Special Places: Eco-lessons from the National Parks in Atlantic Canada

Grade 6

The News Knows!

Table of Contents:

• Summary
• Learning Outcomes
• Activity Information
• Teacher Background
• Procedure
• Evaluation
• Extension
• References
• Resources

Summary

Students will combine science learning outcomes with media literacy by researching and writing a newspaper article on a particular resource management issue in one of three national parks in Atlantic Canada.

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Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

• explain why national parks in Atlantic Canada have individual resource management issues;
• develop research skills for scientific inquiry;
• develop communication skills for presenting their results and ideas;
• apply their understandings about the issues and interpret them through writing.

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Activity Information

Grade level: 6

Subjects: Science (Atlantic)– Diversity of Life; Social Studies (Atlantic): Interdependence, People, Place and Environment; Media Literacy; Language Arts

Curriculum linkages: (Science) 105-1; 107-6; (Social Studies) GCO, Interdependence, People, Place and Environment; (Language Arts) GCO1, 1.1, 1.3; GCO7, 7.1, 7.2

Duration: Approximately 60 to 100 minutes

Setting: Classroom

Materials: Writing paper, drawing paper for illustrations for article; Student Information Sheets and Park Backgrounders for Kouchibouguac, Kejimkujik and Prince Edward Island national parks; Opinion Sheets for Kejimkujik, Kouchibouguac and Prince Edward Island national parks; Information Sheets on the piping plover, clams and sand dunes.

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Teacher Background

Imagine that you are sitting in the kitchen, reading the morning news, sipping your first coffee, and these headlines jump out at you: “Clam Harvesting at Kouchibouguac National Park Stopped Due to Clam Bed Deterioration”. Or how about “Dogs Off Leash Threatening the Endangered Piping Plover at Kejimjujik National Park”? Or, “Four Wheel Drive Races on the Dunes at Prince Edward Island National Park”? Words like that make the reader sit up and take notice – and perhaps spill their coffee!

The news. Where else do you find information that comes to your doorstep each morning, waiting for you to read it and formulate opinions? The news media is a powerful informational tool. In this activity, students will take a stand on an issue and write an article for a small fictitious newspaper, trying to convince the readers that their opinion is the right one.

Our national parks have become popular places to visit and more people are becoming interested in visiting and learning about the parks. At the same time, this has meant that the parks are experiencing more pressure from conflicting interests and ideas about how they should be used.

Each of the three national parks in this activity – Kouchibouguac, Kejimkujik and Prince Edward Island – have management plans that provide direction for the protection, use and development of the park over a period of time. The direction contained in each of the plans must be consistent with the National Parks Act and Regulations, the Government of Canada’s Sustainable Development Strategy and Parks Canada’s policies and directions, as well as the recommendations of the Panel on the Ecological Integrity of Canada’s National Parks. Each management plan also describes some of the park’s stewardship activities, addresses the key issues facing the park, and identifies how to deal with some of the conflicting interests.

In this activity, students will research information and write a newspaper article that presents their opinion regarding a specific resource issue.

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Procedure

1. Make copies of the three Opinion Sheets and all Student Information Sheets, including the piping plover, sand dunes and clam information sheets.
2. Introduce the three national parks and provide some background as to what makes each park special. (You can find this in the attached Student Information Sheets and Park Backgrounders. The language level of the Park Backgrounders is more suitable for the teacher, but the teacher may wish to provide them to the students as well.) Ask the students to describe some potential conflicting issues that they might pick up as they listen to the descriptions. When students run out of ideas, tell them that you are going to focus on one issue in each park.
3. Break the students into groups of four. Assign each group a park and hand out the park Opinion Sheet as well as the Student Information Sheet for that park. Include any other information sheets relevant to the park, i.e., Clam Information Sheet for Kouchibouguac, Sand Dunes Information Sheet for Prince Edward Island and Piping Plover Information Sheet for Prince Edward Island, Kejimkujik and Kouchibouguac. Each student in the group should select one of the opinions of one of the characters and read it out loud to the rest of the group. This character will be theirs for the rest of the activity.
4. Tell the students they will now put together a small newspaper. Each of them will write an article for the newspaper that expresses the concerns of their character. The article will have:
• an introduction to the park and a specific issue, i.e. clams at Kouchibouguac National Park, sand dunes at Prince Edward Island National Park or piping plover at Kejimkujik, Kouchibouguac or Prince Edward Island national parks;
• a brief discussion of the issue and the number of concerns about the issue (using the opinions of the other characters);
• options for what could happen in the park with respect to the particular issue;
• their character’s opinion, in closing, about what should happen to the issue.
5. Each student will draw an illustration that captures their issue and their character’s concerns about the issue.
6. Have the students write their articles on a computer and put them together in a tabloid format. If possible, scan in some of the illustrations to enhance the tabloid.

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Evaluation

Have students illustrate an imaginary national park in Atlantic Canada. Ask them to consider an issue and describe how their character would feel about what was happening with the issue. Students can then write a briefer newspaper article outlining their character’s concerns.

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Extension

Have students research one of the other national parks in Atlantic Canada and identify another resource issue that is of concern.

Take all of the articles on each park, group them together and create individual tabloids for each park. Print and distribute the tabloids for the rest of the school.

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References

• Parks Canada Web site: www.parkscanada.gc.ca

Resources

• Student Information Sheet: Kejimkujik National Park of Canada
• Student Information Sheet: Kouchibouguac National Park of Canada
• Student Information Sheet: Prince Edward Island National Park of Canada
• Park Backgrounder: Kejimkujik National Park of Canada
• Park Backgrounder: Kouchibouguac National Park of Canada
• Park Backgrounder - Prince Edward Island National Park
• Park Backgrounder: Terra Nova National Park of Canada
• Information Sheet: Clams at Kouchibouguac National Park
• Information Sheet: Sand Dunes
• Information Sheet: Piping Plover
• Opinion Sheet: Kejimkujik National Park of Canada
• Opinion Sheet: Kouchibouguac National Park of Canada
• Opinion Sheet: Prince Edward Island National Park