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Students learn about the greenhouse effect and how an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases are contributing to a rise in average global temperature. Students further their understanding of how humans are contributing to current climate change by reading an interactive text and watching a video. Students extend their thinking by exploring the implications of climate change in the regions be analyzed for the performance task.

Human population growth, globalization, and industrialization are having profound impacts on the long term health and stability of ecosystems, permanently altering the products of billions of years of evolutionary history on planet Earth. In this unit, students create plans to address the population decline of endangered species, gaining a greater understanding of how humans have altered ecosystems and what actions may be taken (including the use of biotechnology) to preserve biodiversity. Students create models and utilize simulations to gain a deeper understanding of large scale geological and biological processes.

In this unit students will analyze and create topographic maps of human cities as they consider how geographical features such as oceans, lakes, and mountains have influenced where humans have chosen to live. Students will also make predictions about how changes in the Earth's surface features that may take place?whether due to climate change or other factors?can influence the migration of human populations in the future.

Finding solutions to complex global concerns such as human-caused climate change will require coordination between stakeholders at multiple levels, and the innovative use of technology. In this sequence, students review the causes behind important environmental concerns, and explore specific actions that can be taken to address or mitigate the impacts of climate change and the overconsumption of natural resources.

Climate change is a paramount global environmental concern. In order to understand this complex phenomena, one must examine a set of cause and effect relationships that connect the global carbon cycle and human use of fossil fuels to emerging climate change impacts such as sea level rise. In this sequence, students explore a variety of data sets, graphs, and other visuals to gain an insight into how human-caused climate change is occurring and how to address or mitigate its' future impacts.

Many natural resources, both renewable and nonrenewable, are being used at an unsustainable rate. Additionally, the human population is growing at an exponential rate with increasing access to consumer goods and services?driving the demand for both energy and raw materials. In this sequence, students explore the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources and how the unsustainable use of resources contributes to the depletion and degradation of the natural world.

The Regents Item Bank provides questions from past Regents exams aligned with the content of this unit.

In this performance task, students address the following task: "How are human activities altering the physical and living environment? Is it possible to save species from extinction? To answer these questions, write a narrative explaining three possible actions that could lead to the survival of a specific keystone species that is currently under threat. Use evidence from texts, videos, and secondary data sources, along with sound scientific reasoning and logic, to create your narrative."

The distribution of human populations over time has been largely influenced by the Earth's geography and climate. As global climate changes, the impact on geography and climate will be profound, inevitably causing challenges to the quality of life and survival of human and animal populations, forcing migration. Where would you want to live in the future in order to ensure that you're comfortable and safe? Consider current geography and climate and how these might be impacted by climate change in the year 2100.