COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF A KARST CURRICULUM ALIGNED WITH THE NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

A six-person team of educators collaborated on-line to develop a high school Earth Science curriculum for karst areas under the direction of a geoscience professor (Abolins). The curriculum was framed around Next Generation Science Standard HS-ESS2-5, “Investigations of the properties of water,” and the curriculum was organized around solubility to accommodate an emphasis on the geological features of karst. Most materials were adapted from existing on-line resources. One part of the curriculum focuses on flooding, allowing learners to connect properties of water to geologic processes. In this part of the curriculum, the learner embarks on an exploration of flooding, and, more specifically, sinkhole flooding. The learner uses a hands-on activity to build a flood model as a form of constructing a framework under the umbrella of the flood concept. Sequential days integrate hydrogeology and associated terminology, sinkhole graphing, and an engineering challenge to get students thinking about adaptations to destructive, natural events.