SLASL: Tourism & The Environment; friends or foes?
Background on LMS and Science / Math Teacher relationship:
This lesson was created by Library Media Specialist Robin Williams, Biology teacher Danielle Gasser and Math teacher Laura Armstrong. Robin’s strengths were identified as text-based inquiry and the curation of resources. Danielle’s strengths were biology content knowledge and Laura’s strengths were in math content knowledge. This is the first year that all three teachers have worked together. Laura and Danielle were recommended to work on this project by an administrator that spoke highly of their dedication to their students and their willingness to try new things in their classrooms.
Unit Description:
This unit includes 4 lessons where in Biology, students design a proposal or program to help the environment at a tourist location and in Math, students will calculate how tourism affects the economy.
Using inquiry-based reading, students will explore an anchor text and then develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research.
Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of the impact of tourism on the environment and the economy. They will also grow in their ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research.
Standards
- NGSS/State STEM Standards: Bio 2.2.1 Infer how human activities may impact the environment
- NCSOS Math III - Making Inferences & Justifying Conclusions S-IC.6
- NCSOS Math III - A-CED.3 Create systems of equations and/or inequalities to model situations in context
- NGSS Crosscutting Concepts Cause and Effect
- CCSS Science Literacy Standards
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.7 Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.9 Compare and contrast findings presented in a text to those from other sources (including their own experiments), noting when the findings support or contradict previous explanations or accounts.
Unit Essential Question
- How can we lessen the environmental impact tourists have on our environment while still bolstering the economy of the city/town of the tourist destination?
- In Biology, “How do humans impact the environment in tourism locations and how can we limit human footprint?”
- In Math, “What is the impact of tourism on a city’s economy?.”
Goals for Using Inquiry:
The goal for using inquiry in this unit is to have students develop their own supporting research questions around the environment and the tourist impact, examine provided text, select their own additional resources to use, and determine their own solution to the research question. The science and math teachers and the media library specialist have selected an anchor text about tourism and the environment and provided support for students in a set of texts that guide research around the various impacts tourism has on both the economy and the environment.
The goal for using inquiry in this unit is to have students examine the anchor text as an open invitation to inquiry about the impact of tourism on both the economy of a city and the environment. Using the anchor text “An Overview of the Negative Impacts of Tourism” as the base and a supportive text “Coral Reefs and the Unintended Impacts of Tourism” about tourism’s economic and environmental effects, students will develop their own set of inquiry questions (ex: “I wonder…”) for a culminating activity based on tourism’s impact on a city’s economy and its environment. Students will narrow down their inquiry questions to one specific, targeted question that they seek to answer through the culminating activity.
Summative Assessment Description and Rubric
Students will develop a plan for an existing tourist destination that will lessen the environmental impact of the tourists visiting, while still continuing to maintain profits for the destination itself. The students will then create a proposal that they will present to some of stakeholders within the destination.
Prior Knowledge Needed
Students will need to understand exponential growth and decay relationships
Students will need to understand how material is cycled through the environment
Students will infer how human activities (including population growth,
pollution, global warming, burning of fossil fuels, habitat
destruction and introduction of nonnative species) may
impact the environment
Students will be able to use close-reading and talking-to-the-text strategies to analyze and better interpret a tex
Student Learning Objectives
- The student will be able to create equations and graphs by using economic data.
- The students will be able to identify historical impact of tourism through reading and annotating an article about tourist effects on environment and economy.
- The students will be able to understand the mathematical relationships between tourism and economics by using evidence from the text.
- The student will be able to summarize how humans modify ecosystems through consumption of resources and production of waste by based on the information from the article.
- The student will identify factors that impact North Carolina ecosystems based on their study and annotation of texts.
- The student will be able to create a proposal by using textual evidence, data and precise details from the article and their research.
Text Set Description
Anchor Text:
An Overview of the Negative Impacts of Tourism http://www.revistadeturism.ro/rdt/article/view/344
Purpose:
This is our Anchor Text, designed to provide both science and math content about the negative impact of tourism on both the environment and the economy. This will provide the impetus for the research and student engagement around the essential question.
