Science 9-12 Earth/Environmental Essential Standards

First, let me say that the State has once again narrowed the selection of knowing down to goals. Unfortunately, goals are not objectives, and they really don't tell us what the students should know and be able to do at the end of the course. Using Bloom's taxonomy for questions is great until you actually look at the complexity of knowing and doing vs. say understanding. The statement "Students will understand" is intentionally vague. It has little value or meaning, and offers absolutely no direction for the pursuit of knowledge.

So, in goal 1.1 "Students will understand how the sun provides energy for the Earth.", where do you begin? How do you begin to unravel what this means. From who's perspective? Are we talking about geologists, geophysicists, astronomers, theoretical astrophysicists, etc. The sun is a HOTLY debated topic in many fields. Should we teach the complexities then of the layering of the sun, and the interactions therein, like nuclear fusion?

I am actually not finished with the Sun, but I have to move on for right now.

This is a much bigger question/issue. Why does Earth/Environmental even need to exist as such. There are zero A.P. courses in Earth, but there are in Environmental. So, why aren't we just teaching Environmental? This question comes on the heels of the current green revolution.

I didn't notice anything about rocks and minerals in the new curriculum for 9-12. Seems were are going the more conservation route and less geology. Lots of similarities between the grade 6 curriculum. All in all i think it is fine however I was wondering if we could instead of having Honors Earth Science maybe have our honors kids skip Honors earth freshman year and take AP Environmental Science later in their careers. With the new curriculum that I saw if it is taught correctly and they are true honors kids their science path should be like this. 9th Biology, 10th Chemistry 11th AP Environmental 12th Another advanced science if they wish, AP Bio, Physics, Chem II. I think this would propel us forward in the county for the honors kids and let them compete for the schools and scholarships. The AP Environmental will replace the earth. Or you can do the Biochem as a two semester program senior year. I dont know. But I just feel that we hold some of our kids back.

It appears both contributors agree that Earth Science needs to be completely altered into an Environmental Science. The rationale is that according to the proposed curriculum, students have already been exposed to most earth science topics and that the issues of human impact on the environment is a much more relevant area of study. Students are being turned off by Earths science curriculum because it is too repetitive of their last 3 years of science education. If we are required to keep the Earth Science course, then what is offered is acceptable.