Developing a Learning Progressions for Environmental Literacy: How Students Move Toward Systems Thinking
2:00pm – 3:00 pm
Laurel Hartley, Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology
An integrated understanding of the evolutionary and ecological effects of human-caused disturbance on ecological systems is vital for understanding human impacts on the environment and is essential for informed citizenship. This integrated understanding requires students to be able to reason across scales of time, space and organization, seeking mechanisms at smaller scales and contexts at larger ones. Hartley will present findings of a learning progression approach to understanding how grades 6-14 students develop understanding of ecological systems, identifying three how three core ideas – hierarchical systems, mechanism, and constraints on processes – characterize challenging but appropriate learning goals for environmental science literacy. Specifically Hartley will present on how her group integratively developed and used learning progression frameworks, assessments, and instructional resources.