earth’s systems?
5. How have climate changes impacted human society?
Relevance and Application:
1. Much of the data we receive about the ocean and the
atmosphere are from satellites.
2. Human actions such as burning fossil fuels might impact
Earth’s climate.
3. Technological solutions and personal choices such as driving
higher mileage cars and using less electricity could reduce the
human impact on climate.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Understand how observations, experiments, and theory are
used to construct and refine computer models.
2. Examine how computer models are used in predicting the
impacts of climate change.
3. Critically evaluate scientific claims in popular media and by
peers regarding climate and climate change, and determine if
the evidence presented is appropriate and sufficient to support
the claims.

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Content Area: Science - High School Earth, Space, Geophysical Science
Standard: 3. Earth Systems Science
Prepared Graduates:
Describe how humans are dependent on the diversity of resources provided by Earth and Sun
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATION:
Concepts and skills students master:
2. There are costs, benefits, and consequences of exploration, development, and consumption of renewable and nonrenewable
resources
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Students can: Inquiry Questions:
a. Develop, communicate, and justify an evidence-based 1. How do humans use resources?
scientific explanation regarding the costs and benefits 2. How can humans reduce the impact of resource use?
of exploration, development, and consumption of 3. How are resources used in our community?
renewable and nonrenewable resources 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using different
b. Evaluate positive and negative impacts on the types of energy?
geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere Relevance and Application:
in regards to resource use 1. Technologies have had a variety of impacts on how resources
c. Create a plan to reduce environmental impacts due to are located, extracted, and consumed.
resource consumption 2. Technology development has reduced the pollution, waste, and
d. Analyze and interpret data about the effect of resource ecosystem degradation caused by extraction and use.
consumption and development on resource reserves to Nature of Discipline:
draw conclusions about sustainable use 1. Infer assumptions behind emotional, political, and data-driven
e. Evaluate the relative merit of alternative energy conclusions about renewable and nonrenewable resource use.
options as a means of finding sustainable non- 2. Critically evaluate scientific claims in popular media and by
polluting energy peers, and determine if evidence presented is appropriate and
sufficient to support the claims.

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Content Area: Science - High School Earth, Space, Geophysical Science
Standard: 3. Earth Systems Science
Prepared Graduates:
Evaluate evidence that Earth’s geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere interact as a complex system
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATION:
Concepts and skills students master:
3. The interaction of Earth's surface with water, air, gravity, and biological activity causes physical and chemical changes
Evidence Outcomes
Students can:
a. Develop, communicate, and justify an evidence-based
scientific explanation addressing questions regarding
the interaction of Earth’s surface with water, air,
gravity, and biological activity
b. Analyze and interpret data, maps, and models
concerning the direct and indirect evidence produced
by physical and chemical changes that water, air,
gravity, and biological activity create
c. Evaluate negative and positive consequences of
physical and chemical changes on the geosphere
d. Use remote sensing and geographic information
systems (GIS) data to interpret landforms and
landform impact on human activity
21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. How do Earth’s systems interact to create new landforms?
2. How do the biogeochemical cycles which make up the
nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and tectonic cycles affect life
on Earth?
3. How does the existence of chemosynthetic life around
hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor affect our
understanding of the interaction between Earth's geosphere
and biosphere?
4. What are positive changes on Earth’s geosphere due to water,
air, gravity, and biological activity?
5. What are negative changes on Earth’s geosphere due to
water, air, gravity, and biological activity?
Relevance and Application:
1. Geologic, physical, and topographic maps can be used to
interpret surface features.
2. Recognize that landform models help us understand the
interaction among Earth’s systems.
3. Human activities such as agricultural practices have impacts.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Ask testable questions and make a falsifiable hypothesis about
physical and chemical changes on the geosphere and use an
inquiry based approach to find an answer.
2. Share experimental data, and respectfully discuss conflicting
results.
3. Use appropriate technology to help gather and analyze data,
find background information, and communicate scientific
information on physical and chemical changes.

