Environmental Lesson Plan--Week One

Day 1: Begin covering the topic of the ESA (Endangered Species Act) and what it means for an animal to be endangered, extinct, threatened, etc.

Science

Begin by asking questions such as "What is an endangered animal?"

Ex: gorillas, amur leopards, tigers, cheetahs rhinoceroses, Florida panthers, manatees. Why are some of these animals endangered? Show pictures in a slideshow of some of the animals talked about to interest the students. Be sure the students have a chance to offer answers!

Continue on with "What does it mean for a creature to go extinct?" Describe the ESA--what it is and why we developed it. Encourage kids to guess.

Have students split into equal groups and research the following topics:

· What is the ESA and what, if anything, has changed about it in the past 10 years?

· What is the difference between vulnerable, threatened, and endangered species? Give three examples of each.

· How do environmentalists and other scientists work to prevent animals (and/or plants) from going extinct? Give an example.

· Research the Florida panther and the struggles the species has endured. What made the panther become endangered? What are scientists and other people doing to help the species?

· Research manatees and how their populations have begun to recover. Why were manatees endangered? What steps did people take to make their populations grow again?

Be sure to provide a few links to each of the topics and encourage the students to research websites on their own as well in the computer lab (school-safe websites). Also, make sure the students cite their sources. This can be a good place to implement standard SC.35.CS-PC.1.4 (defining plagiarism).

This researching process will go on for two days during science time.

Math

Create word problems surrounding the issue of endangered species. Begin work on geometry. Review how to find the area and perimeter of a rectangle and then hand out a worksheet to the students with word problems regarding area and perimeter.

For example, a word problem may include the following:

A family of Florida panthers was found living in a forest in south Florida that was for sale. Florida's government wanted to buy the land the panthers were living on so that no one could build on it. The patch of land is shaped like a rectangle, and is 10 miles wide and 12 miles long. What is the area of the land that the panthers are living on?

A rectangle with the dimensions could be drawn beneath the problem to help visual learners as well.

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Day 2

Science

Continue research from day one. Students should finish gathering and organizing their research today.

Math

Start out by giving a demonstration of what angles are, and define right, acute, and obtuse angles. Then describe how protractors work.

Show this video on what angles are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLm7eedYIY

Show this video on how protractors work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzd_lsNwTOI

Since this is one of their first experiences with angles, the whole math portion of class should be devoted to helping make sure the kids understand what they are, how to measure them, etc. Lots of whiteboard practice. The unit will tie more into environmental issues after today.

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Day 3

Science: Students will share what they learned in their groups to the class. Students will have an organizer to write key things down in. This will be for the entire portion of science time today.

Math

Continue with the geometry from the previous days. The students will do both group and individual work.

Then hand out worksheets to students by pairs. Create an uneven pie chart without any number or percent labels, but word labels reading things like "protected land," "timber land," "construction land" and "uncharted forest." The circle is to represent a circular patch of land, and it's split up so there are different uses of the same land circle. The students are to answer questions in their pair pertaining to how the land is divided up, measuring the angles with a protractor to know the angles of each section of land. This will show them that bigger angles are bigger land portions in the case of this circle, and it will allow them to get a feel for how big basic angles are in circles, such as 45 degree angles versus 90 degree angles. You (the teacher) can try to be even more creative with this as well, making the amount of land for each category a little more realistic. This is supposed to show more of a national land spread, not so much unique to Florida. The paper will be turned in when it is finished, and each student will receive an individual worksheet for extra practice with word problems and normal angle problems.

The individual worksheet will consist of similar questions about angles, relating to habitats of all sorts of animals, farms in Africa vs cheetah-safe land, etc. These questions will reinforce what the students are learning in science about how people hunt animals and destroy their land, but other questions will reinforce the idea that we are creating more protected space for these animals. This will be taken home if not finished in class and checked in class the next day. Additionally, be sure to introduce 360 degree circles, not just half circles, and include an instructional sheet with step by step instructions on how to use math, not just a protractor, to solve these angle questions. I.e. measuring a 90 degree angle and subtracting that from 360 to find the bigger angle is 270.

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Day 4

Science

The teacher will give a presentation on Florida panthers and manatees highlighting what the groups talked about while adding more interesting facts about the creatures and things students should know. The students will then work at their table groups on a Venn diagram looking at similarities and differences between panthers and manatees.

Examples may include that the panther is still endangered while the manatee is now listed as threatened, or that the panther is a land animal and eats meat while the manatee is a sea animal and vegetarian. Similarities can include that they’re both mammals, and that they were at some point both hunted by humans. Students should include facts about the impact humans have had directly on both species and their environments, as well as things that have been done for both species to help bring their populations back up.

Math

The previous day's assignment/homework will be gone over by the teacher, students will correct any of their work in pen. At the end, students will be asked to close their eyes and hold up the number of questions they got correct/missed on their fingers (the assignment should have about 10 questions). Any student who missed 5 or more questions will go to a group with the teacher while the others begin on another assignment, another 10 questions, combining day 1 and day 2 (work on area/perimeter and angles). Students can ask one another for help if necessary, keeping a low volume.

The students who work with the teacher will do the angle questions with the teacher guiding them. The teacher will do the first question with the students watching and adding input and should then let the students lead the discussion and step in only to guide, trying to help them understand from a distance if possible. The students are allowed to work as a team here. If they are still having trouble, the teacher should come up with extra problems for these kids to work on during free time or when possible with the teacher one on one. They will be dismissed to their seats to finish the worksheet once they finish the questions on angles.

Once this is complete, the teacher will review the worksheets with the students and separate them into 4 groups: students that understand both concepts well; students that have trouble with area/perimeter; students that struggle with angles; and students that struggle with both concepts.

