Featured Unit

PACIFIC NORTHWEST STORYLINE

Each fall our fifth graders enter a Storyline based in the Pacific North West. The underlying focus of the Storyline is a study of North West Ecosystems. We use the salmon as an indicator species and much work revolves around salmon.

This past year it was set along the Oregon Coast. The class created a small town and each student assumed the persona of a citizen in the town. We had shopkeepers, fishermen (and women), teachers, doctors, farmers, artists and more.
Over the course of a couple months the student/citizens experienced and studied many events that might happen in a real town. The students participated in simulated role-plays and wrote up their reflections in journals

A major issue that we study is the decline of the fish population in general and salmon in particular. The students investigate this problem; they look for possible causes for the decline, and postulate potential solutions.
Looking for macro-invertebrates

The students use the Internet to research the issue and we do simulated experiments in the classroom. The class also goes on field trips to study salmon habitat in our area (both in rivers in the city and out in the forest). Along with the investigation into salmon each student chose a particular North West Macro-vertebrate and wrote a research report on that animal.

In conjunction with our Storyline the class raises salmon in a classroom incubator and then releases them into the Willamette River. This is done in cooperation with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department’s STEP program.