California connections
Environmental Principles and Concepts
California’s five Environmental Principles and Concepts are integrated where the official model supports them.
01
A careful integration
The course examines how people depend on natural systems, influence those systems, use resources, respond to limits, and make decisions with long-term effects. The EPCs enrich science reasoning; they do not replace a performance expectation.
- Use a California context only when it is authentic and supported.
- Distinguish scientific evidence from values and policy preferences.
- Invite students to compare tradeoffs without prescribing a single civic position.
02
Local transfer
Teachers can substitute a locally relevant watershed, habitat, hazard, resource, or community design problem while preserving the chapter’s science construct and privacy safeguards.
Professional review remains essential
Adapt this guidance to district policy, adopted materials, actual learners, available facilities, and current authoritative sources.