HS-LS2-7
The standard
Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to identify a human impact on an ecosystem, explain who or what is affected, and design a realistic solution that reduces harm. They should use evidence, constraints, and tradeoffs, not just suggest “stop pollution” or “plant trees.”
Mastery looks like a design plan with a clear problem, evidence-based reasoning, limits, costs, and a way to measure success. Students often get stuck making vague solutions, ignoring biodiversity, or treating people and ecosystems as separate instead of connected.
Ways to teach it
- Hands-on: Give teams a local development map, species cards, and budget tokens to redesign the site with less habitat loss.
- Prompt: Write a proposal to city council explaining one solution to reduce an environmental impact and one tradeoff it creates.
- Quick assessment: Show a dam, invasive species, or urban sprawl image and ask students to name one impact, solution, and success metric.
- Real-world connection: Compare two wildlife crossings or green roofs using cost, biodiversity benefit, and maintenance needs.
Plan a lesson for HS-LS2-7
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related standards
- K-ESS3-3
Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
- HS-LS4-6
Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.
- MS-ESS3-3
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
- HS-ESS3-4
Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.