TCNJ Lesson Plan

Ocean Pollution and Human Impact

“Using photography to help save the Oceans”

Student Name: Emily Anderson & Kayla Taylor Grade Level: 5

Guiding and/or Essential Questions:

Where does ocean pollution come from/ what is the human impact?
How does pollution hurt the ocean?
How can we inform others about the pollution problems on Earth?

Pre-lesson Assignments and/or Student Prior Knowledge

Students may have experience from previous grades, but this will serve as an introductory lesson
to ocean pollution.

Standards:
NGSS 5-ESS3-1:
Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protest
the Earth’s resources and environment.

Learning Objectives and Assessments:

Learning Objectives Assessment

Students will identify what happens before The teacher will assess for the use of
and after pollution in the ocean. reasoning and evidence from the photographs
during a small group and whole class
discussion.

Students will explain how we can protect the The teacher will assess for scientific
ocean from waste, overfishing, dead zones, terminology (such as pollution, engineering,
and acidification. waste, overfishing, dead zones, and
acidification) in the student’s tweets.

Materials/Resources: (List materials, include any online or book references and resources)
http://cdn.worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/2016/06/23-Protect-Life-Below-Water.pdf
Lesson Materials:
Flotsam by David Wiesner
Ocean Pollution Photographs
Articles shared on google drive- Ocean Acidification, Ocean Waste, Overfishing, Dead Zones
Twitter worksheet
Plan for set-up/distribution/cleanup of materials:
Articles will be shared with all of the students prior to their lesson period.
Worksheets and materials will be passed out after stating directions.

Step by Step plan:

1. Lesson Beginning
a. As a “Do Now”, students will use post-it notes to write something they already
know about ocean pollution. The post-it notes will be on their lab tables before
they come into the classroom.
b. The teacher will read Flotsam on the document camera and describe what the
pictures are representing in the story. The teacher will explain to students that the
camera represents how fast and far pollution is carried in the ocean and how it has
a lasting effect on marine life, such as animals and plants.
2. Photography Gallery Walk
a. Students walk around room to look at the printed photos of different negative
human impact on the oceans, such as oil spill, pollution, and overfishing (for
bigger class show on doc cam).
i. Give set directions including: use only walking feet, no talking because
the scientists (students) should be thinking about the cause and effect of
the photo, once they have seen all four they should return to their seats.
b. The teacher will lead a whole class discussion on what the students think
happened before the photo (cause of the pollution) and what will happen after
(effect of the pollution). The “key questions” will be used to stimulate the
discussion.
3. Twitter Inform
a. The class will split up into their engineering groups. Each table will read one
article (shared on the class Google Doc) about ocean acidification, ocean waste,
overfishing, or ocean dead zones. Students will then independently draw a picture
(to act as their photograph) representing negative human impact on the ocean. The
students will also use the information from the article to write a tweet (140
characters) that explains how we can protect the ocean from that threat. Groups
who need an extra challenge will asked to show a solution that involves
engineering.
4. Closing
a. Student volunteers will share their tweet and picture to the class.
b. Early finishers will read the articles about other kinds of ocean pollution.

Key Questions (that you will ask):

What is the cause of the ocean pollution in the photograph?
How did humans directly impact the source of pollution?
What is the effect of the ocean pollution in the photograph?
How can engineering solve this problem?

Logistics:
Worksheets and Photographs will be printed before classes.
Articles will be shared with the students during morning prep-after getting Mrs. C’s input on
which groups should read which articles OR the articles will be shared with all students and we
will assign the articles to groups during the lesson.
Post-its will be placed on the tables before the students come into the classroom.
The “Do Now” will be written on the board.
The photographs will be hung up around the room before the classes start and will be printed
whole page, so they are large enough for multiple students to view at a time.
If the document camera does not work, the students will circle around one or two tables to read
the story. Then, the students would be provided time during group work to look at the book on
their own.

Timing:
50-minute lesson:
Beginning (Flotsam)- 10 minutes
Photography Gallery Walk and Discussion- 15 minutes
Twitter Activity- 25 min

Transitions:
Students will be brought to a whole-group setting before the start of the lesson for the
demonstration. During the gallery walk, students will be asked to move in one direction around
the room to limit the confusion of people walking in different directions. Students will work in
their engineering groups for the twitter activity, so they are familiar with how to move into those
groups. Transitions will be monitored by Miss Anderson and Miss Taylor.

Classroom Management:
The “Do Now” will be written on the board for the student to refer to when they come into the
classroom.
Directions for the Gallery Walk will be given prior to the students getting out of their seats and
they will be told to move clockwise around the room to avoid bumping into other students.
The materials will be shared with the students ahead of time using the class’s Google Doc, so
they know how to access them on their own.
The class will break into their engineering groups, which they are familiar with because they
have spent over a week working in those groups.
As students start to finish, we will ask them to share their tweets over the document camera
while other students continue to work.
If students finish early, they will read the other articles.

Differentiation:
Early finishers will be asked to read the other ocean pollution articles.
Groups are created so that they are heterogeneous, but students will create individual tweets.
Articles will be assigned to each group based on student interest and ability.
Students will fill in a worksheet about the gallery walk during the whole group discussion to
promote student engagement.
The tweet activity will be offered as an online activity for S and other select students.
During the tweet activity, students who need to be challenged will be asked to come up with an
engineering solution to their ocean pollution problem.