PROJECT: Human Impact

Student handouts can be found on p.6-10

Overview:
Students will calculate an estimate of their personal carbon footprint and compare it to the
national average of others similar to them. They will design a short-term action plan for
decreasing their carbon footprint, and present to their peers for feedback. Their plans will be
refined and students will implement their short-term action plan for ten days over a month
long period, documenting their experience by collecting artifacts. At the completion of their
short-term action plan, students will write reflections about their experiences and the
connections they see to global human impact and sustainability. Internet research and an
online carbon footprint calculator will be necessary to complete this project so that students
can provide significant evidence for the claims they make and ideas they present in their
reflections.

Prior Knowledge:
Students should have prior instruction on the biogeochemical cycles and population
ecology.

W hen to use:
I use it during my Ecology Unit prior to lecturing on human impact on the environment, but
after introducing students to environmentalism with my Research and Report activity.

Assessment:
The majority of the project will be assessed formatively in the form of brainstorming, think-pair-
share, peer review, and progress “check-ins”. The final summative assessment of the work will
be based on three pieces: the development and implementation of their short-term action
plan, their visual representation of their plan, and the reflective essay on their learning and
experiences. I count this as a 100-point major grade.

Materials:
• Copies of student handouts (pages 6-10)
– Can also use the paperless digital version here:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/106DjZ8GjdduoUbKpJ5Fmx8pV5e0XLbEMBvPmu6Fuvn0/edit?usp=shar
ing
• Class set of laptops or other electronic devices with internet access

Implementation details:
• On the first day, explain to students that a way to quantify our impact on the
environment is by calculating a carbon footprint. Many websites have free calculators
where you can input your information and they can produce a rough estimate of the
amount of carbon released per year. Have students log onto computers and load a
carbon footprint calculator.
– I often use http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/ because it is simple and
easy to use.

© It’s Not Rocket Science®

Implementation details:
• Students will need to enter some information about themselves and their families to the
best of their abilities in order for the website to calculate a carbon footprint.
– Note: It is important to emphasize with students that this is an ESTIMATE, and the
more they guess on the information they put in, the less accurate the estimate will
be. However, I still find it useful because students can compare their results to the
national average, and see which categories they are the least successful in!
• Begin a discussion with the class about their findings.
– Potential questions to ask:
• Are your results surprising to you? Why or why not?
• Is this estimate an accurate representation of your family or are you above or below
the average? In what ways does or does not this value accurately represent
emissions made by your family?
• In which category are your carbon emissions worse than the average? In which
category are you better than the average? Why do you think you got these results?
• What interests you about what you have just discovered?
• What would you like to further investigate more about the carbon footprint?
• Encourage students to do some research on different ways they can reduce their
carbon footprint. I recommend showing an environmentalism documentary, if time
permitting, so that your students can be inspired with ideas. You can even come up with
a class list on the board if that is helpful, although I find most students enjoy coming up
with their plans on their own. A list with some of these tasks can be provided to resource
students that need the additional support (see page 4 for ideas.)
• Students will now design a Short-Term Action Plan (see page 9) For their original plan, I
have students come up with two practical solutions that they could implement in their
family over a 10-day period to reduce their carbon footprint. Their plan must include a
rationale for why this solution will be effective in decreasing their carbon footprint, a list
of any materials or costs associated with the change, and a list of any considerations
that may have to be made in order for it to be possible. The student must also describe
what sort of artifacts they will collect during the plan and what sort of presentation they
will create to visually represent their experience.
– Potential questions to ask:
• What would you expect to happen to your carbon footprint if you made this
change? Approximately how much can you predict it should change?
• How can you best decrease your carbon footprint given the limitations of being a
high school student not living on your own?
• Does this change affect your entire family or are you able to implement it
independently? How will you get the rest of your family on board if it is necessary that
they participate with you?
• What kinds of artifacts (visual representations) can you collect in order to best
document your experiences over the 10 days?
• What will be the most effective way to organize your information when you present it
to the class?
– Note: Artifacts can be ANYTHING. Pictures, video clips, quotes from parents,
graphs, statistics, receipts, bills, you name it! I count ANYTHING that is collected
that represents their experience as an artifact!
• Once students have completed their original plans with TWO fully planned options, have
them bring them home and get signed by their parent or guardian (Ex. You don’t want a
student to plan on doing a compost pile in their backyard and then have their parent
send you an email when their kid is digging a hole in their backyard, not that I know this
from experience or anything…)

