Lesson Overview (4 periods)
Students will collect fish tokens in a game that leads to real understanding of what is involved to ensure sustainability of a renewable resource. The importance of the fishing industry to early colonial development and the current state of Canadian fish stocks and fisheries management can be compared and contrasted in extensions and debriefing after the game.“Go Fish” is intended to be played outside, taking advantage of a larger space to create competition between fishers and to use distance and territories as authentic barriers to collaborative planning and management between stakeholders. The theme of the game is centred on how our choices and actions impact the sustainability of a resource. Once students recognize and adapt to the basic pattern of fluctuations in the fish population, changes in rules (lower catch limits, more fishers, government regulations, etc.) for later rounds of the game challenge students’ problem-solving skills.
Connections to Environmental Education
Students will learn about the characteristics of human societies, including hunter-gatherer, industrial, and post-industrial, and the impact of each on the natural environment (specifically, fish populations); and the interconnectedness of political, economic, environmental and social issues in the present world as they relate to the regulation of fisheries. They will have the opportunity to develop problem-solving skills and critical and creative thinking skills, including the ability to reason and apply logic, and to identify connections and relationships between ideas and issues; and to recognize the need to incorporate an environmental perspective in decision-making models. They will have the opportunity to appreciate that human life depends on the resources of a finite planet; and appreciate the challenges faced by the human community in defining and implementing the processes needed for environmental sustainability. Students will need to dress for the weather and show care and concern for the environment by cleaning up after themselves.
GRADE 7 GEOGRAPHY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Curriculum Expectations
History and Geography (2004) – Natural Resources
-Students will describe how humans acquire, manage, and use natural resources, and identify factors that affect the importance of those resources.
-Students will describe a variety of ways in which people use and manage renewable, non-renewable and flow resources to meet their needs.
-Students will explain the concept of sustainable development and its implications for the health of the environment.
Science and Technology (2007) – Understanding Life Systems: Interactions in the Environment
1. Students will assess the impacts of human activities and technologies on the environment, and evaluate ways of controlling these impacts.
3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of interactions between and among biotic elements in the environment.
3.8 Students will describe ways in which human activities and technologies alter balances and interactions in the environment.
Alternatively this activity could fit with grade 8 expectations.
GRADE 8 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY
Curriculum Expectations
Science and Technology (2007) – Understanding Structures and Mechanisms: Systems in Action
1. Students will assess the personal, social, and/or environmental impacts of a system, and evaluate improvements to a system and/or alternative ways of meeting the same needs.
1.2 Students will assess the impact on individuals, society, and the environment of alternative ways of meeting the needs that are currently met by existing systems, taking different points of view into consideration.
3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of different types of systems and the factors that contribute to their safe and efficient operation.
3.1. Students will identify various types of systems.
3.2 Students will identify the purpose, inputs, and outputs of various systems.
History and Geography (2004) – Economic Systems
-Students will describe the characteristics of different types of economic systems and the factors that influence them, including economic relationships and levels of industrial development.
-Students will outline the fundamental questions that all economic systems must answer: what goods are produced; how they are produced; for whom they are produced; and how they are distributed.
History and Geography (2004) – Canada: A Changing Society
-Students will compare living and working conditions, technological developments, and social roles near the beginning of the twentieth century with similar aspects of life in present-day Canada.
Learning Goals
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate, identify, and describe the value of communication and planning in teamwork and ensuring the sustainability of a resource. Students will demonstrate, identify, and describe choices and actions that minimize impact on the environment and optimize the sustainability of a system. Students will also identify and describe the interactions between natural processes (e.g. annual cycle of an organism, spawning and the necessity of critical habitat) and human needs and wants (e.g. sustenance, economic development) that influence the sustainability of a resource. As well, this activity meets the requirement for daily physical activity.
INSTRUCTIONAL COMPONENTS AND READINESS
Readiness
Students will need to:
-Understand that the number of organisms that an ecosystem can support is limited.
