Changes in Our Local Environment

Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum, Alaska Sea Grant

In this activity, students research changes to the environment in the Arctic/Bering Sea over time using oral and photographic histories. Developed for Alaska Native students, this activity can be customized for other regions.

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Notes from our reviewers

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This lesson is easily adaptable for other communities in the world. Instructor may want to provide students with a scoring rubric that outlines science and research content. The research project/interview and presentation can be tied together by inviting the elders and other community members to the school to see the finished posters or student work. (A similar step is done in the evaluation and extension of curricular connections) Reviewing the differences between weather and climate at the beginning of the activity is highly recommended. Community-based and could be combined with community mapping projects.
Comments from expert scientist: activity treads the line between cultural and scientific knowledge, and in doing so places equal weight on personal interpretation of observations. Very little actual data-driven science is involved, but that's not the point. Activity certainly bridges the gap between climate change as a phenomena and cultural knowledge, and if pulled off could be very interesting at both educating the students and the community at large. The photo project especially has good potential to make climate change "real" to a young group of kids.
This is an open-ended inquiry based activity. Students gain expertise in interview techniques and comparing historic environmental photos with recent photos. There is a great deal of support for the teachers and students in terms of interview and photo comparison techniques. These are some of the techniques being employed by scientists today to explore changes in climate. Uses the 5E/ inquiry model. Builds writing and communication skills. Students interact with elder and community members in a non-teaching situation and learn how to interview people. Nine to eleven class periods is a long time to spend on such a project, but there are many skills being learned and explored in these open-ended activities. In addition, it may be possible to decrease the class periods needed by encouraging students to complete much of the work as homework or an out-of-class project.