Students will investigate the human impact of land usage using water recharge data on O’ahu.

A plot of land in Oahu has been listed for sale. You represent a group wanting to buy the land to convert it. Your job is to create a pitch for the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development as a buyer that includes the economical, cultural, biodiversified, social and ecological impacts your conversion would cause.

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Topics

Authors

Sarah Miranda, Stacey Sebert, Lacey Soriano

Additional Resources

 

Next Generation Science Standards

Crosscutting Concepts
  • Cause and effect
  • Stability and change
Core Ideas
  • ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
  • ESS3.D: Global Climate Change
Practices
  • Engaging in argument from evidence
  • Analyzing and interpreting data

Ocean Literacy Fundamental Concepts

  • 1.H: The ocean is connected to major lakes, watersheds and waterways because all major watersheds on Earth drain to the ocean. Rivers and streams transport nutrients, salts, sediments and pollutants from watersheds to estuaries and to the ocean.
  • 6.E: Humans affect the ocean in a variety of ways. Laws, regulations and resource management affect what is taken out and put into the ocean. Human development and activity leads to pollution (point source, non-point source, and noise pollution) and physical modifications (changes to beaches, shores and rivers). In addition, humans have removed most of the large vertebrates from the ocean.