Stephen P. Broker
Biodiversity is broadly defined as the "full array of life on Earth" and is considered to include genetic, species, ecological, and landscape components. Biodiversity thus includes concepts of species richness, ecosystem complexity, and genetic variation (Allaby. 1994.), and it addresses "both the variety of these things and the variability found within and among them (The Nature Conservancy and Association for Biodiversity Information. 2000.). This curriculum unit addresses contemporary issues of biodiversity and conservation biology. It develops ecological concepts relating to the meaning and value of biodiversity, the extent of biodiversity (local, regional, national, and global), present and past threats to biodiversity, and efforts to maintain or restore biodiversity to habitats or communities at regional, national, or global scales. I refer to the vertebrate wildlife of Connecticut for the examples or case studies that are developed, including our herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles), avifauna (birds), and mammalian fauna. I do not discuss the freshwater and salt water fishes of the state, instead giving emphasis to the tetrapods or quadrupeds of Connecticut. The unit has been developed through my participation as a fellow in the "Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation" seminar of the 2005 Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute (Oswald Schmitz, Seminar Leader).
The unit is intended for students in Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES) a course that I have been teaching for the past five years. This is an upper level science elective which is a part of the College Board/AP Program course offerings at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, Connecticut. Students taking the course are high school juniors and seniors who have shown previous aptitude and interest in physical and life sciences and who seek a head start on college level course work and possible college credit. Future development of the unit will provide some applications for the Macy Honors Anatomy & Physiology course that I teach, as well as college and general physiology courses. While the target student population is advanced high school science students, there are a number of aspects of the unit, including subject matter and laboratory and field activities, which can be applied to middle school and elementary science education.
My teaching over the years has included courses in the physical and the life sciences, including physical science, chemistry, geology, biology, botany, physiology, ecology, environmental science, and laboratory techniques. My particular interests in science have ranged from general biology to ecology and evolutionary biology to the environmental sciences, with a secondary interest in chemistry, geology, and paleontology. My 2005-06 teaching schedule includes one section of AP Environmental Science, two sections of Macy Honors Anatomy and Physiology, and two sections of Honors Biology (for high school sophomores), and I anticipate that this schedule will provide me a good blend of these various fields of interest. I have developed this curriculum unit because it addresses a number of major concepts in the fields of ecology and environmental science, both in terms of subject matter and laboratory and field investigations. Portions of the unit can be used in the study of comparative vertebrate anatomy and physiology, which is one of the primary approaches that I use in teaching about the structure and functioning of the human body.
