Human Impacts | 8th

Human Impacts
By Emily Ropp
SCI 495, Keith Oliver
8th Grade Unit Plan

Standards:
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and
minimizing a human impact on the environment.
1. The student will use scientific principals in designing an experiment.
2. The student will learn how to minimize human impact by attempting to
reverse an impact.
3. The student will monitor the growth/demise of a plant as it is exposed to an
impact through observations.
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases
in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact
Earths systems.
1. The student will demonstrate and understanding that an increase
in population is an increase in human impact through their writing.
2. The student will create an argument supported by qualitative
data they collected, that increase in negative human impact harms the
environment.
3. The student will articulate their argument in a final paper for the unit.
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that
changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affects
populations.
1. The student will learn that changing a plants environment through human
impact can dramatically affect the plants.
2. The student will create an argument supported by qualitative data they
collected; proving changes to environmental components can affect an
ecosystem.

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Materials and Prep:

Small plants (any plant will work, but more durable, the better)

UV Light Plant Growing System (https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=L7UbpObNSgc) OR open windowsill

Beaker to water plants with, or self watering system (attached)

Materials depending on what experiment students design

o

Vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, nail polish remover

Various pieces of trash

Space available with no sunlight

Computer lab for work day on paper

Set aside book from school library all associated with pollution, erosion,
human impacts and the human populations direct and indirect affect
on the environment.
o Some examples of these books might be:

River Cutters by Cary I. Sneider and Katharine Barrett, with

Kevin Beals, Lincoln Bergman, Jefferey S. Kaufmann, and
Robert C. Knott (Berkeley, CA: University of California,
Berkeley Lawrence Hall of Science, 2001.

Days (15
total)

Safety

A Civil Action by Jon Harr (1998)

2-

15

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Safety must be considered when dealing with trash, and broken glass or
sharp metal may be an issue. Working with gloves, or setting aside glass
or sharp metal prior to class would be beneficial. Safety must be considered
depending on what chemical students use to contaminate their plants water
supply. Wearing goggles would most likely be necessary for this group of
students. When watering plants students will be using beakers that may be
made of glass. Extra precaution should be taken to reduce the
chances of student exposure to broken glass.

Requisite Knowledge
Students must have a basic understanding of scientific principles
(independent and dependent variables and the control and experimental
groups, hypothesis and hypothesis testing). Students must know the general
process of photosynthesis and that plants grow using water and sunlight.
They must understand that erosion is the gradual removal and relocation of
soil or land over time due to a force.

Engage
Plant some seeds as a class or obtain some sort of durable small plant to
grow in the classroom, must have 4 plants per group of 3-4 students. Plants
must be mature when used for the experiment. If growing a plant works best
with the time of the school year, a Wisconsin fast plant would work best. See
setup page attached.
The hope is that when students see that they will be learning with real plants
in the classroom that their interest will be sparked.

Explore
Start lesson by asking, What types of things we do as humans to impact the
environment? Anticipated answers: pollution, trash, chemicals in the water,
lack of light from buildings, erosion of soil on plants, etc.
If these answers are not achieved, do your best to lead students to these
answers. These are the components that can be used easily with the plants.
Explaining the lesson:

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For this lesson we will be able to work with plants, which will represent the
environment. In teams of 3 or 4, you will isolate one impact, like (point to
board) pollution, trash, chemicals in the water, lack of light from buildings, or
erosion of soil on plants. It will be your job to think about how you are going
to do this, what will you change with the plant that will be experiencing the
impact. I will now count you off into teams, and assign you an impact to
investigate, and we will brainstorm.

Explain
Experimental design principals in use (may be review, but thats ok!):
Explain the following components that will be seen in the lesson (write on the board
with bolded word in different color):
The benefit of having 4 plants per group is so that we can see the importance
of having a control group (unaffected plants) and experimental group
(affected plants).
We will use an independent (possibly negative environmental effect) and
dependent variable (the plants health) in their experimental group.
To avoid messy variables, we will only change one thing between the
control and experimental group. This will help make us more confident in our
outcomes.
Hypothesize what the outcome will be of the affected and non-affected
plant in lab notebooks. How will you test this? (Hypothesis Testing)

When these have been properly explained, have the students predict (or
hypothesize) what the outcome will be of the affected and non-affected plant
in their lab notebook for each effect. During this time hypothesis testing will
fuel exploration in the students.
Review:
Ask students to write the bolded/colored words from above in their notebook
and write where each of these can be seen in their experiment.

