A conceptual model for teaching the relationship of daily life and human environmental impact to ecological function

In the general activity of daily life, it is easy to miss our dependency on the Earth’s ecology. At the same time that people are living apparently separate from the environment, our impact on the Earth is increasing. This study seeks to understand how teachers can bridge this persistent disconnect of daily life from ecology and human impact. Specifically, this study addresses teachers’ use of a conceptual model for teaching ecology and human impact units that link daily life, human impact and ecological function. Thirty-six ninth grade biology teachers implemented curriculum that was grounded in an explicit conceptual model for teaching the relationship between ecological function, human impact, and daily life. Pre and post implementation, teachers completed detailed descriptions of their lesson plans for teaching ecology and human impact topics. Content analysis of teacher lesson plan descriptions shows that teachers have a greater difficulty integrating daily life and human impact into ecological topics than they do in integrating daily life and ecology into human impact topics. This study also documented the difficulty of applying a conceptual model that overtly connects daily life and human impact to ecological function. Despite this, the implementation of curriculum grounded in an explicit conceptual model for linking daily life, human environmental impact and ecology helped teachers articulate those connections in ways that could enable students to understand the unintended consequences of daily life activities on specific ecological function.