The document describes research on developing learning progressions to support K-12 students' environmental literacy. It discusses conceptual frameworks focusing on scientific practices, principles, and processes in systems. It analyzes data from student assessments to identify patterns in understanding of topics like water and carbon cycling. Key findings include increasing student awareness over time but lack of understanding of invisible system components and constraints on processes.

1. LEARNING PROGRESSIONS TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY Charles W. Anderson, Beth Covitt, Kristin Gunckel, Lindsey Mohan, In-Young Cho, Hui Jin, Christopher D. Wilson, John Lockhart, Ajay Sharma, Blakely Tsurusaki, Jim Gallagher MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

2. PARTNERS Mark Wilson, Karen Draney, University of California, Berkeley Joe Krajcik. Phil Piety, University of Michigan Brian Reiser, Northwestern University Jo Ellen Roseman, AAAS Project 2061 Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Alan Berkowitz, Baltimore Ecosystem Study Ali Whitmer, Santa Barbara Coastal John Moore, Shortgrass Steppe Environmental Literacy Research Group

3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY LEARNING PROGRESSION Practices Principles Processes in systems MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

4. PRACTICES for ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY (SECTIONS OF TABLE) 1. Inquiry: Learning from experience (not addressed in these papers) Practical and scientific inquiry Developing arguments from evidence 2 and 3. Scientific accounts and applications: Learning from authorities Applying fundamental principles to processes in systems Using scientific models and patterns to explain and predict 4. Using scientific reasoning in responsible citizenship: Reconciling experience, authority, and values Enacting personal agency on environmental issues Reconciling actions or policies with values Understanding and evaluating arguments among experts Environmental Literacy Research Group

5. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ACCOUNTS and APPLICATIONS Applying fundamental principles (rows of table)… Structure of systems: nanoscopic, microscopic, macroscopic, large scale Constraints on processes: tracing matter, energy, information Change over time: evolution, multiple causes, feedback loops … to processes in coupled human and natural systems (columns of table) Earth systems: Geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere Living systems: Producers, consumers, decomposers Engineered systems: Food, water, energy, transportation, housing

6. METHODS FOR INVESTIGATING PROGRESSIONS IN STUDENT PERFORMANCES Data sources Volunteer teachers in working groups Tests administered to upper elementary, middle, and high school students (available on website) Data analysis Developing rubrics for open-response questions Searching for patterns and common themes within and across tests Patterns in accounts of environmental systems (Practices 2 and 3) Patterns in reconciling experience, authority, and values (Practice 4) Looking for developmental trends Environmental Literacy Research Group

7. A K-12 LEARNING PROGRESSION TO SUPPORT UNDERSTANDING OF WATER IN THE ENVIRONMENT Beth Covitt & Kristin Gunckel CCMS Knowledge Sharing Institute July 10, 2006 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

8. TRACING WATER IN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS What to know about “ tracing water and other substances” In environmental systems, water usually exists as a mixture When moving through systems, water carries other substances Substances “picked up” by water occur naturally or are result of human action Humans prefer to find and use water with few added substances Humans treat water to minimize harmful substances before/after use Humans return used water to natural systems. Water travels through water cycle and is reused by humans and other species.

9. PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS One facet of water literacy is that… Students can apply FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES (e.g., structure of connected human & natural systems) to PROCESSES IN SYSTEMS (e.g., tracing water & other substances through systems) Examples Groundwater Landfill Contamination Watersheds Ocean Water Human Water System

10. SOME QUESTIONS NOT ADDRESSED TODAY Watersheds If a pollutant is put into a river at Town C, which towns will be affected? Ocean Water Why can’t we drink clean ocean water without treating it first? How could you make ocean water drinkable? Human Water System Where does water come from before it gets to your house? Where does it go after your house?

11. GROUNDWATER Draw a picture or explain what it looks like underground where there is water.

12. GROUNDWATER Draw a picture or explain what it looks like underground where there is water. Example from High School

13. LANDFILL CONTAMINATION Can a landfill (garbage dump) cause water pollution in a well?

14. LANDFILL CONTAMINATION How could a landfill contaminate a well?

15. KEY FINDINGS: PROGRESSION IN STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OVER TIME Increasing understanding of complexity of systems BUT invisible parts of systems remain invisible Water as mixtures; transport substances Groundwater, watersheds, atmospheric systems Connections between natural & human systems Increasing understanding of need for processes & mechanisms, BUT how these mechanisms work & constraints on processes remain poorly understood. Evaporation, condensation Treating water Increasing awareness of scales, BUT little success in connecting accounts across different levels Macro-Large Scale: Watersheds Environmental Literacy Research Group

16. DEVELOPING A CARBON CYCLE LEARNING PROGRESSION FOR K-12 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

17. PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS Applying fundamental principles… Structure of systems: atomic-molecular (CO 2 and organic materials), single-celled and multicellular organisms (producers, consumers, decomposers), ecosystems Constraints on processes: Tracing matter: inorganic to organic forms … to processes in coupled human and natural systems Physical Change of Dry Ice Burning Match Losing Weight Plant Growth

18. TRACING CARBON IN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS Living systems follow the basic principles of physical and chemical change, including conservation of mass and conservation of atoms Organisms are made mostly of water and organic substances Organic substances consist of molecules with reduced C plus H, O, and a few other elements Virtually all reduced C is created from CO 2 and H 2 O through the process of photosynthesis Virtually all organisms get their energy by oxidizing reduced C compounds in cellular respiration The products of cellular respiration are CO 2 and H 2 O Summary: CO 2 + H 2 O + minerals with N, P, etc. Organic substances + O2 CO 2 + H 2 O + minerals photosynthesis c. respiration Environmental Literacy Research Group

