Deeper Learning Through Projects: Saving Sea Life
Journey of Project Saving Sea Life Video
Marine Biologist Journal
Marine Biologist Critique Sheet
Exhibition Brochure
Student & Parent Step Sheet
Saving Sea Life
Essential Question:
· Why are some species of sea life endangered or threatened?
· How do endangered/threatened species affect human lives?
· How can we reverse this process?
Learning Objectives:
Students will know:
§ Difference between endangered & threatened species
§ Basic facts about their endangered or threatened sea animal
§ Definition of an ecosystem & habitat
§ Environmental issues that harm sea life (i.e. marine debris & pollution)
§ Definition of recycling
§ Identify materials that are recyclable
Students will understand:
§ How people’s choices affect the sustainability of sea life
§ How marine debris and recycling affects the marine ecosystem
§ How endangered/threatened sea life affects humans
Students will do:
§ Write a vignette from the perspective of a endangered/threatened sea animal focusing on how one trash-object affects its life
§ Create artwork of their endangered or threatened sea animal using recycled materials
§ Conduct a tidepool clean-up, collect data on types and amounts of trash collected and use some trash materials for artwork
§ Gather data on a graph on amounts and types of trash on school campus
§ Develop a recycling system for our school
Project Description:
Students will choose an endangered or threatened sea animal and conduct research based on their own fierce wonderings and the environmental factors causing the endangerment. They will take a peek into the political and social influences that affect sea life. Students will write a vignette from the perspective of a endangered/threatened sea animal focusing on how one trash-object affects its life. They will produce artwork of their endangered or threatened sea animal using recyclable materials to be placed on display at an art gallery to be purchased along with their vignette. All proceeds will be donated towards a non-profit organization educating and protecting sea life. As an extension of the project, students will develop a school-wide recycling and reducing system after spring break.
Project Duration:
This project will last approximately 5 to 8 weeks.
Project Steps/Benchmarks
Steps, Due Date , & Assignment
Step 1 February 14
Visit Sea World to become aware of the endangered and threatened species of sea life.
Step 2 February 21
We will choose an endangered sea animal to investigate and begin our research with the help of our 5th grade buddies.
Step 3 March 2
We will visit the Cabrillo Tidepools and collect marine debris to be used for our recyclable materials artwork snd take photographs.
Step 4 March 7-9
We will write our vignettes from the perspective of our endangered sea animal and do role playing to serve as a quick write for our vignettes.
Step 5 March 7-9
We will visit the Trash exhibit at the New Children’s Museum to get inspiration for our artwork. Artist Teresa Espaniola will teach us how to create artwork of our endangered sea animals using recycled materials.
Step 6 March 12-16
A representative from the Miramar Landfill Recycling Center will teach us about recycling. We will do finishing touches on our artwork and vignettes.
Step 7 March 16
We will send out invitations to community members inviting them to our exhibition at the Cabrillo National Monument on March 23rd.
Step 8 March 19-20
Teresa and a Cabrillo National Monument representative will give us advice on how to present our work.
Step 9 March 23
Exhibition Night at the Cabrillo National Monument! We will present/sell our artwork and vignettes to our invited guests in order to raise money for the Cabrillo National Monument.
Step 10 March 26-30
We will write a reflection about what we learned from this project and video tape our responses in a reflection corner.
Step 11 March 26-30
We will send thank you cards to donors.
Grouping Strategies:
Students will be working independently and creating their own product, however they will be collaborating in the form of critique and peer revision throughout the project and check in with their “critical buddy” as needed. Students with the same endangered or threatened sea animal can collaborate during the project but are not held to that format. Experts among our class community will serve as supports during the project as well. Buddies from an upper-grade leveled classroom will support the students in their research. During workshop times, small groups will gather based on academic needed support. Students with differing sea animals will have multiple opportunities to partner during reflective moments throughout the project process in order to foster learning community where all support and rely on one another in the form of roles.
Assessment:
Students and I will create a rubric for what is considered “beautiful work” for their vignettes, artwork, and presentation skills by critiquing models. We will constantly refer back to the student generated rubric to guide us in our own critique of each other’s products during specific check-in points of the project. Throughout the project, students will be given reflective writing prompts that ask them to think about the process and product of their work. One reflective moment will have students videotaping themselves in an interview on how they feel about the facts that they have learned about the endangerment of sea life. We will also invite the expert partners to give us feedback during and after the project.