Students that understand both concepts well will be given silent reading time.

Students that struggle with area/perimeter will be given a small project to do together. They will have to come up with three zoo enclosures for some endangered animals that are being brought into a zoo for a recovery program. The assignment details will be similar to as follows:

- Ex: To have a rectangular enclosure, an pair of okapis need a space at least 50 meters wide and 30 meters long. What is the least amount of fencing (in meters) the zoo will need to purchase to create the enclosure (perimeter of a rectangle)?
-Follow-up questions can also be asked about the [surface] area of a rectangular pond for the animal to drink from, or the perimeter of a stable needed for an okapi to sleep in.
-Diagrams with dimensions of the enclosures, etc. should be pictured.
-The animals in question should be pictured on the worksheets to stimulate engagement from the students. 
-For questions regarding small things like the pond or stable, allow students to use manipulatives like cubes to map out the area or perimeter.

Students that still struggle with angles will also work on a small project together. The teacher can take some washi tape and make triangles, squares, and irregular shapes all around a small poster (maybe an 18 x 24, or if it's only a few students then an 11 x 17). Students will be asked to identify two shapes each on the poster and find all of their angles, then write them down on the angle.

For students that struggle with both topics, the teacher can create a model of the okapi exhibit in the perimeter project for students to touch, measure and look at. It can be made to scale, 50 cm by 30 cm instead of 50 meters by 30 meters. The students can measure it out and find the perimeter, calculate the area, and measure other things such as a pond or stable. It would be very hands on and can be used in the perimeter group if they still struggle once this group is done with it. The model should be fun, complete with mini trees, shrubs, etc. Once they are finished, the teacher will pull out another poster board and ask the students to place down the washi tape intersecting each other. They will then each choose two angles to measure, one with teacher guidance, and one on their own. Have them round to the nearest unit of 5 for simplicity (for example, 40, 45, 50).

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Day 5: Shift gears from ESA and endangered species to the topic of overfishing.

Science

Talk about diet—"Who likes to eat fish in the class?" Make note that over 3 billion people worldwide rely on fish to be a decent portion of their diet. Make sure kids know that eating fish is not “evil” and some people prefer not to eat animals while others rely on them as a source of iron and protein. This will set a more empathetic mood among students who might be vegan/vegetarian and would might blame meat eaters for the overfishing crisis.

Begin with this video describing overfishing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNdR808jMSA

Use the worksheet (Overfishing_Run_Out_of_Fish.docx)

Students will head to the computer lab and play the overfishing simulator. Show the kids in the classroom an example of you (the teacher) playing it beforehand, or have a student volunteer to play the rest of the round once you show them the basic instructions. The goal is to catch the most fish without depleting the fish, while other fishermen around you overfish. You have to watch out for them so you don’t contribute to overfishing where they cast their nets!

Link: https://www.ecoocean.de/play-online/

Have some discussions, such as about the difficulty of the simulator. Did the CPUs catch the most fish because they were overfishing? Discuss the short-term benefits of overfishing versus the long-term benefits of sustainable fishing. Ex: A short term benefit is that people can get as much fish as they want when they want it, but it has a bad side which is that all the fish will go extinct soon if we take all of the fish. A long term benefit is that while people may not get all the fish they want when they want it, fish populations will be stable, and they will have more baby fish that will grow up into fish we can eat for years to come.

Math

Begin with some word problems and picture problems as "bell work" from the previous day--focusing on area, perimeter, and angles, but on the topic of overfishing. For example, "A fisherman in the Indian Ocean hopes to reel in a large catch of tuna, but finds himself with a 210 pound oceanic whitetip shark! Measure the angle between the shark's tail fins. What about the acute angle of the shark's dorsal fin?" Provide a clear-cut picture of a whitetip shark for the students to measure (drawing would probably be better than photograph). Be sure to label the dorsal fin and where you want them to measure on the tail.

Once the students have completed bell work, students will begin learning about angle sums and differences. Problems can include examples such as: "A fishing boat is trying to trawl a flat part of the ocean floor for shellfish, but the front of their their net is at a 150 degree angle. In order to trawl for shellfish, the net must be at 180 degrees. How many more degrees does it need to be lowered?"

Of course, students should also learn how to do this without word problems and pictures, so simple diagram questions should be included as well, and regular problems without any applications.

Social Studies

The students briefly learned about some of the technologies commercial fishermen use, such as radar, sonar, and helicopters to scout out where schools or fish are. Dive into depth about some of these technologies a little more.

Be sure to note that fishing technology can be a good thing. For example, this video shows how fishing technology can keep fishermen honest about what species and how much bycatch they are catching. See link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LuvZlwy75Y

The next step is to talk about how these technologies impact Florida. Here is a video on how it has effected Biscayne National Park: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article236550258.html

Make a slideshow of some creatures that are endangered or threatened as a result of fishing, such as sea turtles and dolphins, and fish populations that have declined from overfishing, such as grouper, sawtooth sharks, and the Atlantic goliath grouper.

Once the slideshow is over, have the students separate into equal groups and pick an animal to learn more about. Create handouts for 5-7 creatures described in the slideshow, and provide pictures of the animals. The handouts should include information on the size of the animal, what it looks like, interesting facts about it, and how overfishing has impacted it. The key of this is to talk about the technology, such as sonar or trawling nets. For example, if one endangered species of fish is typically found in the same areas as a commonly eaten fish species, trawling nets can negatively impact that species because they are caught in the nets while fishermen scoop up hundreds of edible fish. The students will each write five sentences on what they learned about overfishing and how it impacts the creature they read about. At least two of the sentences must be on how technology impacted that species or other species.