19. CONSERVING MASS DURING PHYSICAL CHANGE A sample of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) is placed in a tube and the tube is sealed after all of the air is removed. The tube and solid carbon dioxide weigh 27 grams. The tube is then heated until all of the dry ice evaporates and the tube is filled with carbon dioxide gas. The weight after heating will be: a. less than 26 grams. b. 26 grams. c. between 26 and 27 grams. d. 27 grams. e. more than 27 grams. Explain the reason for your answer to the previous question. Environmental Literacy Research Group Dry Ice

20. CHANGE OF STATE “ Because going from a solid to a gas, it weighs less” “ Because of the law of conservation of mass” Environmental Literacy Research Group Dry Ice

21. BURNING MATCH What happens to the wood of a match as the match burns? Why does the match lose weight as it burns? Environmental Literacy Research Group 20% 20% 10% Physical “visible” changes (turns to smaller pieces) 7.5% 47.5% 0% 15% 10% 0% Middle 30% 50% I don’t know or no response 17.5% 27.5% Matter disappears, evaporates, disintegrates 5% 0% Matter is transformed to energy 12.5% 12.5% Account for matter as visible products 5% 0% Match turns to gases, do not specify gases 10% 0% Account for matter (CO 2 and H 2 O) High Elem

22. LOSING WEIGHT A person on a diet lost 20 pounds. Some of his fat is gone. What happened to the mass of the fat? “ As mass is converted into energy for energy for use, it has to go somewhere. This energy is used to power the body and the fat (now transformed to energy) is spent and no long in the body” “ I think it is turned into energy and it also comes out by it turning into water or gas” “ it will come out of the large intestine” “ the person sweats” Environmental Literacy Research Group

23. LOSING WEIGHT A person on a diet lost 20 pounds. Some of his fat is gone. What happened to the mass of the fat? Environmental Literacy Research Group

24. PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS The fundamental principle of tracing matter is not being applied by students. Few students understand gases as products or reactants in cellular respiration Students frequently interconvert matter and energy. Many students saw “fat burning” as a process involving “breaking down”, but did not trace it to a chemical process of oxidation into CO 2 and H 2 O in cellular respiration Environmental Literacy Research Group

25. PLANT GROWTH A small acorn grows into a large oak tree. Where do you think the plant’s increase in weight comes from? Environmental Literacy Research Group 32.5% 17.5% 10% Other or Unintelligible 5% 12.5% 17.5% 0% 25% 7.5% 15% 0% Middle 7.5% 25% I don’t know or no response 7.5% 7.5% Natural growth 5% 12.5% From the ground or roots 0% 2.5% Air 10% 15% H 2 O from roots 25% 12.5% From air, sun, water, minerals and/or soil 12.5% 15% From food or glucose 0% 0% CO 2 in air and H 2 O from roots High Elem

26. PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES and SYSTEMS The fundamental principle of tracing matter is not being applied by students. Few students understand gases as products or reactants in photosynthesis. Students frequently saw water and soil nutrients as the critical source of plant weight. Environmental Literacy Research Group

27. KEY FINDINGS: FROM YOUNGER TO OLDER STUDENTS, WE SEE PROGRESS… From stories to model-based accounts Shift from why to how --purposes to mechanisms BUT lack knowledge of critical parts of systems From macroscopic to hierarchy of systems Increased awareness of atomic-molecular and large-scale systems BUT little success in connecting accounts at different levels Increasing awareness of constraints on processes Increasing awareness of conservation laws BUT rarely successful in constraint-based reasoning Increasing awareness of “invisible” parts of systems Increasing detail and complexity BUT gases, decomposers, connections between human and natural systems remain “invisible”

28. TO DO LIST Systematic review of literature Better assessments - for inquiry (Practice 1) - for applications to citizenship (Practice 4) - Psychometric quality (BEAR assessment system) Understanding pre-model-based reasoning in elementary students (and all of us) - Embodied reasoning and inquiry - Storytelling and scientific accounts Teaching experiments at upper elementary, middle school, and high school levels Environmental Literacy Research Group

29. MORE INFORMATION Papers, Assessments, and Other Materials are Available on Our Website: http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.htm Environmental Literacy Research Group

30. SLIDES AFTER THIS ARE FOR BACKUP IN RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS

31. NEXT STEPS Continue literature review Revise and expand assessments Greater emphasis on inquiry and citizenship Develop “mini water units” Conduct teaching experiments Further articulation of “K-12 Water in Environmental Systems Learning Progression” Environmental Literacy Research Group

32. WATERSHEDS If a water pollutant is put into river at town C, which towns will be affected? Few students understand how water flows in watersheds

33. WATERSHEDS If a water pollutant is put into river at town C, which towns will be affected?

34. OCEAN WATER Why can’t we use clean ocean water for drinking without treating it first?

35. OCEAN WATER How could you make ocean water drinkable?

36. THE HUMAN WATER SYSTEM Where does water come from before it gets to your house? And where does it go after?

37. THE HUMAN WATER SYSTEM Water Treatment Most students do not mention water treatment More of elementary & middle mention treatment before More of high school mention treatment after

38. THE HUMAN WATER SYSTEM Water Recycling in the Human System 40 percent of high school students indicate that water recycles

39. PRACTICES 2 and 3: SCIENTIFIC ACCOUNTS and their APPLICATIONS From stories to model-based accounts Shift from why to how --purposes to mechanisms BUT lack knowledge of critical parts of systems From macroscopic to hierarchy of systems Increased awareness of atomic-molecular and large-scale systems BUT little success in connecting accounts at different levels Increasing awareness of constraints on systems Increasing awareness of conservation laws BUT rarely successful in constraint-based reasoning Increasing awareness of “invisible” parts of systems Increasing detail and complexity BUT gases, decomposers, connections between human and natural systems remain “invisible”