Coastal Bend and Bays Watershed Curriculum
Artist Boat Eco-Art Educators developed the lessons, activities, and practicum with funding from the Texas Education Agency and NOAA B-WET program. The lessons are available below for download as one complete, easy-to-use file.
Download the curriculum here.
Lessons include the background information, Pre-lessons, Post-lessons, and extension activities in the following subjects:
7th Grade
Art : Students will learn to use the grid method for drawing and create a textured acrylic painting.
Scientific Writing Composition: Students will learn about invasive species and write a news story using the inverted pyramid.
Scientific Concepts in Math: Students will learn about plankton, and utilize careful counting, probability, and estimation skills.
Science: Students will learn about the importance, functions, and overall habitat and inhabitants of wetlands and seagrass beds.
Social Science: Students will learn about geo-textile tubes and subsidence, and take part in a simulation that will introduce them to multiple points of view and the civil and community politics surrounding environmental and economical issues.
Capstone Activity: Utilizing skills practiced and knowledge gained from other lessons, students will participate in a hands-on activity about habitat restoration, create a strategy within the bounds of a budget, and learn about habitat food webs.
8th Grade
Art: Students will learn about fish body morphology, practice contour-line drawing, and create three-dimensional art with air-dry clay.
Scientific Reading Composition: Students will learn about the ecological importance of oysters and read "The Walrus and the Carpenter," a poem by Lewis Carroll. They will practice comprehension, critical reading skills, and even write their own poem using scientific facts.
Scientific Concepts in Math: Students will learn about biodiversity and calculate several factors including species diversity.
Science: Students will learn about subsidence and seagrass, and create their own turbidity tube to learn about turbidity.
Social Science: Students will learn about the endangered whooping cranes and how different factors such as freshwater infow affect an estuary system. Students will write a journalistic news story and perform a mock broadcast using scientific facts and current data.
Capstone Activity: Students will learn about watersheds and create a model to visualize the effects of non-point source pollution.