Media, Technology & Our Earth Home
Objectives
- D10.S1.08.01 Analyze the benefits and harms of a technology for different groups of people, and weigh them.
- D10.S1.08.02 Explain how design decisions involve trade-offs among cost, safety, access, and the environment, using a real example.
- D10.S2.08.01 Analyze how a photo, video, or story can be framed or edited to change its meaning, and explain how to check it.
- D10.S2.08.02 Evaluate whether an image or video might be altered or misleading, such as a deepfake, and describe one way to check.
- D10.S3.08.01 Explain how an ecosystem responds to a disturbance, such as fire or flooding, and what helps it recover (resilience).
- D10.S3.08.02 Compare two biomes or climate zones and explain how the living things there are adapted to their conditions.
- D10.S4.08.01 Explain what sustainability means (meeting today's needs without robbing the future) and apply it to one resource.
- D10.S4.08.02 Analyze a community's practice for caring for land or water, from any culture, and what makes it work.
Essential questions
- How do I weigh a technology's benefits and harms for different people, and what trade-offs do design decisions carry?
- How can a photo, video, or story be framed, edited, or altered to mislead, and how do I check it?
- How do ecosystems recover from disturbance, how are living things adapted to their biomes, and what does it mean to live sustainably?
Big ideas
- Technologies help and harm different people differently, and every design decision trades off cost, safety, access, and the environment.
- Images and stories can be framed, edited, or faked, and checking them is a learnable skill.
- Ecosystems recover through resilience, living things are adapted to their biomes, and sustainability means meeting today's needs without robbing the future.
Lessons
- 1 Media, Technology & Our Earth Home: Where We've Been, Where We're Going 50 minutes
- 2 Who Benefits, Who Is Harmed: Weighing a Technology 50 minutes
- 3 Design Trade-offs: Cost, Safety, Access, Environment 50 minutes
- 4 Framed and Edited: How a Picture Changes Its Meaning 50 minutes
- 5 Deepfakes and Altered Video: Is It Real? 50 minutes
- 6 Disturbance and Recovery: How Ecosystems Bounce Back 50 minutes
- 7 Biomes and Adaptation: Living Fit to a Place 50 minutes
- 8 Sustainability: Meeting Today's Needs Without Robbing Tomorrow 50 minutes
- 9 Caring for Land and Water: Stewardship Practices Across Cultures 50 minutes
- 10 Capstone: Media, Technology & Our Earth Home — Putting It Together 55 minutes
Assessment plan
A benefits-and-harms analysis of one technology, a design trade-off case, a framed-or-altered image check, a deepfake check, an ecosystem-resilience account, a biome comparison, and a sustainability application plus a place-based stewardship analysis as portfolio artifacts.
Unit 11 — Media, Technology & Our Earth Home
Overview
This unit closes the outward year by gathering everything together, building on Grade 7’s trustworthy sources, misinformation-versus-disinformation, and climate change. Learners analyze the benefits and harms of a technology for different groups of people and weigh them, and explain how design decisions involve trade-offs among cost, safety, access, and the environment, using a real example. They analyze how a photo, video, or story can be framed or edited to change its meaning and explain how to check it, and evaluate whether an image or video might be altered or misleading, such as a deepfake, and describe one way to check. They explain how an ecosystem responds to a disturbance, such as fire or flooding, and what helps it recover — resilience — and compare two biomes or climate zones and explain how the living things there are adapted to their conditions. They explain what sustainability means — meeting today’s needs without robbing the future — and apply it to one resource, and analyze a community’s practice for caring for land or water, from any culture, and what makes it work.
Essential questions
- How do I weigh a technology’s benefits and harms for different people, and what trade-offs do design decisions carry?
- How can a photo, video, or story be framed, edited, or altered to mislead, and how do I check it?
- How do ecosystems recover from disturbance, how are living things adapted to their biomes, and what does it mean to live sustainably?
Lessons
| Lesson | Title | Standards |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Media, Technology & Our Earth Home: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going | D10.S1.08.01, D10.S1.08.02 |
| 02 | Who Benefits, Who Is Harmed: Weighing a Technology | D10.S1.08.01 |
| 03 | Design Trade-offs: Cost, Safety, Access, Environment | D10.S1.08.02 |
| 04 | Framed and Edited: How a Picture Changes Its Meaning | D10.S2.08.01 |
| 05 | Deepfakes and Altered Video: Is It Real? | D10.S2.08.02 |
| 06 | Disturbance and Recovery: How Ecosystems Bounce Back | D10.S3.08.01 |
| 07 | Biomes and Adaptation: Living Fit to a Place | D10.S3.08.02 |
| 08 | Sustainability: Meeting Today’s Needs Without Robbing Tomorrow | D10.S4.08.01 |
| 09 | Caring for Land and Water: Stewardship Practices Across Cultures | D10.S4.08.02 |
| 10 | Capstone: Media, Technology & Our Earth Home — Putting It Together | all eight D10 grade-8 objectives |