One curriculum, designed by the first author, was an inquiry-based unit that had students
assume the role of an environmental consultant who had to provide a management
recommendation for a local watershed. The curriculum was designed to take place both inside
and outside the classroom, have an environmental focus, and considered understanding “inquiry”
to be an equally important goal of the unit. Inside the classroom, guided notes were given that
contained the terms and concepts students would need mastery of to complete their
recommendation. Students used these notes to guide them in completing projects inside and outside of the classroom. For example, in order to arrive at an estimation of primary productivity
biomass, students spent time outside the classroom in a local forest edge gathering biometric data
and then utilized this data in their project. The data from these projects then became part of a
portfolio that was used to explain their management decisions. At the end of the unit, students
submitted their portfolio with a professionally written management decision for their ecosystem.