Calling all third graders! The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) needs your help getting the word out about helping the Bay. You will need to complete the following activities to research the Bay. Then, you will need to use your findings to create a presentation explaining how people can continue to enjoy the Bay without harming it.

First, you will need to build background knowledge by visiting the following Web sites:

• Natural Resources Video
• Estuaries Video
• Watersheds Video
• The Chesapeake Bay for Kids

Blue crab image obtained from SIRS

Task and Product

Your goal is to help the CBF explain to people how they can continue to enjoy the Bay without harming it. During this project you will:

1. Research one of the following living organisms that lives in the Chesapeake Bay:

• Oyster
• Blue Crab
• Great Blue Heron
• Striped Bass

2. Research how people use the Bay and how people harm the Bay.

3. Analyze your research notes to answer the essential question.

4. Create a presentation explaining how people can continue to use the Bay without harming it. You may use one of these presentation formats as directed by your teacher.

• Multimedia slide show using software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, or Pixie
• Voicethread - Collaborative multimedia slideshow
• Wiki Page - Interactive webpage
• Museum Box - Virtual museum exhibit
• Glogster - Interactive digital poster

Great Blue Heron

Assessments

The following scoring tools may be used or adapted by your teacher to evaluate your research process and your final product and presentation.

Autumn at the Chesapeake Bay.
Image obtained from SIRS.

Questions

Essential Question:

Subsidiary Questions:

• What does the living organism you chose need to survive?
  
  
• How does the Bay help that organism survive?
  
  
• How does that organism affect the Bay?
  
  
• What are some natural resources found in or around the Bay?
  
  
• What kinds of activities do people do in or around the Bay?
  
  
• What human actions are harmful to the Bay?
  
  
• What human actions help the Bay?

Chesapeake Bay

Gather and Sort

Use the following note taking sheet and the subsidary questions to take notes on:

• the living organism of your choice
• the natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay
• the activities people do in or around the Bay
• how people harm the Bay
• how people can help the Bay
  

Use the Student Resource Page to gather information on your specific organism (oyster, blue crab, great blue heron, or striped bass).

Locate images of your organism and of the Chesapeake Bay.

• Save images to your folder. This should be found in your class folder which can be accessed through your user name.

Be sure to avoid plagiarism by quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing and by citing your sources in a Bibliography based on your teacher's directions.

Organize

1. Analyze your research notes to see if you have enough relevant information to create an informative presentation.

• Do your notes help you answer the subsidiary questions?
• Are you missing any information?
• Is there any irrelevant information (information that you do not need)?
  

2. Synthensize your information by using your research notes to answer the essential question, How does human activity affect the living organisms of the Chesapeake Bay?

• Sort through the images you located to determine which ones you will use for your presentation.
  

3. Use your research notes and the images you chose to create a presentation explaining how people can continue to enjoy the Bay without harming it.

Use one of the digital tools below as directed by your teacher.

• Multimedia slide show - use software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Pixie
• Voicethread - create a collaborative multimedia slideshow
• Wiki Page - create a Webpage with your information and images
• Museum Box - create a 1-2 cube virtual museum exhibit using text and images
• Glogster - create a Glog (interactive poster) with text and images

Your teacher or library media specialist will provide you with access and directions on one of the digital tools.

Chesapeake Bay system

Conclusion

Presentation: View your classmates' presentations and complete this scoring tool.

Reflection: Read the following article and use the T-Chart to write examples of healthy and unhealthy characteristics of the Chesapeake Bay.

Extension Activities: Write a letter to the girl in the above article explaining the steps she can take to make the Chesapeake Bay in her dream a reality.