Danielle Williams

I have taught secondary science for 18 years in rural schools and strive to make science relevant to students' everyday lives. I am fortunate to teach both middle school and high school; I teach 7th grade science and the high school life sciences. I am passionate about creating learning experiences that explore local ecosystems and address real-world challenges, requiring students to think critically and engage with the world around them.

Prairie Project Description:

A 5E active learning mini unit using a variety of instructional approaches to increase student knowledge of the grasslands and how management strategies affect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Can be used with Middle or High School.

• Students engage with historical and current photographs of the prairie, inferring causes of the differences over time.
• Students work with colorized, informational species cards on their tables to build relationship webs and identify the effects of common disturbances on the ecosystem.
• Online gaming is used to explore and evaluate management of invading cedars, then additional history and strategies are introduced with differentiated guided readings.
• Each student designs their own ranch, implementing various management strategies, then ‘tour’ the ranches evaluating ecosystem services.
• Students conclude with a social media post and reflection.

CHP Project Description:

Green Glacier- Bane or Salvation: a 5E lesson investigating the effects of trees encroaching on ecosystems.

• Students engage with a Myth or Fact Challenge and make observations of time- lapsed images of woody plant encroachment across the rangelands.
• Students explore stations to determine the effects of encroaching trees on various species within ecosystems, ranching, resources, and society.
• Students learn how trees have spread across the rangelands, ways to combat them, and why we should restore prairies.
• Students evaluate a site and propose a plan for a prairie restoration area that can be used for community education and recreation.  
• Students conclude with an assessment and reflection of projects after a peer review.

Next Generation Science Standards:

HS-LS-2-6: Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

HS-LS2-8. Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.

HS-LS4-6. Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.

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