Grade Level: 6-8 Subject Areas: Science, Social Studies Duration
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- Charting the Course
- Activity 1: Mapping my Location
- Extension of Activity
- Exit Ticket
- Modifications
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Grade Level: 6-8
Science, Social Studies
One 45min class period with added homework activity Setting: Classroom/Outdoors Skills: Mapping, interpreting, reading and comprehension, and communication of science Correlation with NY Core Curriculum Standards: Process skills based on Standard 4: Physical Setting skills *** New Vocabulary: Archipelago: a group of islands Peninsula: a piece of land that is surrounded on only 3 sides by water Watershed: an area of land in which all water drains to a common outlet Ecosystem: a biological community of interacting organisms and their environment Estuary: transition zone of salt and fresh water Brackish water: The mix of fresh and salt water *** Materials needed: -student copies of map -student set of hw reading -pencils
-video Lesson Plan 1: An Archipelago of Islands – New York City, a Harbor Estuary (Adapted with permission from Project Ports (http://njaes.rutgers.edu/spotlight/project-ports-2011.asp) Charting the Course:In this lesson students will to become familiar with the geography of New York City and surrounding areas. By working with a map of their local area students will first gain their sense of place within the region by locating their school, home and oyster garden in relation to the geography of New York City and its surrounding waterways. The students will then learn about why Estuaries form, what is an Estuary, what is a Watershed, and what do Estuaries and brackish waters mean for living organisms and biodiversity. SWBAT:Orient themselves on a map of their home city. Identify the different water bodies surrounding their city comprising the larger Hudson Raritan Estuary. Identify and Create different aspects of a map (e.g. compass, legend). Estimate the location of NY Harbor’s estuaries and watershed. Background for teacher: An alternative way to view the city is to realize that New York City is built on an archipelago of islands; Staten Island, the Isle of Manhattan, and Long Island (home to both Brooklyn and Queens). The only part of the city on the continental U.S. is the Bronx, which in fact is on a peninsula. On all sides New York City is surrounded by water; the Hudson River, Long Island Sound, East River, Harlem River, Jamaica Bay, Arthur Kill and the Kill van Kull, and Upper New York harbor. The water flowing into New York Harbor comes from two sources; the Atlantic Ocean brings in salty water and the Hudson River with its associated watershed brings in freshwater from the mountains. This mix of fresh and salt water is called brackish water, making New York Harbor and its waterways an estuary. Estuaries are among the most productive of Earth's ecosystems and support a great diversity of life. Procedure
Warm UpOpen up with a class discussion. Ask the students what the first thing is that they imagine when they hear the words; “New York City”…Skyscrapers? Central Park? Millions of people? Cars? What about islands and water? Ask questions such as: What is a watershed? What is an estuary? At this point, teachers should give a brief explanation that an estuary is the transition zone from salt water to fresh water and that watersheds are an area of land in which all water drains to a common outlet. Teachers may choose to use the following 1-minute video, which describes the nature and uses of watersheds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f63pwrMXkV4 and also a similar 5-minute video on estuaries, their ecology and economic value: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLumSN4G5P4 Activity 1: Mapping my LocationStudents will be in groups based on their needs, pairing students that are struggling with those that are excelling. Additional consideration will be given for students that are ELL or former ELL. These students should be specifically paired with students that of proficient ELL status or approaching proficiency. Thus, students will have the support they need from their classmates, creating an environment where not only are lower level students being supported, but higher level students are practicing the communication of their understanding to others, a key aspect and skill of science. Each group will have a regional map of New York State that includes the Hudson Raritan Estuary/New York City Waterways, but no labels. There will also be no map parameters, such as compass rose, title, legend, scale, etc. The teacher will have a larger map displayed on the whiteboard that the class can follow. The teacher will introduce the larger Hudson Raritan Estuary, its boundaries and water bodies, and their respective watersheds, describing what an estuary is, and then focus on the New York City area (see introductory page for more details on HRE). (This is an opportune time to introduce to the students that they will become restoration scientists taking care of a small cage of oysters. Oysters live in estuarine waters therefore NYC waters is an ideal habitat for oysters. Let’s see if we can find where our oysters are?) For this activity, students will first label where they live, the location of their oyster garden (which they will know having gone to the location already, or they will be informed where it is and have to correlate based on their prior knowledge of New York geography), and their school on the map. Next, students will be given the opportunity to access Google Earth in order to label all relevant bays and rivers. Next, students will add a title, compass rose, legend and scale. These are essential for students to learn the skill of mapping. As students label in their group maps, a representative will label the class map, thus jig-sawing the creation and completion of the class map as a model for the entire class. The mapping activity will be the first set of data that the students will collect for their Oyster Research folder. They will be able to refer to this map for their final project write up.
