SYLLABUS FOR AP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
FIORELLO H. LAGUARDIA HIGH SCHOOL
MR. NEAL SINGH The Advanced Placement Environmental Science course may be the most important course a you will ever take in your educational career. Not only does this course make you an informed citizen but it also allows you to appreciate different world viewpoints, become an educated voter, and realize the fragility and resilience of our planet. This course also provides interests for students of many different educational inclinations. From scientific areas such as biology, ecology, chemistry, physics, and geology to social sciences like geography, anthropology, demography, economics, and political science to the humanities including ethics and philosophy, AP Environmental
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Each period runs for 45 minutes. Field trips will also be included in this course. Consequently, students will spend over 25% of weekly class time in laboratory work. COURSE GOAL AND OBJECTIVE
The main goals of the AP Environmental Science course are to enable students to develop conceptual framework for environmental science, an appreciation of science as an inquiry process, and an understanding of the importance of energy in ecological systems, earth as an interconnected system, the role of humans, the social and cultural context of environmental issues, and the value of sustainability. At the completion of AP Environmental Science, the student will be able to organize, discuss, explain, analyze, interpret and integrate topics related to the following themes:
1. Science as a process:
A. Science is a method of exploring the world.
B. Science constantly changes the way we understand the world.
2. Energy conversions underlying all ecological processes:
A. Energy cannot be created.
B. Energy becomes more unstable at each step as it flows through
Throughout its history the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, renowned for its natural beauty and natural resources, lured its first settlers with that beauty and ease of access to those natural resources, whether those settlers were Native American tribes or colonists and frontiersmen. Since before the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the prospect of material wealth derived from those resources inspired many hard working, innovative, and industrious citizens. People such as Colonel Edwin L. Drake, who drilled the first commercially successful oil well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, pioneered the development of the oil and gas industry, and ushered in the United State’s first oil boom. Its vast reserves of oil, gas, and coal, underground, and timber on the surface, played a pivotal role in the development of the Commonwealth as one of the nation’s leading industrial areas. It was only natural that the value of the rights in property on the surface and below the surface was realized. Early in the 20th Century, the Commonwealth began its acquisition of multitudes of tracts of land for state forests, state parks and game lands, the ownership rights to the surface and subsurface property, in many cases, were separate.
Cunningham, William P. Cunningham, Mary Ann and Saigo, Barbara. Environmental Science, A Global Concern. McGraw-Hill. New York, NY. 2005.
Discerning the spatial patterns of biodiversity and understanding their ultimate (why) and proximate (how) causes is very dear to biogeography and is one of the key concepts of Macro ecology. Some places on earth contain more species as compared to others. All species occurring at a given space and time either originated (speciated) there or dispersed and arrived from another place and settled there. Biogeographers try to understand the past and current distributions of species by incorporating historical, evolutionary and ecological factors. Earlier biogeographers or the ‘naturalists’ in their sacred quest to serve ‘the creator’, travelled to various parts of the world and imparted valuable knowledge about the diverse patterns and processes of nature. Linnaeus (1743), on the one hand, hypothesized that early Earth was filled with water except for it’s highest mountain top i.e., Mount Ararat which was known to be the site of paradise and as the sea level dropped the exposed land was colonized by plants and animals that migrated down from high elevational zones of Mount Ararat whereas Willdenow (1805) hypothesized that within each geographical region of the earth, plants and animals were first placed and later survived the great flood on many mountain ranges (Lomolino,2001). Von Humboldt and Darwin in the South American Andes and Wallace Southeast Asian islands noticed the decreasing trend in elevational species richness patterns (McCain and Grytnes, 2010). Later work done by Grinnell (1917), Whittaker (1952), Terborgh (1977, 1985) on elevational species richness became accepted and set a established pattern for all species for more than two decades (McCain and Grytnes, 2010). However current researches on elevational gradients are...
This increase in potential energy increases the amount of kinetic energy that can be released in the system therefore causes the system to be ...
The differences between these contrasting ideas are various and important to note when attempting to approach environmental
Environmental science: Toward a sustainable future (11th ed. , pp. 1).
According to the internet human behavior has a very big affect on the environment. Environmental settings such as air pollution, oceans, energy, or noise are all sources that can negatively impact the environmental quality and conditions. Our daily routines have a huge impact on the environment and we do not realize it. New laws that are passing and educating people will help a lot. People are being educated on how to use less water, use our cars less, how to use less energy, and even taking reusable bags when going grocery shopping because plastic bags are very bad for the environment. There are simple solutions that can help in getting started with these efforts. Every little step and effort we make in our daily routines count.
Withgott, J., & Brennan, S. (2011). Environment: the science behind the stories (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.
Environmental Studies is the academic field, which systematically studies human interaction with the environment in which we live in. It is a broad field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them. Environmental studies takes into account many different factors that help provide an enjoyable, fruitful way of life, such as national policies, politics, laws, economics, sociology and other social aspects, planning, pollution control, natural resources, and the interactions of human beings and nature.
With an evolving world and growing population, environmental engineers are constantly faced with challenges to design and manage systems that help utilize our natural resources without degrading our earth. I want to be faced with these challenges head on, with my passion for the environment and ability to solve unknowns; I am destined to become an environmental engineer.
Withgott, J., & Laposata, M. (2014). Environment: the science behind the stories (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Description: Students will learn the importance to take care of the environment. They will gain knowledge on recycle, reuse, and reduce. They will also learn to be creative and to persuade other people around school and outside school for protecting the environment. Moreover, students will increase their vocabulary and critical thinking.
As human beings we have a responsibility to protect ourselves, each other and our environment. The term environment refers to a complex set of social/cultural conditions that affect an individual or community. However, there are events and processes that occur in the environment that human beings have no control over. Environmental science, the systematic study of processes and materials in our environment, identifies temperature, precipitation and humidity as a few natural conditions. Natural conditions force us to be reactive, while things that we can control, such as consumption and waste, allow us to be proactive.
Today talking about environmental issues lately to be like a common topic discussion until people take it for granted. However, the world facing a complex environmental problems related to each trouble that connected to one another and come out with greater impacts to the environment and humans. This is because the effects of environmental only can be seen in long term period rather than immediately result show up. Environmental issues must become one of the controversial matters in the society in order to make people know the truth what the world currently facing. There were a lot of environmental disaster happened such as climate change, global warming, various of pollutions, earthquake and etc. the rise of environmental issues begin with this urban development occur through several countries following with the technologies equip along. For sure, development will cause a huge negative impact to the environment if it deals without a care. Besides, the environment is the place in the ecosystem to hold and use in finding resources to continuously survive in this world. Thus, the finding and digging for the resources which happening extensively without preservation will not restore the surrounding similar with before. But then, the change cannot be refuse and people need to take an action to save the threaten the world and the ecosystem from being extinct. If each country has own output in causing an environmental problem, then consider the world to hold all the damage occurred. Exposing the effects of environmental issues throughout the world, make people realize the important to take care the environment.
There are lots of environmental issues going on globally. The earth faces problems such as pollution, global warming, waste disposal, and loss of biodiversity. These are just a small amount of issues out of the so many. These environmental problems pose an abundant amount of risk to the health of humans and animals. There needs to be a solution to all these problems and that is by informing others, so that way everyone can make the environment a better place.