Big Floods, Big Lake (flooding)
What causes Lake Superior flooding? By taking a look at evidence from the flood of 2016 in the Twin Ports area and learning about the characteristics of floods, the mystery will be solved. Curriculum download is a PowerPoint slideshow teaching guide with links to all you need to do the lesson with your class.
Can a fish pay for your college education?
This lesson will guide students through learning about Lake Whitefish, a valuable fish for commercial fishermen, and how climate and profit impacts fishermen’s livelihood. Students will learn facts about whitefish, learn about local fishing businesses, and apply what they’ve learned using economics to decide whether their business can continue to stay open with different scenarios.
Comparing Different Cultures: Are we really that different?
The objective is for students to understand that human cultures all have common threads.
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.
Geology Map and The Brownstone Times
The map is a great resource for students and "The Brownstone Times" gives a brief history on the brownstone quarries in Wisconsin.
Geology Unit Lesson Plan
This is a guide for a unit plan to teach students about rocks as a timeline, identifying rocks, using maps of Wisconsin's geology, and brownstone in Wisconsin. There are four other pieces to this: a bedrock map, a geologic past map, Geology map (for students to draw on), and "The Brownstone Times". This is added as other curriculum.
Google Lit Trips!
Attached is a step by step on how to download files that you can open in Google Earth that go through the places the characters a number of books go! From "Paddle to the Sea" to "Number the Stars", there's a map to explore!
Great Lakes Aquarium – Research Prompts
The attachments below are a "student copy" and a "teacher copy" of a guide to each exhibit at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, MN. One purpose of this resource is as a school research project kick-off for students and their teacher. Another is developing a teaching unit, using student inquiry as your guide. This resource may also be used for digging in deeper to the exhibits through teacher-guided discussion, partner-group discussion, or individual reflection.
Great Lakes Region Mysteries and Unexplained Events Lesson
Students will explore mysteries and unexplained events in the Great Lakes region. They will identify facts/evidence and be able to tell what is credible or not in order to create a brochure using the facts/evidence.
How Did They Get Here?
Students will investigate a variety of resources to formulate a hypothesis regarding how Rusty Crayfish arrived in the St. Louis River.