Exhibition:
Students will display their artwork along with their vignettes in the visitor’s center at the Cabrillo National Monument. Students will create invitations stating the event and its purpose. Students will list community members that they think would benefit from seeing their artwork and vignettes and invite them to the event. At the event, students will present their artwork and be prepared to answer premade questions about their endangered or threatened sea animal and how to protect its life at their stations. Students will take turns serving as tour guides, walking a small group to selected artworks and speak about them. A slide show will be on display showing the learning process during the project. A wall within the gallery will invite audience members to write what they are going to do in response to the artwork and vignettes. All proceeds from donations and/or purchases of student artwork and vignettes will be given to the Cabrillo National Monument. Students will write thank you cards donors with water colors and pieces of plastic beach trash glued on the folded card's front to donors.
Essential Question:
· Why are some species of sea life endangered or threatened?
· How do endangered/threatened species affect human lives?
· How can we reverse this process?
Learning Objectives:
Students will know:
§ Difference between endangered & threatened species
§ Basic facts about their endangered or threatened sea animal
§ Definition of an ecosystem & habitat
§ Environmental issues that harm sea life (i.e. marine debris & pollution)
§ Definition of recycling
§ Identify materials that are recyclable
Students will understand:
§ How people’s choices affect the sustainability of sea life
§ How marine debris and recycling affects the marine ecosystem
§ How endangered/threatened sea life affects humans
Students will do:
§ Write a vignette from the perspective of a endangered/threatened sea animal focusing on how one trash-object affects its life
§ Create artwork of their endangered or threatened sea animal using recycled materials
§ Conduct a tidepool clean-up, collect data on types and amounts of trash collected and use some trash materials for artwork
§ Gather data on a graph on amounts and types of trash on school campus
§ Develop a recycling system for our school
Project Description:
Students will choose an endangered or threatened sea animal and conduct research based on their own fierce wonderings and the environmental factors causing the endangerment. They will take a peek into the political and social influences that affect sea life. Students will write a vignette from the perspective of a endangered/threatened sea animal focusing on how one trash-object affects its life. They will produce artwork of their endangered or threatened sea animal using recyclable materials to be placed on display at an art gallery to be purchased along with their vignette. All proceeds will be donated towards a non-profit organization educating and protecting sea life. As an extension of the project, students will develop a school-wide recycling and reducing system after spring break.
Project Duration:
This project will last approximately 5 to 8 weeks.
Project Steps/Benchmarks
Steps, Due Date , & Assignment
Step 1 February 14
Visit Sea World to become aware of the endangered and threatened species of sea life.
Step 2 February 21
We will choose an endangered sea animal to investigate and begin our research with the help of our 5th grade buddies.
Step 3 March 2
We will visit the Cabrillo Tidepools and collect marine debris to be used for our recyclable materials artwork snd take photographs.
Step 4 March 7-9
We will write our vignettes from the perspective of our endangered sea animal and do role playing to serve as a quick write for our vignettes.
Step 5 March 7-9
We will visit the Trash exhibit at the New Children’s Museum to get inspiration for our artwork. Artist Teresa Espaniola will teach us how to create artwork of our endangered sea animals using recycled materials.
Step 6 March 12-16
A representative from the Miramar Landfill Recycling Center will teach us about recycling. We will do finishing touches on our artwork and vignettes.
Step 7 March 16
We will send out invitations to community members inviting them to our exhibition at the Cabrillo National Monument on March 23rd.
Step 8 March 19-20
Teresa and a Cabrillo National Monument representative will give us advice on how to present our work.
Step 9 March 23
Exhibition Night at the Cabrillo National Monument! We will present/sell our artwork and vignettes to our invited guests in order to raise money for the Cabrillo National Monument.
Step 10 March 26-30
We will write a reflection about what we learned from this project and video tape our responses in a reflection corner.
Step 11 March 26-30
We will send thank you cards to donors.
Grouping Strategies:
Students will be working independently and creating their own product, however they will be collaborating in the form of critique and peer revision throughout the project and check in with their “critical buddy” as needed. Students with the same endangered or threatened sea animal can collaborate during the project but are not held to that format. Experts among our class community will serve as supports during the project as well. Buddies from an upper-grade leveled classroom will support the students in their research. During workshop times, small groups will gather based on academic needed support. Students with differing sea animals will have multiple opportunities to partner during reflective moments throughout the project process in order to foster learning community where all support and rely on one another in the form of roles.
Assessment:
Students and I will create a rubric for what is considered “beautiful work” for their vignettes, artwork, and presentation skills by critiquing models. We will constantly refer back to the student generated rubric to guide us in our own critique of each other’s products during specific check-in points of the project. Throughout the project, students will be given reflective writing prompts that ask them to think about the process and product of their work. One reflective moment will have students videotaping themselves in an interview on how they feel about the facts that they have learned about the endangerment of sea life. We will also invite the expert partners to give us feedback during and after the project.
