Grade 7 (ages 11-13)

 

Interactions in the Environment

Learn adaptations and interactions within communities; analyze the effects of human activities on habitats and communities. Consisting of a guided hike, students will explore different habitats within the Rouge Valley, and determine what brings wildlife to specific habitats. This program allows students to asses the impacts of human activities and technologies on the environment, and evaluate ways of controlling and reducing these impacts. Also, it allows students to explain why an ecosystem is limited in the number of living things that it can support and describes ways in which human activities and technologies alter balances and interactions in the environment. In addition, students will search for cavity nesting birds by visiting existing cavity nest boxes, either man-made or natural, and learn some maintenance and monitoring techniques.

Target Audience: Grade 7 (Age 11-13).
Offered: Year round.
Program Length: Full Day – generally 3.5 hrs (10AM-1:30 PM) unless otherwise noted. Students will have lunch by the river.

Overall Goals

1. assess the impacts of human activities and technologies on the environment, and evaluate ways of controlling these impacts;
2. investigate interactions within the environment, and identify factors that affect the balance between different components of an ecosystem;
3. demonstrate an understanding of interactions between and among biotic and abiotic elements in the environment.

Heat in the Environment

Assess the environmental and economic impacts of using non-renewable and renewable forms of energy. Through a guided hike, students will visit the old Beare Landfill site in the Rouge Valley. The methane gas (biogas) being collected there creates about 5MW of electricity. Students will learn about the role of radiation in heating and cooling the earth, and explain how greenhouse gases affect the transmission of radiated heat through the atmosphere. Also, students will identify common sources of greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide comes from plant and animal respiration and the burning of fossil fuels; methane comes from wetlands, grazing livestock, termites, fossil fuel extraction, and landfills; nitrous oxide comes from soils and nitrogen fertilizers), and describe ways of reducing emissions of these gases.

Target Audience: Grade 7 (Age 11-13).
Offered: Year round.
Program Length: Full Day – generally 3.5 hrs (10AM-1:30 PM) unless otherwise noted. Students will have lunch by the river.

Overall Goals

1. assess the costs and benefits of technologies that reduce heat loss or heat-related impacts on the environment;
2. investigate ways in which heat changes substances, and describe how heat is transferred;
3. demonstrate an understanding of heat as a form of energy that is associated with the movement of particles and is essential to many processes within the earth’s systems.

Program Schedule

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