Curriculum

Comparing Different Cultures: Are we really that different?

The objective is for students to understand that human cultures all have common threads.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
6. The Great Lakes and humans in their watersheds are inextricably interconnected.
8. The Great Lakes are socially, economically, and environmentally significant to the region, the nation and the planet.

Construct a Cell

Students will gather items they can find in nature to put as parts in a cell. The catch is that students must explain why that item represents the cell organelle by using metaphors, similes, or other explanations. Prerequisite: Students must have a firm understanding of cell parts and functions. This lesson would be great as a unit wrap-up lesson. An example would be that an acorn could represent a vesicle because it transports seeds to other places in a protective casing like a vesicle transports proteins in a cell.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
5. The Great Lakes support a broad diversity of life and ecosystems.
6. The Great Lakes and humans in their watersheds are inextricably interconnected.

Data Table Worksheet

Attached is a student copy and teacher copy of a short assignment students can do to understand how to (and where to) enter data in a data table. There are five "journal entries" from two "scientists" that are studying Otter River. Students will use the journal entries to enter data into the table at the bottom of the page.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
4. Water makes Earth habitable; fresh water sustains life on land. :

Eat Your Wetlands!

Students will discover the importance of Manoomin to the region and uncover a mystery about who has been eating the wetland plant. The curriculum resources are linked in the Teachers Guide.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
4. Water makes Earth habitable; fresh water sustains life on land. :
5. The Great Lakes support a broad diversity of life and ecosystems.
7. Much remains to be learned about the Great Lakes.
8. The Great Lakes are socially, economically, and environmentally significant to the region, the nation and the planet.

Fish Anatomy Handouts

Attached are teacher and student copies of a trout and its anatomy. When printed back to back, the copies can be folded so the external anatomy picture can be flipped up to reveal the internal anatomy picture.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
4. Water makes Earth habitable; fresh water sustains life on land. :

Flooded! Using data to understand a changing Lake Superior

Did you wake up in July of 2016 during a thunderstorm and the next morning see images of flooded Wisconsin rivers in the news? Floods like these could have a big impact on the Lake Superior of the future. Take a look at play-by-play data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service and US Geological Survey to help you and your students make sense of big picture impacts to our watershed and our communities.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
2. Natural forces formed the Great Lakes; the lakes continue to shape the features of their watershed.
3. The Great Lakes influence local and regional weather and climate.
6. The Great Lakes and humans in their watersheds are inextricably interconnected.

Floody, Muddy, and Green

Students will discover the relationship between Lake Superior temperatures and algae growth. Lesson resources are linked in the teaching guide.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
3. The Great Lakes influence local and regional weather and climate.
6. The Great Lakes and humans in their watersheds are inextricably interconnected.
7. Much remains to be learned about the Great Lakes.

Formation of Lake Superior

Students will put on a play to go through the steps of how Lake Superior formed by rifting of the Minnesota shore from the Wisconsin shore, erosion of mountains that were created from the rifting, and filling of the rift zone. Optional: discuss how the formations of Lake Superior also resulted in the formation of the different types of igneous (volcanic, from rifting and volcanic activity) and sedimentary (from sedimentation, or build up, of sediments from eroded mountains and other rocks) rocks we find in Lake Superior.

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Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
1. The Great Lakes, bodies of fresh water with many features, are connected to each other and to the world ocean.
2. Natural forces formed the Great Lakes; the lakes continue to shape the features of their watershed.
7. Much remains to be learned about the Great Lakes.

Free Maritime Museum Programs-Field Trips

Attached is a flyer with programs offered by the Maritime Museum.

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Subject Areas: , , ,
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Topics: , , , , ,

Great Lakes Literacy Principles:
1. The Great Lakes, bodies of fresh water with many features, are connected to each other and to the world ocean.
5. The Great Lakes support a broad diversity of life and ecosystems.
6. The Great Lakes and humans in their watersheds are inextricably interconnected.
8. The Great Lakes are socially, economically, and environmentally significant to the region, the nation and the planet.