Subject	Science/Language Arts
Topic	Pollution and threats in the wetlands
Skills	Writing, critical thinking, experimenting, word processing, collaborating
Level	4th-5th
Time	About one week (depending on length of writing process and group work)
Objectives	To explore the internet to gain knowledge about pollution, the wetlands, and the importance of the wetlands.  The students will research this information, gather important facts, experiment with subsidence and the wetlands, organize their research and experiment in a power point slide show, present what they have found, and write correct format letters to certain environment protection agencies regarding what they have learned.
Instructional Materials	Research:  Internet, word processor, textbook, Power Point Experiment:  2 Large pans, soil, watering can, hose, bottle of water
Background Information	Read the book Squish! : A Wetland Walk by Nancy Luenn to understand how important the wetlands are to the world.  The students should pay attention to the wild life that can be endangered as well as the dangers of the wetlands as a whole.  There may be additional children's books specifically about pollution in the wetlands available. Play one of these games for fun! Play Toxic Gobble at the bottom of the page! Now, the students should submit three things that they have learned from the games.
Procedure	1.  Look at these different web pages and brainstorm different facts and ideas about pollution in the wetlands and why wetlands are so important.  The teacher can construct a KWL chart with the children to see what they know, what they want to know, and what they have learned. See this page (epa.gov) Now see this page (Encarta) 2.  Experiment:  Gather all of the materials that are mentioned above. First, the classroom should be split into two groups.  Each group should receive a pan that is filled halfway with soil.  Have the students dig canals:  one group will dig the canals horizontal to the flow of water and the other will dig the canal vertically to the flow of water.  Students should now observe and record what happens to the canals when it rains (watering can), floods, and high tides (water bottle and hose).   Discuss as a class the effects of the water on the soil and how the canals should be effectively dug in the wetlands. 3.  Now, the students can create a newsletter in a word processor describing the pollution in the wetlands and what people can do to help.  The information should be gathered from the sites above, the games, the experiment, and from everything they have learned thus far about the wetlands.  A sample headline can be "Wetlands in Danger," and there can be stories about how the wetlands are slowly deteriorating and how they can be saved.  Other students may want to research endangered species in the wetlands and write articles, comics, and advice columns about them.  Each students should submit at least one article and the students can take turns compiling their articles as one newspaper on the computer. 4.  After the students have gained sufficient information about pollution in the wetlands, they may want to write a letter to the Environment Protection Agency telling them what at least three thing that they have learned and what else they can do to help.  This is a great opportunity to integrate the writing process of a letter and the format of the letter.     List of addresses for EPA
Evaluation	See Rubric
Extension	The teacher as well as the students can first complete the KWL chart together.  Then, their letters to the Environment Protection Agency can be mailed to see if any response is mailed back. The students can also look at this site.  to play more games and learn a little more about saving the environment.  (You have to click on the hat at the bottom for more things to do.)
Standards	The students are expected to: Language Arts use multiple sources, including electronic texts, experts, and print resources to locate information relevant to research questions write to inform such as to explain describe, report, and narrate use available technology to support aspects of creating, revising, editing, and publishing texts  Science: predict some adaptive characteristics required for survival and reproduction by an organism in an ecosystem identify and observe actions that require time for changes to be measurable, including growth, erosion, dissolving, weathering and flow Technology Applications save and delete files, uses menu options and commands, and work with more than one software application use a variety of strategies to acquire information from electronic resources, with appropriate supervision use technology application to facilitate evaluation of work, both process and product

 

Teacher Resources
Here are some extra sites that might be of help to the teacher:

The Fragile Fringe
The Future of the Wetlands
Articles on how humans have impacted the wetlands

Grading Rubric
 
 

Assignment	Points:    1	2	3	4	5	Total
Playing the games and submitting what they have learned	The student played the games	The student played the games in an attempt to turn in things he has learned	The student played the games and wrote down general things he has learned	The student played the games and has shown he has learned something significant in his paper he submitted	The student played the games, understood what they were for and displayed an excellent knowledge of new information in the three facts he turned in
Brainstorming Activities	The student was not interested in the brainstorming activity and did not make an attempt to participate any useful information	The student was not very interested in the activity and but kept his attention on what was happening	The student was paying attention to the brainstorming activity and made few attempts to share useful ideas	The student showed that he was interested in the activity and attempted to share some useful information	The student was very active in the brainstorming activities and volunteered useful facts and beliefs about pollution in the wetlands
Experiment	The student did not do anything related to his group or their experiment	The student watched the other students do the experiment and did not show interest in what they were doing	The student was hardly active with the experiment and did not attempt to contribute	The student was somewhat active in the experiment and attempted to contribute	The student was very involved with his group and contributed as much as the group allowed
Newsletter	The student did not turn in his article	The student attempted to write the article but it was never "published" in the class newsletter	The student wrote the article and "published" it but it was not up to grade level compared to the others	The student completed the article, published it and the article contained sufficient information needed in order for someone else to understand and an appropriate headline	The student completed the article, published it, and the article contained more than sufficient material for his topic/ The article also included an appropriate headline
Letter to be sent	The student did not attempt the letter	The student attempted to write the letter but it was not in the correct letter format as taught in class	The student completed the letter but it did not contain at least three things that he learned	The student completed the letter in the correct format which contained three things he learned but no additional information was given	The student completed the letter in the correct format and the letter contained at least three things that he has learned

My two activities:

1)  The first activity was actually the one that I used for the science experiment in my lesson.
2)  Find the closest wetlands, describe, draw, and write everything you see, hear, and smell there including animals and plants.