Economics and Geography Lessons

The Day They Left the Bay

MCPS Status of Book as of 4/4/96:
Approved as a Reading/Language Arts Core Book for Grade 4

Title: The Day They Left the Bay by Mick Blackistone with illustrations by Lee Boynton, (Acropolis Books, LTD., Washington, DC, 1988)

Lesson Developed by Patricia King Robeson

Literature Annotation: This story is about the importance of protecting the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. It is told by an old seagull who sits on top of a lighthouse, watches over the Bay, and does not like what he sees. The seagull calls a meeting of the animals, who then decide to leave the Bay. One day an old man comes to visit the Bay and tells a young boy he must get help to clean up the Bay. The boy talks to newspaper and magazine writers and town leaders and tells them that people cannot take from the Bay more than the Bay can give to them.

Grade Level:4-5

Duration: 2 class periods: (This book may also be used to teach about environmental issues.)

Economic Concepts: Scarcity, Consumption, Opportunity Cost

Geography Themes: Location, Place, Relationships: Human and Environment, and Region

MSPAP Outcomes and Indicators:

Economic Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers in American society.

Indicators:

• Describes the relationship between available resources and the production of goods and services.
• Describes the relationship of supply and demand to the production and consumption of goods and services.

Geography Outcome: Students will develop an understanding of geographic concepts and processes as needed to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activities.

Indicators:

• Locate places and natural features by interpreting and constructing maps using directions, legends, grid systems, boundary lines and scales.
• Examine people's adaptation to and modification of their environment as a result of changes in technology.
• Predict the effects of living in a given geographic setting on people's lives.
• Examine different ways of defining a region.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Describe how people use the Bay to meet their needs and wants.
• Suggest reasons for the location of cities, factories, farms, and homes along the Bay.
• Explain how people have adapted to and modified the land around the Bay to meet their needs.
• Describe changes in the land around the Bay which resulted from the use of tools and technology.

Vocabulary: bay, osprey, sewage, region, harvest, watershed

Materials:

• Book: The Day They Left the Bay
• "Chesapeake Bay Watershed" Map Transparency 1
• "Chesapeake Bay Watershed" Map Transparency 2
• Beach ball globe
• Surf and Sand Toss Activity
• "Choking Off Life of the Bay" handout - one copy for each group of four students
• Poem: "Where Does the Rain Go?" - copy for each student
• Other On-line Resources
  • Chesapeake Bay Program Homepage
  • Watershed map
  • Topographic map of the Bay
  • False-color infrared map
  • Sara Gottlieb's "Complete" Links to Chesapeake Bay Information Sources

Lesson Development:

Review/Motivation:

1. Play Surf and Sand Toss. (1990, AIMS Education Foundation) This activity will help students to discover the ratio of water to land on the Earth's surface by tossing the Beach ball globe repeatedly and recording whether the right index finger touches land or water. Toss and catch the ball 50 times and keep a tally.

2. Discussion questions:
   • What conclusions can you draw from doing this activity?
   • What factors could have affected the outcome?
   • If you were to toss and catch only one time where would you predict your finger would land?
   
   Discuss the fact that even though two-thirds of the Earth's surface is water, usable water is limited and must be protected.

3. Using either Chesapeake Bay Watershed 1" or Chesapeake Bay Watershed 2" map transparencies, have students locate and identify the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Explain that 46 principal rivers flow into the Bay, draining an area of about 64,000 square miles that includes parts of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York. Maryland has more shoreline than any of the other states.

4. Tell the students that you are going to read the story, The Day They Left the Bay, written by Mick Blackistone. His ancestors settled in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1634. He wrote this book because he is worried about the polluted condition of the Chesapeake Bay and all the creatures that live in and around it.

Activities:
Ask the following questions:

1. When do you think this story took place?. (This story could have taken place any time in recent years because environmental issues of the Bay have been a concern for all the people who live along the Bay or make their living from the Bay.)

2. How do people use the Chesapeake Bay to meet their wants and needs? (Watermen use the Bay to earn a living; people have built homes along the 4,100 miles of shoreline; many businesses have been established around the Bay; boaters use the Bay for recreation and business.)

3. How did the Bay change as a result of the use of technology? (Motors on boats cause the water to become polluted from the fuel; propellers on boats cause harm to the creatures in the water; factories, homes and farms built along the shoreline produce industrial wastes, municipal sewage and fertilizer runoff.)

4. Whhat do you predict is the effect of living in this region on people's lives? (People who depend on the Bay for entertainment enjoy being able to go swimming, boating and fishing in the water and do not want to worry about pollution and health problems. People who depend on the Bay for earning a living need to have productive seasons for fishing, crabbing, and oystering; and this will not happen if the water becomes polluted or if controls are not established and enforced.)

5. What will happen to the price of fish, oysters and crabs caught in the Bay if people are allowed to deplete the supply? (If there is a decline in the number of fish, crabs, and oysters caught, then watermen will charge more for the ones they harvest. Restaurants and grocery stores will pay more for the ones they buy, so the price to customers will rise.)

6. Do you have any of personal responsibility for the Bay and environmental decisions which are made. (Remember that everyone can help and has a responsibility to protect the Bay. Becoming informed about environmental issues, assisting in projects to clean up streams, and helping the public to understand environmental issues will help make the Bay a healthy place for all living in the habitat by protecting the waters from pollution.)

"Choking Off Life of the Bay"

1. Divide students into groups of four and give each group a copy of "Choking Off Life of the Bay." Instruct them to study the drawing and to write a group paragraph which explains:
   • What happens when people modify or change the land to meet their needs and wants?
   • Why do people want to build businesses and residences near the Bay?
   • What are the effects of this construction on the water, plants and animals in the Bay?

2. Have each group choose a member to read their paragraph to the class. Allow questions and discussion.

Conclusion/Closure:
Ask the students to think of a project in which they could become involved to help prevent water pollution to the Bay. Instruct them to write a newspaper headline which will name their project and capture the interest of readers. Then have them write a short article for the newspaper which explains who could become involved, how to become involved and why people should become involved.

Thoughtful Application:

1. Explain to the students that we are all connected to the Chesapeake Bay, whether we live on Kent Island in the middle of the Bay, along the Potomac River, or even in central Pennsylvania. We all share the same watershed.

2. Give each student a copy of Where Does the Rain Go?" Write directions a, b, c and d on the chalkboard. Direct the students to write a response for each of the questions.

   Where Does the Rain Go?
   Where does the rain go when it falls on the land?
   It makes plucking noises on our roof and forms a puddle in my hand.
   
   It dribbles down the windows and trickles off our door.
   When it gets on my galoshes it makes puddles on our floor.
   
   It plops on all the grass and trees and makes the flowers grow.
   I can watch it flowing down the street, but then where does it go?
   
   I think that all those drippy drops have traveled here and there
   And when they've finished raining here they'll meet again somewhere.

   From: Bay B C's
   

   1. List some things that rain washes away.
   2. Draw a picture that explains what is happening in the poem.
   3. Write a sentence about your picture explaining why it is important for us to become aware of our connections to the Chesapeake Bay and how we can keep the water, plants and animals in the Bay safe.
   4. Write another verse for the poem that includes the information in your sentence.

Return to the Economics and Geography Lessons introduction page .

Return to the Social Studies Overview .

Last updated on March 10, 1997
Maintained by John L. Day

<jday@umd5.umd.edu>