Use some of the follow-up/extension activities for assessment tools.
Follow-up/extension
Provide pictures of ecological problems (e.g., air pollution, erosion, litter), and have students offer solutions.
Have the students write a story about a 200-year-old tree on the school property and the changes it would have seen over the last 100 years.
Have students take digital photographs of an ecological problem before and again after they have solved the problem.
Have students make a presentation to the PTA and ask for their support of projects to improve the environment.
Have students make posters highlighting environmental problems to display in the hallways of the school.
Have the class speculate as to what the schoolyard looked like 200 years ago. What kind of organisms would they have found there? Have any of these disappeared due to the negative impact of man on the environment?
Have students do a similar survey of the ecosystem in their neighborhood or in their house.
Have students read a book about pollution and share their thoughts about the story.
Resources
Chesapeake Bay Program: America’s Premier Watershed Restoration Partnership.http://www.chesapeakebay.net/. Provides articles and other resources on the Chesapeake Bay’s natural resources.
Connections: Connecting Books to the Virginia SOLs. Fairfax County Public Schools and The College of William and Mary. http://www.fcps.edu/cpsapps/connections. Presents a database of more than 1,000 works of children’s literature and their connection to the Virginia Standards of Learning.
Lessons from the Bay. Virginia Department of Education. http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/LFB/. A resource for grades 3–6, including 16 lessons concerning watersheds and the negative human impact on the environment, specifically the Chesapeake Bay.
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). http://www.nsta.org/ostbc.
Pollution Solutions.http://www.deq.state.va.us/education/polsul/. A curriculum supplement about litter and pollution prevention based on the Standards of Learning for grades K-12.
Project Learning Tree. American Forest Foundation. http://www.plt.org/. Provides details on this national environmental education program.
Project WET (Water Education for Teachers).http://www.projectwet.org/. Offers watershed resources through an online store.
Project WILD. Council for Environmental Education. http://www.projectwild.org/.
Search for Literature: Literature for Science and Mathematics. California Department of Education. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/ll/ap/searchlist.asp. Offers a searchable database.
Virginia Naturally: Linking Virginians to the Environment. http://www.vanaturally.com/. Offers environmental resources for teachers.
Virginia Naturally School Recognition Program. Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. http://www.dgif.state.va.us/education/van_school_recognition.html. Provides information about the Virginia Naturally program to recognize environmental stewardship in schools.
What Can We Do? Data Sheet
Name: Date:
Look for signs of human damage that you see in your school, schoolyard, or neighborhood. Beside each sign, check if it is present. If it is, write a brief comment on what the damage is and how it was created. Use rows at the bottom for other discoveries.