-Understand the basic life cycle of fish.
-Understand the differences in habitat types for an organism’s different needs (e.g. spawning, feeding, avoiding predators).
Terminology
(additional terminology not in curriculum documents)
(Aboriginal fishing rights), Aboriginal peoples, carrying capacity, (catch limit), conservation of resources, (critical habitat), environmental impact, environmental stewardship, (fish stocking), (government regulation), habitat, (habitat loss), (harvesting), (international waters), (moratorium), natural resource, population, (preservation), primary industries, (rehabilitation), (remediation), renewable resource, (restoration), (spawning), sustainable development, sustainability, system
Materials
BLM 1 – Class Discussion Rubric
BLM 2 – Participation Skills
BLM 3 – Follow-up Assignment
BLM 4 – Follow-up Assignment – Answer Key
BLM 5 – Teacher Guide
300 Tokens representing fish (e.g. sticks, large beans)
9 Markers for the field of play (e.g. plastic cones)
30 Team markers in three colours (e.g. pinnies or flags) to identify teams – North America, South America, Europe
11 Arm bands to identify government
9 Arm bands in another colour to identify Aboriginal peoples
4 Hula-hoops (or loops of rope) to mark breeding grounds
8 Ropes to mark protected areas
MINDS ON
Use a news item about the moratorium on cod fishing in Eastern Canada (imposed in 1992) and solicit student suggestions about the impact on the different people who live there. Other suggestions for possible fisheries management issues are included in BLM 5 – Teacher Guide. As a class, define sustainability. Students then brainstorm the factors that may affect the sustainability of a resource. If they are having difficulty with the general question, reframe it in the context of a fishery and how we can ensure that we do not have to impose another moratorium.
Minds On: Assessment
Assessment for Learning.
Content understanding and participation.
Use BLM 1- Class Discussion Rubric.
Minds on: Differentiated Instruction
Students can be accommodated with homogeneous or heterogeneous groupings as appropriate for the Minds On step (e.g. think-pair-share).
ACTION!
Students are divided into 3 teams of fishers, representing North America, South America, and Europe. Some students will act as government representatives. To mimic the passage of time and the accompanying changes in population, development, and technology, different roles will be used at different times and rules will be added as the game progresses. The game set up and general rules should be explained to the class in the classroom before going out to the school yard to play the game. Students head to their territorial waters (North American, South American, and European). The international waters are not populated by fishers, but the fishers from all the countries can fish there as long as they don’t violate any rules. Students pick up fish tokens – as many as they want (within the rules) from wherever they want in the allotted time. At the end of a round, the remaining fish in the breeding grounds are counted and four times that number of fish tokens is added to the fishing grounds. The teacher directs play based on options from BLM 5 – Teacher Guide script. Initially, only the aboriginal people are allowed to fish but with colonization, resources may be impacted by fishing pressure. Technological advances in fishing practices may result in the need for catch limits, protection of spawning grounds, a fishing moratorium, etc. Poachers (fishers caught with more than the catch limit of fish) will suffer penalties.
Action: Assessment
Use BLM 2 – Participation Skills
Action: Differentiated Instruction
As students are playing an active game, roles can be assigned that accommodate students’ strengths and weaknesses. Students with mobility issues can fish from a stationary position on shore or serve as government officials that police the fishery from shore. New roles within the game can be created to accommodate other needs and limitations.
CONSOLIDATION
The teacher leads a debriefing using BLM 5 – Teacher Guide. Students extend their understanding with a written assignment BLM 3 – Follow-up Assignment or extension research assignment which is found at the end of BLM 4 – Follow-up Assignment – Answer Key
Consolidation: Assessment
Content understanding.
Use BLM 3 –Follow up Assignment. Concepts learned in the game can also be assessed on quizzes or a test.
Consolidation: Differentiated Instruction
Responses to the consolidation options may be communicated orally or in writing. Assessment may also be accomplished with the use of a simpler method (e.g. oral quiz).