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Content Area: Science - High School Earth, Space, Geophysical Science
Standard: 3. Earth Systems Science
Prepared Graduates:
Evaluate evidence that Earth’s geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere interact as a complex system
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATION
Concepts and skills students master:
4. Natural hazards have local, national and global impacts such as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and
thunderstorms
Evidence Outcomes
Students can:
a. Develop, communicate, and justify an evidence-based
scientific explanation regarding natural hazards, and
explain their potential local and global impacts
b. Analyze and interpret data about natural hazards
using direct and indirect evidence such as seismic
energy travel times to triangulate the relative
positions of earthquake epicenters
c. Make predictions and draw conclusions about the
impact of natural hazards on human activity – locally
and globally
21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. Why are some natural hazards difficult to predict, while others
are easier to predict?
2. How are humans impacted by natural hazards?
3. How can we prepare for natural hazards?
4. How is climate change expected to change the incidence of
natural hazards?
Relevance and Application:
1. Engineers must know the hazards of a local area and design for
it in ways such as building safe structures in zones prone to
earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, or tornadoes.
2. Differing technologies are used to study different types of
natural hazards.
3. Natural hazard zones affect construction or explain why
monitoring natural hazards through air traffic safety,
evacuations, and protecting property is important.
4. Science is used by disaster planners who work with the
scientific community to develop diverse ways to mitigate the
impacts of natural hazards on the human population and on a
given ecosystem.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Scientists collaborate with local, national, and global
organizations to report and review natural disaster data, and
compare their conclusions to alternate explanations.

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 1. Geography

The study of geography creates an informed person with an understanding of spatial perspective and
technologies for spatial analysis; and an awareness of the interdependence of the world regions and resources,
and how places are connected at the local, national, and global scales. Students understand the complexity and
interrelatedness of people, places, and environments. Geography helps students appreciate the dynamic
relationships and complexity of the world.

The skills, concepts, and knowledge acquired in geography are fundamental literacy components for a 21st
century student. Use of critical thinking, information literacy, collaboration, self-direction, and invention are
apparent in every facet of geographic education. Geography helps students develop a framework for
understanding the world, ultimately contributing to the creation of informed citizens.

Prepared Graduates
The prepared graduate competencies are the preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all
students who complete the Colorado education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary
and workforce setting.

Prepared Graduate Competencies in the Geography standard are:

 Develop spatial understanding, perspectives, and personal connections to the world
 Examine places and regions and the connections among them

