Jane R. Woods, author of
The Trouble on the St. Johns River, visited Fletcher Middle School on June 3 to talk to sixth-grade students about making a difference in the community by becoming aware of their environment.
To prepare for Wood’s visit, students read her book and had classroom discussions about topics and animals addressed in the book, such as fish kill, causes of an algae bloom, manatees and sea turtles.
The students also participated in various projects to demonstrate their understanding of various environmental concepts. Projects included cleaning out their nearby neighborhood lake, developing a "Green Teen" Web site design team, writing a song about the St. Johns River, creating a poem that summarized the book and using recycled trash to make a collage.
Science teacher Kathy Poe has found that including books that have an underlying science concept in her curriculum helps her students learn science vocabulary words, and take a more active role in the sciences and their environment.
In addition to The Trouble on the St. Johns River, her class also read The City of Ember for the electricity and magnetism unit,
Earthquake Terror for the dynamic earth unit, Jaguar to study global connections in ecosystems, and
From the Earth to the Moon for astronomy.
Next year, seventh-grade science teachers will be encouraged to incorporate The Trouble on the St. Johns River into their science unit, as the fourth quarter unit focuses on water resources with an emphasis on the St. Johns River.
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