Ecology: Resilient Planet

This engaging curriculum gives students the opportunity to learn from scientists from the Great Lakes WATER Institute, National Geographic, Ocean Exploration Trust, and NOAA. Students will investigate the health of our current environment and discover how to protect our planet’s most diverse ecosystems from natural disasters, climate change, and other environmental phenomena.

Operation: Resilient Planet includes interactive games, high quality videos, and immersive missions that not only teach key science concepts, but also gives students the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in real life environmental situations where they are responsible to:

• Investigate alien invaders in the Great Lakes
• Protect whales in the Atlantic Ocean
• Discover why there are so many sharks on the reefs of Hawaii
• Snorkel over a coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico

Appropriate Age Levels:
Innovatively designed to be appropriate for upper elementary, middle school, and high school levels. Rigorously aligned to national and state science standards as well as mathematics, social studies, and English language arts standards, and national curriculum standards, including NCTM, IB, and ISTE.

Students gain access to 5 unique missions, each comprising of written articles, labs, field assignments, interactive games, video, and animations.

Mission 1: Invaders – A Constant Ecological Battle
Students are put in the driver’s seat during natural disasters where delivering essential supplies like water, food, and medicine becomes a race against time. This challenge becomes even harder when the supplies have to be kept cold the whole time so that they don’t spoil. In this Design & Pitch Challenge, students will find a workable solution for this important problem.

Mission 2: Survivors – Securing a Niche
Led by JASON founder Dr. Robert Ballard, Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic Society, students will discover the competitive strategies within a resilient ecosystem.

Mission 3: Paradise Lost – A Fragile Environmental Recovery
Students join oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer and Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic Society, leads students through assessing a degraded ecosystem by gathering historical and current evidence.

Mission 4: Paradise Found – Earth’s Natural Treasures
Ecologist Dr. Enric Sala, Fellow at National Geographic Society, leads students as they journey through the oceans and Earth’s outer layers to its core to better understand the dynamic nature of our planet.

Mission 5: The Rescue – Protect the Biosphere
Dr. Leila Hatch, Ocean Noise Specialist at NOAA, leads students as they defend Earth’s biodiversity through personal action and community involvement.

Teacher Support Materials:

Specially prepared teacher support materials to support each of the four missions in Tectonic Fury:

• Pre and Post Tests
• Data Sheets
• Lesson Plans
• A Special Teacher’s Edition
• Web links and other tools