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 Content Area: Social Studies - High School World Geography
Standard: 2. Geography
Prepared Graduates:
Develop spatial understanding, perspectives, and personal connections to the world
Grade Level Expectation:
Concepts and skills students master:
1. Explain and interpret geographic variables that influence the interactions of people, places and environments
Evidence Outcomes
Students Can:
a. Apply geography skills to help investigate issues and
justify possible resolutions involving people, places,
and environments. Topics to include but not limited to
how people prepare for and respond to natural
hazards (DOK 1-3)
b. Identify, evaluate, and communicate strategies to
respond to constraints placed on human systems by
the physical environment (DOK 1-3)
c. Explain how altering the environment has brought
prosperity to some places and created environmental
dilemmas for others (DOK 1-2)
d. Research and interpret multiple viewpoints on issues
that shaped the current policies and programs for
resource use (DOK 1-4)
e. Explain how information and changing perceptions and
values of places and environment influence personal
actions (DOK 1-3)
f. Define sustainability and explain how an individual's
actions may influence sustainability (DOK 1-2)
g. Evaluates how location, carrying capacity, physiological
density, rural to urban migration, urban planning, and
different types of economic activity influence urban
growth.
h. Proposes solutions to problems that show an
awareness of cultural norms.
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21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. What will happen if farm land degrades around the world?
2. How might the physical geography of Earth change in the future?
3. Why do countries and cultures struggle to maintain spatial
cohesiveness and national identity?
4. What might happen if we thought locally and acted globally?
5. What are the maximum limits of human activity the environment
can withstand without deterioration?
Relevance and Application:
1. Individual actions affect the local environment and global
community such as the impact of recycling and consumption of
resources.
2. Technology can support invention and influence how humans
modify the environment in both positive and negative ways such as
renovation of existing buildings to "green" technologies, prevention
and prediction of natural hazards and disasters, and satellite
imagery used to track water availability in the Middle East.
3. Current changes in urban growth and population should be used to
make plans for future enhancements to an urban landscape.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Spatial thinkers study how the physical environment is modified by
human activities, including how human societies value and use
natural resources.
2. Spatial thinkers evaluate major areas of environmental and societal
interaction.
14
 Content Area: Social Studies - High School World Geography
Standard: 2. Geography
Prepared Graduates:
Examine places and regions and the connections among them
Grade Level Expectation:
Concepts and skills students master:
2. Recognize the interconnected nature of the world, its people and places
Evidence Outcomes
Students Can:
a. Explain how the uneven distribution of resources in the
world can lead to conflict, competition, or cooperation
among nations, regions, and cultural groups (DOK 1-2)
b. Explain that the world's population is increasingly
connected to and dependent upon other people for
both human and natural resources (DOK 1-2)
c. Explain how migration of people and movement of
goods and ideas can enrich cultures, but also create
tensions (DOK 1-2)
d. Analyze how cooperation and conflict influence the
division and control of Earth (DOK 1-2)
e. Analyze patterns of distribution and arrangements of
settlements and the processes of the diffusion of
human activities (DOK 1-3)
f. Make predictions and draw conclusions about the global
impact of cultural diffusion (DOK 1-3)
g. Applies knowledge of human systems to the local
environment and community (e.g., impact of mining,
urbanization, the local environment and community,
recreational use, zoning issues)
h. Demonstrates the importance of understanding culture
to solve problems and how deep culture and values
effect decision making.
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21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. How does increasing globalization influence the interaction of
people on Earth?
2. How do cooperation and conflict influence the division and control of
the social, economic, and political spaces on Earth?
3. What predictions can be made about human migration patterns?
4. How do technologies result in social change, some of which is
unanticipated such as social networking?
Relevance and Application:
1. The world is geographically interconnected, affecting daily life in
such ways as the spread of disease, global impact of modern
technology, and the impact of cultural diffusion.
2. Technology creates new life choices, new interconnections between
l people, new opportunities, and new conflicts. For example the
spread of knowledge and democratic ideals throughout the world
changes lives.
Nature of Discipline:
1. Spatial thinkers evaluate global systems such as culture, diffusion,
interdependence, migration, population pyramids, regional
alliances, development of competition and trade, and the impact of
population changes on society.
2. Spatial thinkers study the interconnection between physical
processes and human activities that help shape the Earth's surface.
3. Spatial thinkers analyze how people's lives and identities are rooted
in time and place.
15
 3. Economics

Economics and personal financial literacy teach students the skills, knowledge, and habits that they must master
in order to contribute in a positive manner to society. Economics and personal financial literacy teach how to understand personal
responsibility, set goals, create plans, evaluate choices, value entrepreneurship, comprehend globalization and international connections, and
learn to make rational decisions through critical analysis.

Economics teaches students how society manages its scarce resources, how people make decisions, how people interact in the domestic and
international markets, and how forces and trends affect the economy as a whole. Personal financial literacy applies the economic way of
thinking to help understand how to manage scarce resources using a logical decision-making process that involves prioritization based on
analysis of the costs and benefits of every choice.

Economics and personal financial literacy are essential to function effectively in personal lives, as participants in a global economy, and as
citizens contributing to a strong national economy. As citizens, workers, consumers, savers, and investors, members of society must have a
level of economic and personal financial literacy that enables them to understand how economies function and to apply economic analysis in
their own lives.

Prepared Graduates
The prepared graduate competencies are the preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all students who complete the Colorado
education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting.