© It’s Not Rocket Science®

Implementation details:
• The next day, divide the students into groups of 2-3. Allow students time to present their
original short-term action plans to their groups. Group members are required to give
feedback to the presenters, highlighting things done well and things to be improved in
their implementation plans. Use this time to circulate and pose questions to help them
refine their solutions.
– Potential questions to ask:
• How can you ensure that everyone in your family takes part in your short-term
action plan?
• How will your proposed solution make a significant impact on your footprint?
• Why is this a significant area in your life where you need to adjust?
• Are there better artifacts you can collect to represent this experience?
• Is there a more creative way to present this information to the class?
• Students are to then use the feedback from their peers to write their final revised short-
term action plan (see page 10). This is to be turned in to the teacher for final approval
before students are to start implementing.
• I give students a few weeks outside of class to complete the 10-days of their action plan
so that they can do it at a time that works best for them.
• During this time they are not only to implement their plans but also to create their visual
representations (PowerPoint, Poster, Video, Scrapbook, etc.) to be presented to the class
that documents their experiences. Pictures, copies of energy bills, and any supportive
data found from their initial research may be included. See the project description,
checklist, and rubric in the student handouts (pages 6-8). I have included pictures of a
sample visual representation on pages 11-13 to give an idea of what I’ve received in the
past.
• Students are to conclude this project by writing a reflective essay. The questions they are
to answer are detailed in the student handouts in the packet on the pages listed above.
• I don’t have students present ALL of their projects but I do have them present this one
(after the unit test.) This is a project they have put a LOT of work into and it’s a great
time for them to show off what they’ve done. It can also be inspirational too! I ONLY
have them present their visuals. I read the reflective essays on my own.
• At the end of each day of presentations, I like to have a class discussion on what they’ve
heard and seen.
– Potential questions to ask:
• Who’s action plan were you particularly impressed by? Why?
• Who’s project has inspired a change that you think you could implement in
the future in your own life?
• After seeing everyone’s presentations, what are things you would change
about yours if you were to do this again?
• After seeing everyone’s presentations, what advice would you give to my
students next year who will do this project?

© It’s Not Rocket Science®

Suggestions for Accommodations:
• Provide a list of implementation ideas for students such as:
– How to reduce waste production:
• Recycle
• Create a compost pile
• Eat “trashless” lunches using only reusable containers and utensils
• Use a reusable cup instead of getting to-go cups from any fast food
restaurants
– How to reduce energy production:
• Bike or carpool to school or activities
• Take shortened, cold showers
• Unplug all unused electrical devices
• Wash and dry dishes and clothes by hand
• Limit electricity usage – unplug all devices (including lights) after 9 pm
– How to reduce impact on agriculture:
• Eat vegetarian
• Eat vegan
• Eat organic
• Start a community garden
• Give each student a checklist of questions to go through during the peer review
day.
– After each person reads through their two potential short-term action plans,
ask them:
• Is this idea practical? Can you actually accomplish anything with this in
10 days?
• Can you do this on your own? How will it affect your family?
• What are some other artifacts you could collect during your
implementation? Power bills to compare before and after
implementation? Interview with family members? Grocery receipts?
• Are you sure this is the best tool to use to visually represent your project?
What else could you include?
– Finally, provide which plan you think is the best for them to implement and
why.
• Provide a timeline for students to complete the project by. For example:
– By this date they need to start the 10 day data collection.
By this date they will finish the 10 day data collection.
– By this date they will have their visual presentation done.
• Spend a day (or two) in class guiding the students through the writing of their
reflective essays.
– Have them draft a bulleted outline of what they will write about for each
section of the essay.
– Monitor their research to make sure they are finding valid support for their
claims to the last two questions. Show them a site like www.easybib.com to
help them construct their works cited.
– You can also have lower level students answer only one of the last two
questions.

© It’s Not Rocket Science®

Helpful hints:
• When using the carbon calculator online, it works best in Internet Explorer. You can use
other browsers like Chrome or Firefox perfectly fine, just when the graphs pop up at the
end in the results section, the numbers get cut off. However, the pie chart is still color
coded so you can at least tell, in general, which areas you are worse than the national
average in from looking at the charts in these browsers.
• You may want to do some check ins with students throughout the duration of the project
to make sure they are implementing their action plans. This isn’t a project they can
through together the night before it is due. A fun way to incorporate social media would
be to create a hashtag for your class and have students as a part of their grade post 2-3
posts on social media, using the hashtag, to show they are doing the action plans.
• If you have time, (I do this at the end of the year so sometimes we have some extra time
to do this!) it can be really cool to extend this project even more. Here are the extension
details:
– At this point students now have the experience and knowledge necessary to come
together to investigate the sustainability of the school as a whole. Students can
make observations and conduct interviews with school staff to compile a list of how
the school attempts to be “green”. They can collect information about power,
water and gas usage in order to calculate the school’s estimated carbon footprint.
This data can be used to develop an action plan for the school to be presented to
administration, the PTA, or even the school board.
• Potential questions to ask:
– How do you think the knowledge you have gained could help you to
design an action plan for the school?
– How could we come together to apply this in the real world on a
greater scale by implementing “greener” change at our school?
– What process should we take to reach our goals?
– What benefits/risks may accompany our attempt to achieve this?