1-Map title: How can we title this map so that it describes our objective in creating a map such as this? 2-Which way is north, south, east, west (add small compass rose to map in top left corner) 3-Locate New York City, name and find all five boroughs and label them on your map 4-Scale (1inch = how many miles?) Students should estimate how many miles there are per inch, and then the teacher will tell them the correct scale. The scale is dependent on how large the provided map is printed.
5-What is the city’s largest river? Hint: It flows on the west side of Manhattan (Hudson River) 6-What ocean does NY Harbor eventually flow into? (Atlantic Ocean) 7-Where is Upper and Lower New York Bay? 8-Name the river that flows on the east side of Manhattan (East River) 9-Name the waterway that divides the Bronx from Manhattan (Harlem River) 10-Where does the East River come from? (Long Island Sound) 11-What are the waters south of Queens and east of Brooklyn, with small landmasses in it? (Jamaica Bay) 12-What are the names of the water bodies that surround Staten Island? (North - Kill van Kull, West – Arthur Kill, East – NY Harbor, South – Raritan Bay) 13- Where is the mixing zone of fresh water and salt water? Please label this on your map with arrows and denote is as an Estuary. 14- Put a circle around where you believe all the freshwater comes from. Denote this as the NY watershed. Localized questions: 13-Where is our school located? What is our closest water body? 14-Where is our oyster garden? Is it far from school? 15-Where do you live? (This can be a homework question that students can ask parents to help with). Extension of Activity:Students can indicate on map where famous landmarks are for example: The Statue of Liberty, Governor’s Island, Central Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadows Park, Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Verrazano Bridge, and George Washington Bridge etc. Wrap upAsk the class what the most dominant natural feature in New York City is. Note that many people do not automatically think about the sea when they think of the city. Discuss with the class why that is, why is there this disconnect? As New York City began to grow in size over the last 300 years many factories were built along the waterfront limiting public access to the water. These factories were ideally located so they could discharge their pollution directly into NYC waterways. This pollution negatively affected water quality causing many aquatic species to die and people stayed away from the water due to health concerns. In the following oyster lesson plans water pollution and the effects will be discussed in more detail. Exit Ticket:Students will receive a third-sheet of paper that simply asks, what is an estuary, what is a watershed? Students will receive 3 minutes to complete the Exit Ticket. They will be collected and assessed by the teacher at the end of class and returned to students the following lesson. Homework:Students will receive the attached article, and complete a two-columned organizer. The left column contains main ideas, vocabulary words, etc. and the right side defines these ideas and vocabulary words through expansion and citation from the text. ModificationsThe reading comprehension can be given as homework as a prelude to the mapping exercise so that students have a prior understanding of the Hudson River Watershed or as summative assessment after the lesson is taught. Assessment:For this lesson, all three styles of assessment will be taken into consideration. First, and for this lesson most importantly, there will be pre-assessment. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher will begin introducing terms such as density, estuary, brackish, etc. The teacher should be monitoring student response and engagement and evaluate whether or not these are new terms for the students. Density, for instance, is a key aspect of estuary structure, and if students do not come in with a solid understanding of how density works, a lesson on density explicitly, may need to be taught before this lesson on estuaries commences. Second, there will be formative assessment in the form of monitoring of student input and engagement throughout the class. The teacher will walk around the groups during Activity 1 and guide students through their activity, if needed, stop to address problematic areas to the class, identify key vocabulary words where necessary, and more. Finally, there will be summative assessment, by analyzing the results of the Homework reading assignment. Answers that reflect conceptual understanding from the class’s material will suffice. Those that are direct reflections of the homework’s text will not suffice. In addition, the Exit Ticket will be used as summative assessment as well. 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