Environmental Science [Competency Based]

Environmental Science is sometimes referred to as ecology and is the study of the relationships and interdependence of organisms and their connection to the nonliving, or abiotic, factors in the natural world. This course provides students with a profile of the living relationships, abiotic factors, human influences, and current state of Earth’s ecosystems. The course begins with a review of science as a process and the general components of Earth’s structure that impact life. It then progresses through a study of the living groups and their relationships to one another, focusing on the balance achieved by nature through these relationships. The course explores populations and provides examples of unchecked growth and rapid extinction in the context of their effects on ecosystems. The course dedicates a unit to aquatic ecosystems and organisms, and the results of human impact. After covering the influence of energy extraction, production, and use, the course ends by examining the positive influence humans can have on the environment through conservation and sound management practices.