© It’s Not Rocket Science®

 Project: Human Impact
Overview: Students will calculate an estimate of their personal carbon footprint and compare it to the national average of
others similar to them. They will design a short-term action plan for decreasing their carbon footprint, and present to their
peers for feedback. Plans will be refined and students will implement their short-term plan for 10 days, documenting their
experience. At the completion of their short-term plan, students will write a reflective essay about their experiences and
the connections they see to the human impact (specifically of Americans) and the sustainability of the world. Internet
research and an online carbon footprint calculator will be necessary to complete this project so that students can provide
significant evidence for the claims they make and ideas they present in their reflections. Students will create a visual
representation of their experiences to be presented to the class.

Biology Standards:
HS-LS2.7: Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing negative impact of human activities on the environment
and ways to sustain biodiversity and maintain the planet’s natural capital.

Short-Term Action Plan: After using an online simulation to estimate each student’s carbon footprint in class, students
will research various practical solutions and devise two plans they can implement (and get the rest of their household to
do if it impacts the entire family unit) for a 10-day period in their household. Students will need to provide a rationale for
why this solution will be effective in decreasing their carbon footprint, a list of any materials or costs associated with the
change, and a list of any considerations that may have to be made in order for it to be possible. The student must also
describe what sorts of artifacts they will collect during the implementation and what sort of presentation they will create to
be representative of their experience. These plans will be presented to their peers and the teacher for review and
suggestions. Students will be required to take this feedback and refine their plans. Both the original plan and the refined
plan, with changes highlighted, will be submitted with the final project.

Visual Representation: Students may use any mode to present their findings (poster board, scrapbook, Power Point,
video, etc.) but students must include artifacts to illustrate their experience. Artifacts must include a timeline of
observations for all 10 days, and 5 other artifacts which may include graphs and/or tables of their calculated carbon
footprint and predicted change post-implementation of their action plans, pictures of changes made in their home, receipts,
power bills, quotes from family members involved, or anything else that visually represents the changes made.

Reflective Essay: You will complete a reflective essay about your experience attempting to decrease your environmental
impact. An excellent reflective essay will sufficiently answer question #1-3 AND both extension questions. Refer to
rubric to see point values for answering the questions.
1. How did your family feel about the changes you chose to make? Do you see you and/or your family continuing
this change after the project is complete? Explain why or why not.
2. What weaknesses were present in your solution design plan? What did you do well? What could you do to
improve your short-term action plan in the future?
3. Determine at least 3 potential lifestyle changes you could commit to long-term (refer to “Take Action” tab for
ideas) explaining why these 3 changes would be effective in decreasing your carbon footprint. List several
potential benefits and consequences of implementing these lifestyle choices (consider time, money, and impact on
others in your life)

EXTENSION QUESTIONS (must do research!!):

4. Thinking on a more global scale and in relation to previous ecological topics covered in our unit, in what ways
have population growth, consumption of resources, and technology impacted biodiversity and the nutrient cycles?
Why are sustainability and human impact serious issues to show concern over? Provide evidence from your
research to support your claims. Include one reference.
5. As the United States has become more “green” over the years, foreign countries have become less “green” as we
export all of our manufacturing to them. Do you think it is truly possible to maintain our economy and reach a
point of sustainability as a planet? Provide evidence from your research to support your claims. Include one
reference

© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2020 1

 Human Impact Project Rubric
Category Excellent Acceptable Needs Improvement Unacceptable
Student uses outside Student uses outside Student may or may Student does not use
research to design a research to design a not use outside outside research to
plan with at least 2 plan with 1 research to design a design a plan with
Short-Term Action
significant changes to significant change to plan with 1 change one insignificant
Plan
be applied to their be applied to their that is not of change or does not
(15)
lives. lives. significance. design a plan.

(15-13) (12-8) (7-3) (2-0)

Student listens to Student listens to Student somewhat Student does not
feedback from peers feedback from peers listens to feedback listen to feedback
and teacher and and teacher and from peers and from peers and
makes significant makes several teacher but makes teacher and makes no
Plan Refinement
changes to their changes to their minimal changes to changes to their
(10)
initial short-term short-term action plan their short-term short-term action
action plan action plan. plan.

