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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.

The history of the Earth is filled with environmental changes, extinction events, and the evolution of a diversity of organisms. In this sequence, students explore the process of adaptation through natural selection and how this compares to the individual acclimatization of organisms in a changing environment in order to gain a better understanding of how life on Earth will adjust (or not!) to global changes such as human-caused climate change.

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."