Elaborate

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In their groups, with the different environmental impacts on the board, the
teacher will assign one to each group. It is ok to have a couple groups
exploring the same effect.
Once they have their impact, they will need to brainstorm on what they could
do to the plant to mimic the impact be humans in the real world. Allow 10-15
minutes for brainstorming
Their idea must be approved by the teacher.
Anticipated ideas:
Pollution (trash): Mix trash into the soil of new plant, or on top of
soil, maybe do both?
Chemicals in the water: mix a chemical into the water when
watering plant (vinegar, acidic liquid, nail polish remover)
Lack of light from buildings blocking sunlight: Store in a dark
place
Erosion of soil on plants: only use a little bit of soil for new plant
Allow students the remainder of class to get their experimental plants all set
up (2 affected, 2 unaffected)

Elaborate (1-2 weeks)

Over the next 1-2 weeks, have students take care* of and observe their
plants for the first 15 minutes of each class period. Observations should be
taken in detail, in their lab notebooks.
In observations, have the students record things like the following: plant
height, leaf rigidity, wilting, color, etc. Remind them to be consistent in all
things throughout this time. This includes: watering amount (beakers
available), sun exposure, soil amount, etc., everything but the variable being
tested.
*Taking care of the plant includes watering, unless you have set up a selfwatering system. This system can be seen in the attached Wisconsin fast
plant document.

Explain

Human Impacts | 8th

Talk about where we see these effects in the real world with these
informational videos. Have these videos all pulled up in different tabs before
class for ease. After playing each video, open up some time for questions,
observations, or opinions. How do the students feel about these impacts, do
they believe they are real, or made up? Here is a good time to assess any
misconceptions that may still be present through guided class discussion
after each video.
These are videos on pollution in the water system, what causes the pollution
and what it is affecting. Both videos talk about how the pollution is harming
populations of species.
http://study.com/academy/lesson/water-pollution-definition-types-andsources.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv3T47B7rX8
This video is an awareness video addressing the trash island floating
around the Pacific Ocean. The video includes how harmful this is to birds that
live close to trash island.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbGDNpRTKxg
This video explains the different types of erosion we cause and the long-term
effects we are seeing done to the environment because of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0F2c1ECuo4

Evaluate (introduction to paper)

Introduce the idea of a final paper for the project. Pass out handout
explaining the paper.
Write bolded words on the board as the explanation is being given.
It will be important to take detailed notes because at the end of this
unit we will be writing a paper talking about your investigative process.
The paper will have 3 main sections. First, you will talk about the real
life human impact and how it affects the world around us. For
this section you will need to do some research. You will be given some

Human Impacts | 8th

time in class, but most of the time will be considered your homework
over the next couple weeks. The second part of the paper will give you
a chance to share what your findings were in detail in regards to
your plants! You will also address some of the components of science
like independent and dependent variables and the control and
experimental groups. The last part of the paper will be about what
you did and what it was like to try and reverse the harmful
impact made to your plant.
Rubric included expectations (present or not present check list) attached.

Elaborate
After the 1-2 week period, students will be given the opportunity to see if the
effects placed on the plants can be reversed, reduced or removed, as
mentioned in the explanation of the paper. Students will be given 20 minutes
to answer the following questions (written on board):
Is the effect reversible?
What actions would be taken to eliminate the effect on you plant / the
environment?
Does the eliminating the effect come with a cost? (Money, time, longterm consequences)
Is reversing the effect even a reasonable thing to consider in today's
society? Why, why not?
The remainder of class the students will be able to work on their plants in
efforts to remove the effect. Their plan must be cleared through the
teacher before action is made.
Students will take care of their plant for 1 week and record daily observations
in their lab notebook.
Anticipated Ideas:

