Students will launch the project by modeling ecosystem interactions, analyzing a trophic cascade case, and beginning evidence-based inquiry into an endangered species and the debate over human intervention in ecosystem stability.

Students will choose and justify an initial position on a conservation claim, connect that stance to ecological relationships, food webs, and matter cycling, research a selected endangered species using credible and conflicting sources, and draft a one-page evidence-based position statement that can be strengthened in later phases.

Students will gather and test evidence for their endangered-species position by evaluating source credibility, comparing supporting and opposing claims, analyzing ecosystem evidence about relationships, biodiversity, and matter/energy disruption, and revising their evidence base before moving into full argument construction.

Students will turn researched evidence into a defensible endangered-species campaign by tightening CER reasoning, building fair counterarguments, revising campaign media and citations through critique, practicing live responses to challenges, and reflecting on how evidence sharpened or changed their position.

Students will present and defend their endangered species campaign to an authentic audience, respond to stakeholder questions with scientific evidence, gather community feedback, and complete a brief final reflection on how their science understanding and collaboration developed during the project.