Learning Goals
Students will be able to analyze how European colonization changed land use, biodiversity, and food webs by comparing pre- and post-contact evidence from selected regions.
Students will be able to interpret local biodiversity field data and compare it to historical ecosystem evidence to identify patterns of species change and human impact.
Students will be able to use maps, graphs, and computational representations to explain relationships among Earth systems modified by European colonization.
Students will be able to evaluate evidence for how environmental change affected species populations, resilience, and extinction in colonized regions.
Students will be able to construct an evidence-based explanation of how natural resources, climate, and hazards influenced human activity during European colonization.
Students will be able to investigate the technologies, politics, economics, and belief systems that enabled European expansion into vast regions.
Students will be able to defend a historical claim using corroborated primary and secondary sources while distinguishing correlation from causation.
Products
Colonization Investigation Notebook
A research notebook documenting each student's question development, method choices, source notes, data tables, anomaly log, and individual analysis of how colonization altered one selected ecosystem and one historical region. It functions as the student's personal evidence record and includes raw observations, interpretive notes, and a justified preliminary claim.
Before-and-After Earth Systems Museum and Ports, Power, and Planet Showcase
A collaborative exhibition featuring interactive models, annotated maps, graphs, artifacts, and a live presentation that synthesizes team evidence about colonization's ecological and historical impacts. Teams must explain methodology, compare conflicting findings, and defend conclusions about both the causes of European expansion and its lasting Earth system consequences.
No rubric has been generated yet.