The ATOS level of the text is an 13.3, which is on the high end for a 10th grader, but we feel it is appropriate for an end of year IB 10th grade student. Linked here is the Qualitative Analysis of the Complexity.
TDQ
- Do you agree with the author’s claim about the negative impacts of tourism? Explain why or why not. Use evidence from the text to support your argument.
- Do you think tourism could provide a positive impact on the environment? Why or why not?
- What are some ways to minimize the negative effects of tourism?
- Why does the author make a point of stating in the last paragraph, “There are some constraints to be considered discussed here in this paper. In any case, these constraints have to be dealt with in an optimization approach managing both negative and positive impact of tourism.”
- Why would the author want to draw attention to the only the negative approach of tourism?
- Use your understanding of global warming and ecological footprint to explain how tourism could affect the environment. Use specific evidence from the text to defend your answer.
- Identify the tone in this article. Use evidence from the text to defend your answer.
- Using your knowledge on exponential growth and decay, how do you suspect the economy to change over time?
- Do you believe that the financial benefits from tourism outweigh the negative impacts proposed in this article? Use examples to defend your answer. (math)
Accommodations for Diverse Learners
- Tier Two words will be chosen ahead of time and a definition will be added as footnotes to copies of the text.
- Specific chunks will be chosen ahead to support students in breaking the reading down into manageable sections.
Supporting Text:
Coral Reefs and the Unintended Impacts of Tourism http://earthjustice.org/blog/2016-april/coral-reefs-and-the-unintended-impact-of-tourism
TDQ
- What type of relationship do coral reefs have with the marine life? Explain your answer and use evidence from the text.
- Does the reading provide evidence that supports or contracts information in the anchor text? Explain.
Suggested Lesson Breakdown/Pacing
Day 1
Objectives:
1. Identify two tourist locations in NC that have outdoor facilities.
2. Students will begin to look critically at tourist locations based on reading Coral Reefs and the Unintended Impacts of Tourism using
Aligned Student Learning Task and Suggested Timing
The students will read the Coral Reef article as homework the night before. While reading they will write three questions they had from the text - noting where in the text the question came up, and one I wonder statement.
When in class on Friday, the students will begin class with the table text activity - they will write one of their questions in the question box and the other students will comment in the talk bubbles.
Mrs. Williams will come into the class to share a website that contains many of the state parks and tourist locations with outdoor facilities. Once in groups the students will select two of the tourist locations as possible spots for their project.
The students will read the Coral Reef article as homework the night before. While reading they will write three questions they had from the text - noting where in the text the question came up, and one I wonder statement.
Formative Assessment
1. Ms. Gasser will monitor students as they work on the table text activity. Ms. Gasser will randomly choose sticky notes to read aloud, tracking trends and ideas.
2. Mrs. Williams and Ms. Gasser will monitor student activity during discussion and research of tourist locations.
Important Accommodations
1.Ms. Gasser will provide the article ahead of time to students with high need.
2. Ms. Williams will provide a list of tourist and park locations available in North Carolina for them to choose from.
Day 2
Objectives:
TSWBAT:
Biology: Read a chunked text and identify key ideas, symbols, and quotes that represent the text
Math: Students will begin to look critically at tourist locations based on reading An Overview of the Negative Impacts of Tourism; table text activity
Aligned Student Learning Task and Suggested Timing
Biology: The students will be broken up into 4 groups. With the Anchor text, An Overview of the Negative Impacts of Tourism; The article will be chunked into 9 parts. Students, in their groups, will answer an assigned TDQ after reading their chunked portion.
Students will then move into the collaborative poster activity.
Math:
Read anchor text , An Overview of the Negative Impacts of Tourism as homework - students will write three questions (math related) and one 1 wonder statement.
During class: students will do the table text activity
Formative Assessment
Biology:
Teacher will use the Collaborative Poster Rubric as the formative assessment for this day.
Math:
Teacher will use the table text sheets and classroom discussion as formative assessment.
Important Accommodations
Biology:
Article will be chunked into pieces.
Math:
Students will read the article in class as a think-pair-share group.
Day 3
Objectives:
TSWBAT:
Biology and Math
Research and create a presentation about a tourist activity that is environmentally less invasive while still being economically viable.