(10) (9-5) (4-1) (0)

Students included a Students included a Students were Students included no
timeline with all 10 timeline with all 10 missing several relevant pictures or
observations and 5 observations but were observations and artifacts.
additional artifacts. missing additional additional artifacts.
Visual
artifacts, or had
Representation
additional artifacts
(20)
but were missing
observations.

(20) (18-10) (8-2) (0)

Student sufficiently Student sufficiently Student sufficiently Student sufficiently
answered questions answered 4 questions, answered questions answered questions
#1-5, including a but is missing a #1-3. #1-2 or did not fully
Reflective Essay
works cited. works cited. answer any questions
(50)
at all.
(50-40)
(39-30) (29-20) (19-0)
Student is extremely Student is creative in Student is somewhat Project is
creative in showing showing the creative in showing disorganized, sloppy,
the connections connections between the connections and quickly done.
between artifacts and artifacts and between artifacts and
Overall Appearance
reflections. Project is reflections. Project is reflections. Project
(5)
neat and/or typed. neat and/or typed. may or may not be
neat and/or typed.

(5) (4-3) (2-1) (0)

Overall Score: /100

© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2020 2
 Human Impact Project Checklist
Use this list to make sure you have completed every aspect of the project. You may also use the rubric I will be
using as a reference too.

Short-Term Action Plan (15 points)

¨ Plan includes two completely thought out options for implementation
¨ All six components of plan are completed
¨ Parent signature for approval is obtained

Plan Refinement (10 points)

¨ Feedback is noted on plan (in a different color) based on what peers advised
¨ Refined plan is written out with final choice for project
¨ All six components of plan are completed
¨ Teacher signature for approval is obtained

Visual Representation (20 points)

¨ A visual timeline with daily observations for all 10 days
¨ Five additional artifacts are included
¨ All artifacts are significant in representing the experience that I had

Reflective Essay: (50 points)

¨ Four questions are completely answered
¨ All answers are in paragraph form
¨ Answer to extension question 4 or 5 includes evidence from research to support answers
¨ Works cited page of research used
¨ Essay is typed or neatly hand-written

Overall Appearance (5 points)

¨ Effort and time put into the completion of the project should be evident
¨ All components of project (initial and refined plans, visual representation, and reflective essay) are neat
and organized so they can be submitted to teacher easily
¨ All components of my project are relevant and clear
¨ Project demonstrates my understanding of human impact on the environment

© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2020 3

 Name:

Human Impact Project Short-Term Action Plan

ORIGINAL

Option #1: Option #2:

Idea for
implementation:
What two changes are you
considering you (or your
family) making for 10
days?

Rationale:
What is your reasoning
behind selecting these
changes?

List of materials
needed:
Will you need anything to
implement these changes?
What will the costs be?

Considerations to be
made:
How will this impact your
family and friends? What
areas of your life will it
impact?

Types of artifacts to
be collected:
You need to collect 5
additional and relevant
artifacts to go with your
timeline. What could you
use to represent your
project and changes?

Type of presentation
format:
How will you visually
represent this project?
Poster? Power Point?
Scrapbook?

Parent Approval
Signature

© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2020 4

 Name:

Human Impact Project Short-Term Action Plan

REFINED

Final Decision

Idea for implementation:

What change have you decided you (or
your family) will be making for 10 days?

Rationale:
What is your reasoning behind selecting
this change?

List of materials needed:

What will you need to implement this

change? What will the costs be?

Considerations to be made:
How will this impact your family and
friends? What areas of your life will it
impact?

Types of artifacts to be collected:

You need to collect 5 additional and
relevant artifacts to go with your timeline.
What will you use to represent your
project and this change?

Type of presentation format:

How will you visually represent this

project? Poster? Power Point?
Scrapbook?

Teacher Approval Signature

© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2020 5

 Sample Student Work
On the next few pages I’ve included a sample visual presentation I’ve gotten from
a student. This is a traditional PowerPoint, but there are SO many other ways to
capture their experiences. I’ve had vlogs (my favorite was a student who rode his
bike to school every day for 10 days and he made a HILARIOUS compilation of
video clips of his experience. The best was the day it poured down rain, but he still
committed!!), posters, shoeboxes full of props for artifacts, mini-journals, Prezis, you
name it! Encourage students to get creative!!

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© It’s Not Rocket Science®

Sample Student Work

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Sample Student Work

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© It’s Not Rocket Science®

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