Goal: Create a sustainable ecosystem to track interactions of organisms and matter and to conduct an experiment that simulates human influences on the environment.

Description: In this project, Environmental Sustainability students were challenged to construct a sustainable small scale ecosystem in which they would investigate a human influence on the natural world.  The ecocolumns have two chambers: the terrestrial chamber, the aquatic chamber.  Within these chambers, students observed interactions between living and non-living factors and traced cycles of matter, including nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus.  Also, students chose a variable to test within the ecocolumn and designed a 6 week investigation to simulate the effects of a factor such as runoff or pollution.  They presented their findings through a detailed sketches and scientific papers which summarized their investigation and findings.

Subject: Environmental Sustainability

Grade Level: 10th-11th

• Ecocolumns Cycles Sketch

• Baseline Data Lab

• Designing Investigation: guidelines, peer edit, starting paper

• Ecocolumn: Final Paper Guidelines

• Final Paper Template

• Group Evaluation

• Labeled sketch of ecocolumn with biogeochemical cycles

• Formal lab report of 6 week investigation, including data and literature review and conclusions