Shelley Stiaes: Learning to Live with Water & Wetlands

Positives

• The video is presented in an interview format, but frequent visualizations of nature, animals, and airboats keep students engaged in the presentation.
• As students watch and listen, they will understand the importance of working toward a goal and doing what they can to safeguard nature.

Additional Prerequisites

• Consider reviewing the discussion questions prior to showing the video.
  
• Students and teachers will need access to the Internet to watch the video.
  

Differentiation

• This would be a great video to show to students who are considering career paths and colleges, as it describes a nontraditional path to a career in science.
  
• It is mentioned that there are 540 nature refuges in the United States, so teachers can have students view the video and then find the refuges in their area.  Language arts students can then create an objective paragraph with citations or a personal narrative about their own experiences with being in nature.
• There is a call to action to plant trees, so science teachers can create a class project of planting and caring for a tree on the school campus or connect the water topics discussed to lessons about watersheds or wetlands.
• There is a reference to the damage done by Hurricane Katrina and the fact that neighborhoods bordering the refuge did not flood due to the refuge protecting them, so science teachers can have students research how storm surges and flooding rains affect different types of land environments.
• Many links to enhancement activities and climate action resources are included, so teachers can assign scaffolded lessons designed to build upon the knowledge gained from viewing the video.