Prepared Graduate Competencies in the Economics standards are:

1. Understand the allocation of scarce resources in societies through analysis of individual choice, market
interaction, and public policy
2. Acquire the knowledge and economic reasoning skills to make sound financial decisions

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Content Area: Social Studies – High School Economics
Standard: Economics
Prepared Graduates:
Understand the allocation of scarce resources in societies through analysis of individual choice, market interaction, and public policy
Concepts and skills students master:
1. Productive resources -natural, human, capital- are scarce; therefore, choices are made about how individuals, businesses,
governments, and societies allocate these resources
Evidence Outcomes
Students can:
a. Analyze the relationships between economic
goals and the allocation of scarce resources
b. Explain how economic choices by individuals,
businesses, governments, and societies incur
opportunity costs
c. Understand that effective decision-making
requires comparing the additional (marginal)
costs of alternatives with the additional
(marginal) benefits
d. Identify influential entrepreneurs and describe
how they have utilized resources to produce
goods and services
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21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies
Inquiry Questions:
1. How is marginal thinking used in determining societal and individual
decisions?
2. How has globalization changed the availability of human capital?
3. What are some of the ways that the values of a society affect the goods and
services it produces?
4. What entrepreneurial idea would solve some of the world scarcity issues?
Relevance and Application:
1. The availability of natural resources, such as fossil fuels and blood
diamonds, has an impact on economic decisions made in a global economy.
2. Entrepreneurship and innovation create new paradigms to address scarcity
and choice. Examples include electric cars, cell phones, social networking,
Internet, and satellite television.
3. Natural resources can be scarce in the world or specific regions, impacting
markets and creating innovation such as projects developed to provide clean
drinking water around the world, lack of water in the Middle East created
significant desalination research.
4. Marginal thinking allows for good economic decisions to be made by
individuals, businesses, and governments.
Nature of Discipline:
1. When using an economic way of thinking individuals study how productive
resources are changing in order to anticipate new problems with scarcity of
desired resources
2. Economic thinkers analyze how economies utilize resources to meet the
cumulative wants and needs of the individuals in a society
3. When using an economic way of thinking individuals study factors that lead
to increased economic interdependence, increased productivity, and
improved standard of living for the individuals in a society.
BVSD Curriculum Essentials 17
 Academic Vocabulary

accuracy, air pressure, anecdotal evidence, asteroid, atmosphere, bias, biosphere, causation, circulate,
climate, climate change, comet, conservation of energy, conservation of mass, constant, controlled
experiment, correlation, cross-cutting relationships, crust, cycle, data, degradation, density, dependent
variable, deposition, dwarf planet, eclipse, electromagnetic radiation, elevation, energy, energy transfer,
energy transformation, erosion, error, evidence, experiment, explanation, extraction, extraterrestrial
force, falsifiable, fault, force, fossil, galaxy, geographic information system, geologic time scale,
geosphere, geophysical, glaciation, glacier, gravitation, ground water, humidity, hypothesis, independent
variable, index fossil, infer, investigation, latitude, law, longitude, magnitude, mass, matter,
methodology, mid-ocean ridge, mixture, moon phase, natural hazard, non-renewable, orbit, original
horizontality, phase change, plate tectonics, position, precipitation, renewable, research-based evidence,
sedimentary, sedimentation, seismic wave, skepticism, solar phenomena, solar system, superposition,
sustainable use, system, theory, tide, unconformity, universe, uplift, wave, weather

