In this group of activities, students will investigate how nutrients and water move through ecosystems in cycles. Students will begin by investigating how carbon cycles through organisms as part of photosynthesis and cellular respiration and then through food chains. Students will discuss what happens when living things do not decompose under normal conditions and become fossilfuels. Students will then review the water cycle and discover that water connects everything inecosystems. Students will explore stories of the water cycle as told by molecules of water anddiscuss water’s importance to all living things.

Students will learn about Michigan’s four ecological regions, how these unique regions come together to help support Michigan’s environment, and the important role they play in Michigan’s economy, as well as globally. Students will become “CSI agents” investigating and collecting information that supports why Michigan‘s environment is unique. Students will apply what they have discovered by creating an infographic that advertises the importance of their region.

There are many different types of ecosystems in the state of Michigan. Many of these ecosystemshave changed over time due to fires, storms, or animals. No animal has had a bigger impact onMichigan’s ecosystems than humans. Humans have transformed ecosystems all across the state.These ecosystems have been transformed in many different ways, like draining wetlands, cuttingdown forest for farm fields, and cities getting larger and expanding outward. Many ecosystems andorganisms are resilient and have adapted to the changes; others unfortunately have not.

LESSON DESCRIPTIONStudents will use problem-based learning to engineer a solution to the animal car collision problem.

Michigan has a variety of different ecosystems ranging from large forests all the way to shallow creeks, streams, and wetlands. Humans use these ecosystems in a variety of ways (good or bad). Students will investigate both the unique terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems found throughout Michigan through researching and developing detailed maps.

Students will learn about primary and secondary succession through an on-line interactivesuccession game, as well as conduct a historical analysis of the Great Thumb Fire of 1881.

LESSON DESCRIPTIONStudents will explore the benefits of ecosystems by engaging in a simulation utilizing ecosystemservices.

LESSON DESCRIPTIONStudents will analyze existing data to determine potential cause/effect of invasive species in population dynamics. Students will collect their own data in a field study to demonstrate the carrying capacity (competition and availability of resources) of an ecosystem.

LESSON DESCRIPTIONStudents will study existing examples of habitat restoration efforts related to promoting biodiversityin order to write their own management plan for an endangered species/habitat.

Students learn how energy consumption has changed over the past 100 years, why it has changed, and the impact it has had. Students brainstorm and categorize uses of energy, take part in an optional consumption simulation, interpret graphs about energy use, take surveys, and engage in small group and classroom discussions about energy comparisons.

Students build a model turbine to observe how different energy resources can be used to turn a turbine, inquire how the interaction between a wire and a magnet generates electricity, and investigate the different mix of energy resources used to generate electricity in Michigan, the United States, and the world.

The advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of non-renewable energy sources are the focus of this lesson. Students match different kinds of energy resources with their advantages and disadvantages, and then discuss whether these advantages and disadvantages are economic,ecological, or social. As an extension students identify the environmental impacts of their family’s electricity usage using EPA’s Power Profiler web site. The next lesson will deal with renewable resources.

This lesson develops the concept of an ecological footprint. Students use data and tools to assess the impacts of their energy and resource consumption. They examine their results and assess their impacts on the environment. Students discuss and compare their impacts and try to identify actions to reduce their footprints.

 LESSON 1: THE SALTY STUMPER: A GROUNDWATER CASE STUDY Building upon prior knowledge of the water cycle, students explore how groundwater moves and interacts with surface water in a watershed. Using data from a case study in Ottawa County, students consider how both natural characteristics of an aquifer and human activities can affect the quantity and quality of groundwater for human use. Students build models to understand groundwater processes, construct arguments based on evidence for how and why issues of groundwater quantity and quality exist, and evaluate the benefits and constraints of various solutions to these problems. 

 LESSON 2: A MUCKY MYSTERY: A NUTRIENT ENRICHMENT CASE STUDY Students complete a reading about three teens who visit the Saginaw Bay to go swimming and encounter decaying vegetative muck washed up along the shoreline. Students interact with a mystery script and activity prompts that reveal clues as the teens investigate why the beach has so much muck. Students learn about other characters who have a stake in the phenomenon as they uncover the interaction between land use and water quality. Students react to questions and sketch and revise a model that reflects their discoveries about how multiple causes on land are connected to excess nutrients in the Saginaw Bay.

 LESSON 3: ROUGE RIVER WATERSHED Students create a simple model of a watershed, identify important terminology about watersheds and use an infographic to analyze data from the Rouge River Watershed (RRW). The conclusion of the lesson is an activity to design a stream daylighting project. The project explores the impacts of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO’s) as well as more comprehensive watershed restoration actions, including habitat restoration and storm water controls. The information from the infographic comes from several reports centered on the Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project, which was funded by the EPA, state and local governments.

 LESSON 4: THE DISAPPEARING DONUT: AN AQUATIC INVASIVE SPECIES CASE STUDY Students will learn about the invasive species and how they can impact native ecosystems. Using data from university research studies around the phytoplankton levels in Lake Michigan over the last 30 years, students will investigate how many factors combine to play a role in the complex aquatic ecosystem and decide how humans can minimize their impact on the Great Lakes Ecosystem.

 LESSON 5: WHITE LAKE THE BEAUTIFUL: AN AREA OF CONCERN CASE STUDY In this lesson, a classroom sediment and groundwater pollution demonstration engages students and introduces the now delisted AOC, White Lake. This demonstration is followed by a map and data interpretation activity from an initial sediment study of White Lake. Students then view the short documentary, Bringing Back White Lake the Beautiful. After the video, students take on the role of a member of the community or restoration projects to participate in a community conversation, discussing and evaluating the solutions to delisting White Lake as an AOC. Finally, students turn to their own community, and plan an action item for reducing the impact of human activities on the environment in their community.

This course on global integration brings together matters of global markets and institutions, global strategy, organization, and leadership. Global integration, the process by which an organization with units around the world becomes united, will be presented as a link to entrepreneurship and general management. The seminar is offered only to those enrolled in the MIT Sloan Fellows Program and challenges the participants to draw upon their past managerial experiences, especially those affiliated with multinational companies.

Through investigating the nature, sources and level of noise produced in their environment, students are introduced to the concept of noise pollution. They learn about the undesirable and disturbing effects of noise and the resulting consequences on people's health, as well as on the health of the environment. They use a sound level meter that consists of a sound sensor attached to the LEGO® NXT Intelligent Brick to record the noise level emitted by various sources. They are introduced to engineering concepts such as sensors, decibel (dB) measurements, and sound pressure used to measure the noise level. Students are introduced to impairments resulting from noise exposure such as speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption and reduced productivity. They identify potential noise pollution sources, and based on recorded data, they classify these sources into levels of annoyance. Students also explore the technologies designed by engineers to protect against the harmful effects of noise pollution.