Biocomplexity: Challenges in designing an elective high-school ecology curriculum

There is need for high school curriculum materials that integrate human interactions as components of “natural” systems, and also support students to engage in authentic investigations of systems phenomena.  To address this need, TERC and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies are designing an elective capstone course that incorporates cutting-edge research on Biocomplexity and coupled nonhuman-human systems.  We aim to engage students of all abilities in a case-based approach to land use decisions.  Cases include two “local” contexts – an urban system, the ecology of sprawl -- and two distant contexts – Amazonia, the Arctic.  Two challenges constrain curriculum design. 1) Modeling. To allow students to understand modeling without cognitive overload, the complexity and scale of the modeling strand will build gradually over the four modules.  Students will progress from describing and representing relationships among components in systems qualitatively, to quantifying these, and finally to using models predictively.  The curriculum will provide crucial teacher support to scaffold students’ modeling.  2) Inquiry-based science. TERC's long-held pedagogical concern with authentic inquiry means that real “laboratory experiences” will be integral to course content.  Authentic inquiry cannot be completely "guided" especially at the high school level, therefore, curricular guidance will emphasize rigorous investigation rather than complete solutions for complex problems.  The nature of the material lends itself to a range of student competencies, while data sets provided in the curriculum will be rich enough that students with more advanced mathematical skill will be able to conduct deeper analyses and examine and test new questions.