Pollution (trash): remove the trash on the top of the soil; try to
fish the trash out of the soil without disturbing the plant.
Chemicals in the water: switch the water from toxic to clean
water
Lack of light from buildings: take out of dark place, put in
sunlight *talk about the realistically of this in the real world
Erosion of soil on plants: add soil to the pot

Human Impacts | 8th

Final Evaluate
(25% of unit grade) Summative Assessment: Final paper (8 possible points)
(75%) Formative Assessment: Participation, group effort & collaboration,
critical thinking while applying and removing the environmental effect (24
possible points)
6-8 points
Student was very

3-5 points
Student was somewhat

0-2 points
Student was not very

engaged throughout the

engaged throughout the

engaged throughout the

unit and contributed

unit and contributed

unit and contributed

many ideas to benefit

some ideas to benefit

very few ideas to

his or her team

Student was very

his or her team

Student was somewhat

benefit his or her team

Student was not very

respectful to his or her

respectful to his or her

respectful to his or her

group members and

group members and

group members and

showed great interest in

showed some interest in

showed very little

what they had to share.

what they had to share.

interest in what they

Student demonstrated a

Student demonstrated a

had to share.
Student didnt

great understanding of

good understanding of

demonstrate an

the topic at hand and

the topic at hand and

understanding of the

used his or her critical

used his or her critical

topic at hand and used

thinking skills during the thinking skills during

his or her critical

entire unit.

thinking skills

most of the unit.

occasionally during the

unit.

Scientific Background:
References:
Amamnda & Tanner

Human Impacts | 8th

http://hub.mspnet.org/media/data/MiTEP_List_of_Common_Geoscience_Misconceptions.pdf?
media_000000007297.pdf

http://study.com/academy/lesson/water-pollution-definition-types-andsources.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv3T47B7rX8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbGDNpRTKxg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0F2c1ECuo4

Misconceptions:
Misconceptions according to MiTEP:
Earth and its systems are too big to be affected by humans and their actions.
If the Earth is too polluted for humans to live on, then we can move to another planet.
Human activities cannot affect geological processes like river flow, flood cycles, etc.
Technological fixes will save us from ruining our planetary environment.
Earth is too big for us to change, thus the impact of our activities is inconsequential.
Local people cannot improve their environments; it is out of their hands.
Few products we use everyday have anything to do with taking rocks and minerals from
the ground.
Earth is both an endless supply of resources and a limitless sink for the waste products of
our society
These misconceptions will be carefully addressed throughout the unit and throughout the
process of writing a paper. Students will understand the significance of their impact and how
their actions directly affect the environment in more ways than they thought possible.
http://hub.mspnet.org/media/data/MiTEP_List_of_Common_Geoscience_Misconceptions.pdf?
media_000000007297.pdf

Differentiation
Depending on the class composition I would make groups larger or smaller to
provide more support and structure to those students who needed it. In this
unity I could also increase or decrease the amount on inquiry and take more
of a guided inquiry approach. This unit caters to a wide range of learning
abilities; from tactile to verbal to auditory learners. In this unit, to reduce the
workload for struggling students or a struggling class, I could make the final
paper a group paper with more in-class workdays.

Human Impacts | 8th

10

Human impacts with the use of plants

This paper should be double spaced and size 12 of a legible font of your
choice.

Present

Not Present

(4 points) Page 1:
Write a page on the environmental factor your group was assigned.
______

______

What the human impact looks like today?

______

______

Where do we see it the most?

______

______

Is it something that can be stopped or

reduced? If so, how?

______

______

Is there any additional research you can find on

it?
(4 points) Page 2-3:
Talk about your in-class experiment.
______

______

What was the process you took?

______

______

Identify your independent and dependent

variable, and
experimental and control group, explain the
importance of each.
______

______

Talk about the different stages your plant took

as it was exposed
to your assigned impact to the environment;
remember to use your observations! Using real data
from an experiment is crucial to a great scientists.
On this page also talk about what you did to remove the effect. In this
section it might be helpful to use some research from your first page.
______

______

Was it easy? Was it difficult?

Human Impacts | 8th

______

11

______

Did the process come with a cost (like time or

______

Did your experimental group eventually

money)?
______

become healthier?
______

______

Was your solution realistic, could it be easily

applied to our
everyday effect on the environment?