Aligned Student Learning Task and Suggested Timing
Mrs. Williams will present presentation tools to all students Link here that they can use for their presentation.
Students will then create a program for a tourist location based on what they learned from the two texts and the locations they chose.
Formative Assessment
All three teachers will walk the room observing student activity.
Teacher created rubric for project will be created and used as well.
Important Accommodations
Mrs. Williams will prepare a brief presentation on research tools for the project.
Day 4
Objectives:
TSWBAT:
Present a prospective plan for an environmentally friendly tourist activity
Aligned Student Learning Task and Suggested Timing
Students will be given time to work on presentations and then present plans to class.
The CEO of the Whitewater Center will speak to both classes while students use their knowledge from their own proposal to help them understand how a local tourist location functions to accommodate both ecological and economic needs. Each student prepared three questions to ask the CEO based on the mission and philosophies around the environment and economics of the Whitewater Center.
Formative Assessment
The classroom teacher will use the rubric to grade presentations.
Important Accommodations
Extra time will be given in class for final touches.
Day 5
Objectives:
TSWBAT:
Present a prospective plan for an environmentally friendly tourist activity
Aligned Student Learning Task and Suggested Timing
Students present their proposals to their classmates and class discusses how this tourist location is successful both economically and ecologically. Students also suggest additional solutions to lessening the tourist location’s ecological footprint.
Formative Assessment
The classroom teacher will use the rubric to grade presentations.
Important Accommodations
Students submit proposals through shared google drive folder.
Attachment of Student Work Examples
Biltmore Estates - Economic and Environmental Impacts (student work)
Biltmore - Teacher/LMS feedback
Bald Head Island - Economic and Environmental Impacts (student work)
Bald Head - Teacher/LMS feedback
Carowinds - Economic and Environmental Impacts (student work)
Carowinds - Teacher/LMS feedback
Teacher and Librarian Reflection on the Implementation of the Unit
LMS Reflection:
WOW. This has been a true process. While I am accustomed to “collaborating” with English teachers, I don’t feel I’ve had the true collaborative experience until this unit. Working with teachers that were unaccustomed to working with the school librarian really allowed for a lot of growth on all of our parts. The process is what worked best. Had we just sat down and “planned” a unit without the structure of this program, I truly don’t believe it would have been as successful as I felt it was. Giving students the background with the deep, close read in the very beginning provided enough background to guide the students to develop their own inquiry projects. The activities that led up the final project were all purposeful and provided the students a deeper dive into developing their own ideas and questions for their final work. In the future I would like to see us implement earlier and within more context of the unit being taught. Knowing what we know now allows us to start earlier and create more scaffolds for the students.
Math Teacher Reflection:
This unit allowed me the opportunity to grow professionally and personally. It required a lot of "out-of-the-box" thinking and ideas that were not a part of my everyday process. As a math teacher, it's easy for me to stay far away from traditional literacy in the classroom. In the past couple of years, however, I have tried to bring more of it into math. By creating this lesson and working with SLASL, Robin and Danielle, I was provided with tools on how to make this happen. The unit provided real-world examples to my students on where math is a huge in our country and world, through financial gains and losses in tourism. It opened my students' minds to whole other world in the mathematics realm and how everything they are learning can be interconnected. They had a lot of positive feedback. I also learned several ways to make this better for when we plan another lesson similar to this in the future.
STEM (Science) Teacher Reflection:
I want this type of collaboration and real-world connection to happen with all my units. The guidelines from the detailed unit plan helped align our thoughts while we planned this project and assisted us in creating a truly powerful, full-bodied project. With a school of more than 3,000 students, it was a special opportunity for the math and science classes to combine in the library and share their expertise. I loved watching the students listen to our guest speaker from the WhiteWater center and hearing their inquisitive questions. You could see the students fully engaged and intrigued by our guest speakers stories. Many of the students had visited the WhiteWater center, so it was a very appropriate tourist location for students to hear more about as they continued working on their own tourist projects. In future projects, I would change the rubric/guidelines slightly so students could take their projects even further by submitting their proposals to the tourist locations or possible traveling to the tourist locations and presenting.