Students investigate “How do relationships impact environmental systems?” by modeling energy and matter cycling and examining regional bats, mosquitoes, and ecosystem dynamics. Teams research and build bat boxes as evidence-based solutions, evaluating their potential to support biodiversity and reduce mosquito impacts. A local bat expert will critique box designs and research papers, which students will revise into news articles or blog posts. Students will share their bat boxes and writing with the City of Vista, the San Diego Natural History Museum, elementary school partners, and their school community.
Learning goals
Students will explain how relationships among regional bats, mosquitoes, other organisms, and nonliving factors influence matter cycling, energy flow, ecosystem dynamics, resilience, and services. They will develop ecosystem models, research regional species using multiple credible sources, and evaluate bat boxes alongside other possible solutions for supporting biodiversity and reducing human environmental impacts. Teams will design and build bat boxes, use feedback from a local bat expert to revise their designs and research-based articles, and practice shared decision-making throughout the process. Students will demonstrate learning through a research paper and article or blog post, then communicate their evidence and designs to the City of Vista, San Diego Natural History Museum, elementary school partners, and their school community.
[Next Generation Science Standards] MS-LS2-5 - Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
[Next Generation Science Standards] LS.2.A - Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
[Next Generation Science Standards] MS-ESS3-3 - Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
[Next Generation Science Standards] LS.2.B - Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
[Next Generation Science Standards] LS.2.D - Social Interactions and Group Behavior
[Next Generation Science Standards] MS-LS2-3 - Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
[Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.7 - Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
Competencies
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.
Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.
Products
Student teams will create ecosystem models showing energy flow, matter cycling, and relationships among regional bats, mosquitoes, and other living and nonliving components. Each student will write a research paper formatted as a news article or blog post that answers, “How do relationships impact environmental systems?” and evaluates bat boxes alongside competing solutions for supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Teams will design, build, and revise safe bat boxes using feedback from a local bat expert and develop a plan to monitor environmental impact. Students will exhibit their boxes, research, and monitoring plans at the school site and share them with the City of Vista, the San Diego Natural History Museum, and elementary school partners.
Launch
Launch with a dusk-themed campus ecosystem investigation using mosquito-count data, local bat images or recordings, and a food-web mapping activity—without handling live animals. Ask, “How do relationships impact environmental systems?” as teams model energy cycling and connections among regional bats, mosquitoes, people, and changing environmental conditions. Present a challenge brief from the City of Vista, San Diego Natural History Museum, and elementary school partners asking students to design bat boxes, research ecosystem dynamics, and write evidence-based articles for feedback from a local bat expert. Conclude with teams identifying questions to investigate and previewing the final exhibition of revised bat boxes and articles at the school and partner elementary sites.
Exhibition
Host a “Bat-Friendly Communities” exhibition at the school site, then share selected bat boxes with elementary school partners. Student teams will present their revised boxes, research papers adapted as news articles or blog posts, and ecosystem models showing energy flow, matter cycling, regional bats, mosquitoes, and ecosystem dynamics. Invite the City of Vista, San Diego Natural History Museum, local bat experts, families, and woodshop collaborators to evaluate how each design addresses “How do relationships impact environmental systems?” Students will explain design tradeoffs, respond to audience questions, and gather feedback about safe installation, monitoring, and possible community use.