Exhibition:
Students will display their artwork along with their vignettes in the visitor’s center at the Cabrillo National Monument. Students will create invitations stating the event and its purpose. Students will list community members that they think would benefit from seeing their artwork and vignettes and invite them to the event. At the event, students will present their artwork and be prepared to answer premade questions about their endangered or threatened sea animal and how to protect its life at their stations. Students will take turns serving as tour guides, walking a small group to selected artworks and speak about them. A slide show will be on display showing the learning process during the project. A wall within the gallery will invite audience members to write what they are going to do in response to the artwork and vignettes. All proceeds from donations and/or purchases of student artwork and vignettes will be given to the Cabrillo National Monument. Students will write thank you cards donors with water colors and pieces of plastic beach trash glued on the folded card's front to donors.
CABRILLO NATIONAL MONUMENT
Project To Save Sea Life Spotlights Students’ Work
http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?&id=11843&urlarea=npsnews
The following article was written on the Inside National Parks Service website after our exhibition:
When people think of Cabrillo National Monument, the first thing that often comes to mind is the pristine beauty of the park’s rocky intertidal area. When low tides draw the water back, visitors are able to wander through the scenic intertidal and find a diverse community of marine life nestled in the seemingly immaculate tide pools.
However, on closer inspection the natural beauty of the area, like much of the coastline, can appear ruined by various forms of marine debris.
On March 2nd, following a tide pool trash clean-up by the students from teacher Melissa Han’s first grade class, the picturesque landscape of the intertidal that so many have in their minds came one step closer to reality.
This, however, was only the first step in an interdisciplinary education program between the students of Audubon K-8 school and Cabrillo National Monument. Following the trash pickup, students worked with artist Teresa Espaniola to turn the marine debris they had collected into unique pieces of art. Students turned their trash into representations of marine animals which they had researched and studied.
The artwork was then transported to the Cabrillo NM visitor center, where it will be on display for the public to view and purchase through mid-April. The students decided to sell their artwork and donate all of the proceeds to the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation (CNMF), the park’s cooperating association. The sales of the artwork, and donations associated with these sales, have already raised over $750 for the park.
But that’s not all. On Friday, March 23rd, the students invited their family, friends, school administrators, and CNMF board members for an after-hours art opening at the park. Students prepared Power Point presentations and brochures to support the event and to educate their parents about the importance of protecting sea life from marine debris. During the event, the students were also sworn in as honorary Junior Rangers and presented with Junior Ranger badges.
Cabrillo National Monument is proud to have been a part of Project Saving Sea Life and would like to congratulate each of the students as well as Mrs. Han and Ms. Espaniola for the tremendous and important work they have done.
When people think of Cabrillo National Monument, the first thing that often comes to mind is the pristine beauty of the park’s rocky intertidal area. When low tides draw the water back, visitors are able to wander through the scenic intertidal and find a diverse community of marine life nestled in the seemingly immaculate tide pools.
However, on closer inspection the natural beauty of the area, like much of the coastline, can appear ruined by various forms of marine debris.
On March 2nd, following a tide pool trash clean-up by the students from teacher Melissa Han’s first grade class, the picturesque landscape of the intertidal that so many have in their minds came one step closer to reality.
This, however, was only the first step in an interdisciplinary education program between the students of Audubon K-8 school and Cabrillo National Monument. Following the trash pickup, students worked with artist Teresa Espaniola to turn the marine debris they had collected into unique pieces of art. Students turned their trash into representations of marine animals which they had researched and studied.
The artwork was then transported to the Cabrillo NM visitor center, where it will be on display for the public to view and purchase through mid-April. The students decided to sell their artwork and donate all of the proceeds to the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation (CNMF), the park’s cooperating association. The sales of the artwork, and donations associated with these sales, have already raised over $750 for the park.
But that’s not all. On Friday, March 23rd, the students invited their family, friends, school administrators, and CNMF board members for an after-hours art opening at the park. Students prepared Power Point presentations and brochures to support the event and to educate their parents about the importance of protecting sea life from marine debris. During the event, the students were also sworn in as honorary Junior Rangers and presented with Junior Ranger badges.
Cabrillo National Monument is proud to have been a part of Project Saving Sea Life and would like to congratulate each of the students as well as Mrs. Han and Ms. Espaniola for the tremendous and important work they have done.