Word Definition
Accuracy the degree of agreement between a measured or computed value of a physical
quantity and the standard or accepted value for that quantity
Air pressure the force exerted by air on any surface in contact with it
Anecdotal evidence short account of a particular incident or event that is not scientific or is hearsay
and therefore considered unreliable
Asteroid any of the thousands of small bodies of from 775 km to less than 1.6 km in
diameter that revolve about the sun in orbits lying mostly between those of
Mars and Jupiter
Atmosphere the gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth or another body in space
Bias statistical sampling or testing error caused by systematically favoring some
outcomes over others
Biosphere the part of the earth and its atmosphere in which living organisms exist or that
is capable of supporting life
Causation the act that produces an effect, where the effect is understood to be a
consequence of the act
Circulate to move in a circle or circuit
Climate meteorological conditions including temperature, precipitation, and wind, which
characteristically prevail in a particular region
Climate change a long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over
periods ranging from decades to millions of years
Comet a celestial body moving about the Sun, usually in a highly eccentric orbit,
consisting of a central mass surrounded by an envelope of dust and gas that
may form a tail that streams away from the sun
Conservation of a principle stating that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant
energy regardless of changes within the system
Conservation of a principle in classical physics stating that the total mass of an isolated system
mass is unchanged by interaction of its parts
Constant an experimental or theoretical condition, factor, or quantity that does not vary
or that is regarded as invariant in specified circumstances
Controlled an experiment that isolates the effect of one variable on a system by holding
experiment constant all variables but the one under observation
Correlation a measurable and predictable relationship
Cross-cutting relationships which may occur between two adjacent rock bodies, where the
relationships relative age may be determined by observing which rock “cuts” the other: a
granitic dike cutting across a sedimentary unit
Crust solid, outermost layer of the Earth, lying above the mantle

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Cycle a series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order
Data factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for
reasoning, discussion, or calculation
Degradation Ecology: deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such
as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of
wildlife
Geology: a general lowering of the earth's surface by erosion or weathering
Density the mass of a substance per unit volume
Dependent variable the observed or measured variable in an experiment or study whose changes
are determined by the presence of one or more independent variables
Deposition the laying down of matter by a natural process
Dwarf planet any celestial body within the solar system that is larger than a satellite but
smaller than a planet, and that orbits the sun
Eclipse the obscuration of the light of the moon by the intervention of the
Earth between it and the Sun (lunar eclipse) or the obscuration of the light of
the Sun by the intervention of the Moon between it and a point on the earth
(solar eclipse)
Electromagnetic wave of energy having a frequency within the electromagnetic spectrum and
radiation propagated as a periodic disturbance of the electromagnetic field when an
electric charge oscillates or accelerates
Elevation height above a fixed reference point
Energy the capacity of a physical system to do work
Energy transfer to pass energy from one place or thing to another
Energy to convert energy from one form to another
transformation
Erosion the group of natural processes, including weathering, dissolution, abrasion,
corrosion, and transportation, by which material is worn away from the earth's
surface
Error difference between a computed or measured value and a true or theoretically
correct value
Evidence information acquired through objective experience
Experiment a test under controlled conditions that is made to examine the validity of a
hypothesis or determine the efficacy of something previously untried
Explanation a statement based on scientific evidence and logical argument about causes
and effects or relationships between variables
Extraction the action of taking out something, especially using effort or force
Extraterrestrial any force which originates beyond Earth
force
Falsifiable the possibility that an assertion could be shown untrue
Fault a fracture in the earth's crust resulting in the relative displacement and loss of
continuity of the rocks on either side of it
Force an influence tending to change the motion of a body or produce motion or
stress in a stationary body; a push or a pull
Fossil a remnant or trace of an organism of a past geologic age, such as a skeleton or
leaf imprint, embedded and preserved in the earth's crust
Galaxy any of numerous large-scale aggregates of stars, gas, and dust that constitute
the universe
Geographic a computer system for capturing, manipulating, analyzing and displaying all
information system forms of geographic information

