Lesson Plans
Activity Title:
What's the Deal? What eats what in the Bay, and Why is this Important?
Interactive: Meal Deal
View the lesson plans for Meal Deal
What’s happening to organisms in the Bay, and does it even make a difference? Does it matter if some creatures die off and new ones come to town? In this activity students explore predator/prey relationships to determine the importance of organisms within the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem.
Activity Title:
BayQuest: Exploring Ecosystems
Interactive: BayQuest
View the lesson plans for BayQuest
Put on your explorer's hat! You are about to embark on an adventurous journey traveling by kayak and skipjack through the Chesapeake Bay in search of hidden plants and animals. In this activity students explore plants and animals in the Bay’s eight main habitats and determine the importance of these organisms on the ecosystems in which they live.
Activity Title:
Champs of the Chesapeake
Interactive: Champs
View the lesson plans for Champs
Description: Do your students eat organic foods? Do they ride their bikes instead of
travel by car? If so, they are helping the Chesapeake Bay and might not even
know it! In this Bayville interactive, the focus is on environmental stewardship. Students will learn what kinds of things they can do everyday
to positively impact the environment and the Chesapeake Bay. They’ll also
explore what other young people have done to help the Bay and become
Chesapeake Champs.
Activity Title:
Development and the Nature of the Water Cycle
Interactive: H2Oh No!
View the lesson plans for H2Oh No!
Description: What impact does urban or suburban development have on the water cycle? In this activity, students will use the Bayville interactive, H20hNo! to explore how the water cycle works and learn how people can have a tremendous effect on the quality of water we use everyday.
Activity Title:
Mega Mall Debate: Environment v. Economic Development
Interactive: H2Oh No!
View the lesson plans for H2Oh No!
Description: What impact can a proposed mega mall have on a suburban town's local river? Why are residents in the town engaging in a hot debate about this new mall? Using the Bayville interactive, H20hNo! students investigate both sides of a controversial debate over a new mega mall planned for the town of Bayville, and then report how the proposed mall will impact the town river.
Activity Title:
Monsters in the Bay
Interactive: Here There Be Monsters
View the lesson plans for Here There Be Monsters
Description: What's lurking beneath the surface of the Chesapeake Bay? Is it an unidentified sea monster that hasn't yet been discovered? Are people possibly mistaking another animal such as a manatee or sturgeon for a sea monster? Or, is the mysterious and elusive Chessie the sea monster, a hoax or the product of some wild imaginations? Using the Bayville interactive, Here There Be Monsters, students unravel the mystery of Chessie the sea monster, using their own powers of investigation and deductive reasoning to make an informed judgment about whether or not Chessie is real.
Activity Title:
Bay Lab Part 1: What’s Killing the SAV?
Interactive: Bay Lab
View the lesson plans for BayLab
Description: What's been killing the Bay grasses – collectively known as SAV– in the Chesapeake Bay over the last several decades? Using the Bayville interactive, BayLab, students will research information about the SAV, and explore five scientific hypotheses through cause/ effect relationships, in order to formulate their own opinion about why there has been such a significant decline in the population of the Bay grasses.
Activity Title:
Bay Lab Part 2: Let’s Experiment!
Interactive: BayLab
View the lesson plans for BayLab
Description: Scientists have offered five convincing hypotheses about what's been killing the Bay grasses – collectively known as SAV – in the Chesapeake Bay over the last several decades. Using the Bayville interactive, BayLab, students will apply the scientific method to investigate and test these five hypotheses in an online virtual laboratory, in order to come to a logical conclusion about what's been killing the SAV.
Language Arts Activities
Activity Title:
Nutrients and the Bay
Interactive: Cinema Bayville
View the Nutrients and the Bay Student Activity Plan
Description: Because of excess nutrients, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay have become increasingly polluted and murky. In this activity, students will watch a series of videos in the online interactive, Bayville, conduct research, and discover how these excess nutrients end up in the Bay. They will also learn what people are doing to help protect the future of the Bay. Students will use a graphic organizer and write an expository writing piece to illustrate the relationships and connections between the concepts they learn.
Activity Title:
Bay Beautiful
Interactive: Cinema Bayville
View the Bay Beautiful Student Activity Plan
Description: Students will engage in an online scavenger hunt about the Chesapeake Bay, exploring general background information as well as current problems now facing the Bay. Students will use a variety of text structures such as Venn Diagrams and Cause Effect trees, to help make sense of the information they collect in the scavenger hunt, and then make some inferences about potential solutions to some of the Bays’ problems.
Activity Title:
Animals and Habitats of the Chesapeake Bay
Interactives: Cinema Bayville & BayQuest
View the Animals and Habitats of the Chesapeake Bay lesson plan
Description: Using Bayville’s online interactive, BayQuest, as well as other online resources, students will explore eight Bay habitats and the animals that live in those areas. Students will focus on what animals eat, where they can be found, and characteristics of the habitat, in order to make some inferences about how some animals may be able to survive in more than one habitat.
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