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Retrospective for Curriculum Unit

Doug Earick

Environmental Impact of Human Settlement and
Urbanization on the Albuquerque Region

The curriculum unit I wrote for the Albuquerque Teachers Institute has not been utilized completely in its written form I have used pieces of the unit and have used much of the content information I learned as a member of the seminar in my teaching. The unit, "The History and Development of the Rio Grande River in the Albuquerque Region", was initially developed for the Geology & Astronomy class I taught at Albuquerque High School. Though this was my original intent, it became more obvious to me that the material developed in the unit would not fit well into that course, but in fact would be much better taught in a Biology or Ecology course. A great deal of the unit covers ecological content information, such as change in habit, endangered species, ecosystem management, and the reclamation of altered environments. If I do happen to teach a more biologically related subject in the future, I will not hesitate to use the curriculum unit more fully.

The material that I did use from the seminar dealt more directly with geology and geological concepts, such as the formation of the Rio Grande Rift and the changing geologic character of New Mexico and the Albuquerque area. I utilized the new information I learned on the past geologic history of the state to update and expand units that I already teach on geologic time and geologic change over time. For example, I already taught geologic time through the use of timelines. After participating in the seminar, I added numerous New Mexico related events to these timelines. This simple addition actually caught students attention and led to active classroom discussions on how New Mexico had changed over geologic history and why the features that are so common to those of us who Eve here (Sandia mountains, Rio Grande River, West Side volcanoes, etc.) are present. It also helped students gain a greater understanding of "time" in a geologic sense, and the nature of how Albuquerque surface features relate chronologically to other major surface features on the earth. More importantly, it made a subject that often is hard for students to relate to more personal and more specific to their prior knowledge. I believe this aspect of my classroom teaching has definitely improved by my participation in the Teachers' Institute.