Living with the Lake: 400 Years of Champlain Valley Ecology

Participants: Mal Cutaiar, Bryan Gottlob, Kate Messner, Barbara Napper

Overview/Purpose: The purpose of this unit is for students to investigate changing views on ecology of natural resources in the Champlain Valley, from 1609 to 2009. Students will begin their studies with an anthropological and archaeological overview of the Champlain Valley’s pre-contact period. They’ll compare the land use patterns and other use of resources by Native American tribes to those of the French explorers and British colonists who would arrive beginning in the 16th century. They’ll work cooperatively to synthesize historical and scientific resources in order to identify turning points in Champlain Valley ecology.

As a culminating activity, students will take a field trip on board the University of Vermont research vessel Melosira in order to participate in scientific experiments to evaluate the modern day ecological health of the lake.

Upon returning from the trip, each student will self-select and design a cumulative project that involves researching a current lake ecology issue and producing a product designed to have an impact on public policy or personal action on that issue. Products may include letters to lawmakers or to the newspaper, public service announcements, speeches to be delivered at public meetings, or other products designed to have a positive impact on lake ecology.

Length of instructional time:
Grade/age level: Grade 7

NYS Learning Standards Addressed:
ELA:

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

Social Studies:

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live – local, national, and global – including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.

MST:

Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.
Students will understand mathematics and become mathematically confident by communicating the reasoning mathematically, by applying mathematics in real-world setting, and by solving problems through the integrated study of number systems, geometry, algebra, data analysis, probability, and trigonometry.
Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.
Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning
Students will apply the knowledge and thinking skills of mathematics, science, and technology to address real-life problems and make informed decisions.

PCSD Standards Addressed:
Lifelong Learner
Critical Thinker
Responsible Citizen
Effective Communicator
Healthy Citizen

Essential Questions:

Why is lake ecology worth studying?
How have attitudes toward lake ecology evolved?
How do people impact the health of Lake Champlain?
How do scientists study the health of the lake?

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
Declarative
Students will know/understand:

Names of Native tribes that populated the Champlain Valley region before contact with Europeans
Names, timelines, and accomplishments of European explorers who spent time in the Northeast.
The impact of European contact on the culture and ecological practices of native peoples.
Important events that shaped history and ecology of the Champlain Valley, including Champlain’s 1609 voyage, the French & Indian War, the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and Battle of Plattsburgh, the development travel by steamboat and railroad, and the Industrial Revolution.
A list of strategies for improving reading comprehension, including double-entry diaries, Venn diagrams, KWL charts, character charts, cause and effect charts, connection charts, vocabulary concept maps, and other kinds of graphic organizers.
Definitions of literary devices.
Steps in using the Scientific Method.
Steps for using ProbeWare data gathering equipment.
Steps for using a microscope.
What a database is and how to use one to gather information.
Steps for searching the Internet.
Steps for evaluating the usefulness and validity of a website.
Strategies for analyzing and understanding primary sources including diaries, journals, letters, and oral histories.

Procedural
Students will:

Read, summarize, and interpret primary source material.

Use a wide variety of strategies to improve reading comprehension – targeted for both fiction and non-fiction texts.
Write literary response journals.
Use graphic organizers to compare and contrast conditions in various time periods.
Use data to create charts and graphs.
Analyze historical documents and use them to draw conclusions.
Use a microscope.
Use ProbeWare data collection tools.
Use the scientific method to form and test a hypothesis.
Write lab reports.
Search online databases.
Take notes into a graphic organizer.
Use Internet search engines to find sources.
Evaluate Internet sources for usefulness and validity.
Synthesize information from a number of sources into a cumulative project.
Use research to draw conclusions and make recommendations.

Performance Tasks:
Task 1: Students will listen to an excerpt from Champlain and the Silent One, which tells the story of Samuel de Champlain’s voyage from Quebec to encounter the Iroquois from the point of view of a Montagnais boy who serves as one of Champlain’s guides. Students will then read excerpts from Samuel de Champlain’s journals that relate to his encounters with Algonquin and Montagnais peoples in the early 17th century, discussing the concept of point of view. Students will rewrite several of these journal passages from the point of view of an Algonquin or Montagnais boy. Journal responses will be evaluated using the attached rubric.

Task 2: Students will write responses to document based questions based on the writings of Samuel de Champlain. These will be modeled after the scaffolding questions on the Grade 8 NYS Social Studies Assessment and will be assessed holistically, using the NYS Assessment rubric.

Task 3: Students will use ProbeWare water monitoring equipment to evaluate the health of Lake Champlain’s watershed by finding such values as temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen levels, pH, and other indicators. Students will complete a lab packet based on this activity and will be evaluated on the rubric provided.

Task 4: As a culminating activity, students will take a field trip on board the University of Vermont research vessel Melosira in order to participate in scientific experiments to evaluate the modern day ecological health of the lake.

Other Evidence:
Self-assessment: Students will maintain ongoing response journals, reflecting on class mini-lessons and readings about ecology issues.

Formal observations: Students will fill out graphic organizers and guided reading activities.

Formal observations: Students will participate in Socratic seminar discussions periodically regarding articles, documentary clips, and other texts.