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Geologic time scale a system of chronologic measurement relating stratigraphy to time that is used
by geologists, paleontologists and other earth scientists to describe the timing
and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the
Earth
Geophysical the physics of Earth and its environment, including the physics of fields:
meteorology, oceanography, and seismology
Geosphere the solid layer of Earth consisting of the crust and outer mantle
Glaciation the process, condition, or result of being covered by glaciers
Glacier an extended mass of ice formed from snow falling and accumulating over
the years and moving very slowly, either descending from high mountains, as
in valley glaciers, or moving outward from centers of accumulation, as in
continental glaciers
Gravitation the force of attraction that bodies exert on one another as a result of their
mass
Groundwater the water beneath the surface of the ground, consisting largely of surface
water that has seeped down: the source of water in springs and wells
Humidity a measure of the amount of moisture in the air
Hypothesis a tentative explanation for an observation
Independent a manipulated variable in an experiment or study whose presence or degree
variable determines the change in the dependent variable
Index fossil a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to
date the rock layer in which it is found
Infer draw conclusions, interpret, or try to explain observations
Investigation a detailed inquiry or systematic examination
Latitude the angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator, usually
expressed in degrees and minutes
Law a phenomenon of nature that has been shown to invariably occur whenever
certain conditions exist or are met
Longitude the angular distance of a place east or west of the meridian at Greenwich,
England, or west of the standard meridian of a celestial object, usually
expressed in degrees and minutes
Macroscopic large enough to be perceived or examined by the unaided eye
Magnitude relative size or extent
Mass the quantity of matter which a body contains, as measured by its acceleration
under a given force or by the force exerted on it by a gravitational field
Matter physical substance or material in general; that which occupies space and
possesses mass
Methodology means, technique, or procedure; method
Mid-ocean ridge any of several seismically active submarine mountain ranges that extend
through the Atlantic, Indian, and South Pacific oceans: each is hypothesized to
be the locus of seafloor spreading
Mixture a composition of two or more substances that are not chemically combined
with each other and are capable of being separated
Moon phase one of the cyclically recurring apparent forms of the moon caused by the
relative position of the Sun, Moon and Earth
Natural hazard a threat of a naturally occurring event that will have a negative effect on
people or the environment
Non-renewable of or relating to an energy source, such as oil or natural gas, or a natural
resource, such as a metallic ore, that is not replaceable after it has been used

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Orbit the path of a celestial body or an artificial satellite as it revolves around
another body
Original The principal that states that the deposition of most water-laid sediment in
horizontality horizontal or near-horizontal layers that are essentially parallel to Earth's
surface
Phase change a change from one state (solid or liquid or gas) to another without a change in
chemical composition
Plate tectonics a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated
phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that
move slowly over the underlying asthenosphere in the upper mantle
Position place or location
Precipitation any form of water, such as rain, snow, sleet, or hail, which falls to the Earth's
surface
Renewable any natural resource (as wood or solar energy) that can be replenished
naturally with the passage of time
Research-based data derived from sound scientific research methods. It is noted as research-
evidence based to differentiate from anecdotal or circumstantial evidence
Sedimentary rocks formed when sediment is deposited and becomes tightly compacted
Sedimentation the phenomenon of sediment or gravel accumulating
Seismic wave wave of force that travels through the Earth or other elastic body, for example
as a result of an earthquake, explosion, or some other process that imparts
forces
Skepticism a doctrine that suspends judgment until there is sufficient scientific evidence to
believe a claim
Solar phenomena an observable occurrence relating to the Sun (example: solar flares)
Solar system a system of planets or other bodies orbiting a star
Superposition the principle that in a series of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest stratum
is the oldest when the beds have not been overturned
Sustainable use the use of resources at a rate which will meet the needs of the present without
impairing the ability of future generations to meet their needs
System a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a
complex whole
Theory a set of statements or principles devised to explain a large set of data and has
been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted
Tide the alternate rising and falling of the sea due to the attraction of the moon and
sun
Unconformity a surface of contact between two groups of unconformable strata representing
a missing interval
Universe all matter and energy, including the Earth, the galaxies, and the contents of
intergalactic space, regarded as a whole
Uplift upheaval; raising something to a higher level
Wave a disturbance traveling through a medium by which energy is transferred from
one particle of the medium to another without causing any permanent
displacement of the medium itself
Weather the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables
such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure

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