As an art teacher, the author has shied away from designing instructional units around the big idea of "ecology." Personally passionate about the topic, she feared that she would not be able to guide students effectively away from finished products that looked more like "save the earth" posters than layered, metaphorical, and sophisticated works of art. However, working with her student, Jennifer Anne Davis, as she develops her Advanced Placement concentration portfolio on this theme, the author realized that her varied approaches could be employed by teachers in the design of assignments that avoid hackneyed, trite, illustrative, and derivative images. By borrowing a few pages from this student's playbook--not to mention her sketchbook--art teachers may be better equipped to help students approach the highly relevant topic of ecology in ways that do justice to its complexity, significance, and ambiguity. (Contains 1 online resource.)