Language Arts

The students will research, write, and create materials to educate the community about marine debris – its sources, impacts, and solutions. Students will share their research by creating a web site, newspaper, podcast, or television show (depending on the resources available at your school).

In this unit, students will learn steps they can take to prevent marine debris, investigate what individuals and organizations are doing about the problem, and explore ways to educate others about possible solutions.

In this unit, students will explore the effects of marine debris on wildlife and coastal communities and the potential hazards it poses to humans.

Students will observe and record litter they see in their neighborhood, reflect on how the litter came to be there, then make predictions on how the littered items might make their way to the ocean. Students will compare the litter they have observed with data collected during the International Coastal Cleanup.

Students perform experiments to examine whether or not trash can float, blow around, or wash away. The effects of these characteristics on marine debris in the environment are then discussed.

In this unit, students will examine what marine debris is, where it comes from, and how it enters the marine environment.

The students will create their own laws and legal consequences concerning marine debris and identify the litter laws and legal consequences of litter in their own state.

Brief reading passage focused on ways to prevent marine debris (reduce/reuse/recycle).

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  Research-based role-playing activity where students identify and investigate stakeholders on the issue of abandoned and derelict vessels.

Brief reading about the risks and solutions of abandoned and derelict vessels, including an anecdote about locating and removing vessels in Georgia.

Reading and accompanying activity about the importance and challenges faced by diamondback terrapins.

Reading and activity exploring the impacts of derelict fishing gear on whales and other marine mammals. 

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  Introductory reading on the sources and impacts of derelict fishing gear.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  A listening exercise where students predict and act out the movement of litter from a stream, through a watershed, into the ocean.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  Discussion of litter-based sources of marine debris, including a brief look at impacts and prevention strategies, including an anecdote about seeds and litter found on the wrack line, or tidal line, in North Carolina.