In Protecting Populations, students will try to answer the big question: How sustainable is our use of our marine resources? To do this, they will watch an introductory video by youth host, Holly, and Boris Worm. They will join local fishermen and scientists from OceanWise, Marine Institute, and DFO to examine the complexities of managing marine natural resources and the potential recovery of cod.
Once students have watched the video, they will choose from three lines of inquiry, each with a focus question, media, and accompanying activities. The three lines of inquiry are:
Cod crash: What are the most significant impacts of marine resource depletion?
Recovery investigation: What actions contribute most to marine recovery?
Make it sustainable: How can we better support sustainable food?
As a culminating activity, students are given a call to action. Students are encouraged to get outside, identify habitats that are threatened in the local area, investigate, and help to restore the habitat!
This resource is also accompanied by inquiry tools to explicitly target inquiry skills.
Dependent on which line of inquiry the students choose, they will learn a multitude of new skills. Students could learn how make an infographic poster, dissect a cod, do data analysis, make a plan for data collection, interpret a graph, create model cod pots, build an Instagram caption, create a 'Now Hiring' poster, and create a cod recipe.
This resource would be excellent to discuss marine environment and ecology in Science classrooms. The Ocean School experience begins by presenting learners with a big question — a challenge that guides their inquiry. Each piece of media comes with a customizable activity that educators can assign via Google Classroom or download to use in class. At the end of a module, learners develop a “Take Action” plan to address the critical social and environmental problems they’ve been learning about.
Ocean School empowers the next generation of ocean citizens, researchers, and innovators, with the knowledge and tools to investigate and design innovative solutions for the accelerating challenges that face the world’s ocean.
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
---|---|---|
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives | Very Good | The multitude of activities in this resource provide students with a complete view of the issue. Students can then form their own opinions and take an informed position on the subject. |
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives:
| ||
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions | Very Good | Throughout the three different lines of inquiry, students will look at different dimensions of protecting habitats. Students will take a look at the industry of cod, how it affects fishermen, where their seafood comes from, marine environments and will culminate this project with a call for action. |
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions: Effectively addresses the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the issue(s) being explored.
| ||
Respects Complexity | Very Good | The resource contributes solutions to complex problems. Students examine the complexities of managing marine natural resources and the potential recovery of cod. |
Respects Complexity: The complexity of the problems/issues being discussed is respected. | ||
Acting on Learning | Very Good | A take action lesson accompanies this module where students are asked to get outside, identify habitats that are threatened in the local area, investigate, and help to restore the habitat. |
Acting on Learning: Learning moves from understanding issues to working towards positive change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community, or for the planet
| ||
Values Education | Very Good | Students' opinions and beliefs are at the center of this resource. Students have many opportunities to express themselves and there is no right answer. |
Values Education: Students are explicitly provided with opportunities to identify, clarify and express their own beliefs/values. | ||
Empathy & Respect for Humans | Satisfactory | Different careers that have to do with cod fishing are examined in this resource. |
Empathy & Respect for Humans: Empathy and respect are fostered for diverse groups of humans (including different genders, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, etc.). | ||
Personal Affinity with Earth | Good | Students will take a look at the marine environment and therefore foster an appreciation and concern for the natural world. However, all activities are made inside the classroom via videos and simulations. |
Personal Affinity with Earth: Encourages a personal affinity with -the natural world.
| ||
Locally-Focused Learning | Good | Activities in this resource are centered around Newfoundland, making it relevant to our Canadian students. |
Locally-Focused Learning: Includes learning experiences that take advantage of issues/elements within the local community.
| ||
Past, Present & Future | Very Good | |
Past, Present & Future: Promotes an understanding of the past, a sense of the present, and a positive vision for the future. |
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
---|---|---|
Open-Ended Instruction | Very Good | As an inquiry-based learning platform, Ocean School is designed to allow students to choose their own path according to their groups decisions. Also, each path has a multitude of opinion questions and students get to share their ideas. |
Open-Ended Instruction
: Lessons are structured so that multiple/complex answers are possible; students are not steered toward one 'right' answer. | ||
Integrated Learning | Good |
|
Integrated Learning: Learning brings together content and skills from more than one subject area
| ||
Inquiry Learning | Very Good | This Inquiry based learning resource encourages students to take the lead in their learning experience. Posing their own questions and gathering evidence, learners practice the skills they need to participate in knowledge creation. On the Ocean School platform, the media experiences are designed to support open-ended investigations into a question or a problem. |
Inquiry Learning: Learning is directed by questions, problems, or challenges that students work to address.
| ||
Differentiated Instruction | Good | This resource has a multitude of different activities for students to do and therefore addresses well the needs of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. However, strategies for learners with difficulties are not provided. |
Differentiated Instruction: Activities address a range of student learning styles, abilities and readiness.
| ||
Experiential Learning | Good | This resource includes multiple simulations and videos that bring a real world context. Real world experiences, such as visiting your local fish market, are provided as extensions. |
Experiential Learning: Authentic learning experiences are provided
| ||
Cooperative Learning | Good | Students will have to work in groups and it will be necessary to complete the tasks. |
Cooperative Learning: Group and cooperative learning strategies are a priority.
| ||
Assessment & Evaluation | Very Good | The resource offers suggests four types of assessment.
|
Assessment & Evaluation: Tools are provided that help students and teachers to capture formative and summative information about students' learning and performance. These tools may include reflection questions, checklists, rubrics, etc. | ||
Peer Teaching | Poor/Not considered | This is not a focus of this resource |
Peer Teaching: Provides opportunities for students to actively present their knowledge and skills to peers and/or act as teachers and mentors.
| ||
Case Studies | Very Good | This resource follows Holly and Boris Worm, alongside local fishermen and scientists from Ocean Wise, Marine Institute and DFO to examine the complexities of managing marine natural resources and the potential recovery of cod making it an authentic context for students. |
Case Studies: Relevant case studies are included. Case studies are thorough descriptions of real events from real situations that students use to explore concepts in an authentic context. | ||
Locus of Control | Very Good | In this resource, students will get to choose their own learning path and question to answer. |
Locus of Control: Meaningful opportunities are provided for students to choose elements of program content, the medium in which they wish to work, and/or to go deeper into a chosen issue. |