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Overview:
Physical and human characteristics of places are inextricably intertwined; where people choose to settle and how they perceive and use the land and its resources change that place over time, and, in turn, its continuing settlement and uses—as well as the character and significance of the community it supports. Even before it became the location for the first permanent English colony in North America, the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed—an area on the east coast of the United States that includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia—have played a significant role in U.S. history and are a prime example of the evolving relationship humans have with their environment. In this lesson, students will conduct research on the Chesapeake Bay, from Captain John Smith's explorations of Native American settlements in the early seventeenth century to the present, and examine how these changes over time can help illuminate the interrelationship between people and place. They will then apply a similar approach to their local area. Through an examination of a timeline of change, students will make connections between the present interaction with place and its future and consider ways that they can help shape the future course of both the Chesapeake Bay watershed and their own community.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, history, anthropology
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 14: "How human actions modify the physical environment"
Standard 17: "How to apply geography to interpret the past"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"
Time:
Four to six hours
Materials Required:
Objectives:
Students will
- compare historical maps with modern-day maps;
- explore information about the history of the Chesapeake Bay watershed;
- research various facets of life in the Chesapeake Bay region over time;
- examine the life and culture of one community in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to describe its interconnectedness with history and current conditions;
- identify patterns of change in the Chesapeake Bay, and apply that understanding to their local communities; and
- make predictions about the future of the Chesapeake Bay and their local watershed based on current trends and consider the potential impact of community action initiatives.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Ask students what newcomers to their local community would find if they explored the area. What resources would they note? How would the community appear to be organized to make use of them? What would attract them most to stay and live in the area? What might not be appealing about living there? Then, ask students to consider how their answers might have differed a hundred years ago. What about hundreds or even thousands of years ago?
Discuss with students how people and places are interconnected and how their relationships evolve over time. People are attracted to places in part because of the resources they provide, but their interaction with and use of these resources change over time, which affects the resources themselves.
Explain to students that one well-documented example of this interrelationship is the Chesapeake Bay watershed, an area on the east coast of the United States including Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The bay was the location for Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, and it has continued to play an important but changing role—culturally, economically, and environmentally—to the present day. Tell students that they will explore the history of the Chesapeake Bay and learn about both its influence on early American settlement and the challenges that the human presence presents for the present-day watershed. Explain that students will use what they learn to springboard research into the ways different features of land or bodies of water predispose them to certain uses, and in return the ways those uses have an impact on the environment and, coming full circle, on the communities that depend on them.
Development:
Activity 1: Introduction to the Chesapeake Bay—Then and Now
Introduce students to the Chesapeake Bay by viewing the National Geographic documentary " Voyage of Discovery," available online on the National Geographic Exploring the Chesapeake—Then and Now Web site. Use the "then" and "now" maps on the site to guide a class discussion about the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Have students answer these questions (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required). A teacher version (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required) is also available to check for understanding.
Have students spend some time exploring the site to learn more about the history of the Chesapeake Bay. Ask students to follow the site tours to explore ways the Chesapeake has influenced American culture from its infancy ("then"), and the ways American culture has influenced the bay, as evidenced in the state of the bay today ("now"). Have students answer these questions (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required). A teacher version (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required) is also available to check for understanding.
Lead an open-ended discussion with students about the different information available in the two tours. What were the most significant changes between "then" and "now"? What connections can they make between the past and the present? How do they think the past might influence the present? Likewise, how might the past and present affect the future of a particular area?
Activity 2: How Did "Then" Lead to "Now"?—A Chesapeake Timeline of Change
Now that students understand some key points in the Chesapeake story, have them use this as a basis for further investigation into the bay's complex history. One excellent resource for this is the Bay Plain and Piedmont: A Landscape History of the Chesapeake Heartland from 1.3 Billion Years Ago to 2000, written principally by the U.S. National Park Service.
Some additional resources on the bay over time include: About the Bay, History of the Chesapeake Bay, and Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network: Bay History.
Have students consider patterns of change between "then" and "now" on the Chesapeake Bay. Ask them if they think these patterns were predictable and if they might continue into the future. Are similar patterns of growth and change evidenced today in the Chesapeake Bay or in other areas?
Then, have students create line graphs of the Chesapeake Bay population, fisheries, or natural resources between 2000 and 2050. Explain that their line graphs should represent milestones of every decade and should note any major events or occurrences that may significantly alter the growth or decline of what they are tracking.
Activity 3: A Community Case Study
Have students read the National Geographic News article "The Case of the Vanishing Islands" to learn about one community that has been inextricably linked to the Chesapeake Bay as far back as John Smith's time. The people of Smith Island depend upon the Chesapeake for their livelihood. How has the bay been influential in the community's culture, economics, and history? What is one current threat to the community and its lifestyle?
Have students learn more about threats to the island at the Martin National Wildlife Refuge Web page and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Baltimore District Report Smith Island, Maryland Environmental Restoration and Protection Project.
Ask students how the island has changed because of land use in other areas around the bay, and how those changes may influence the future uses of the island itself.
Then, hold a classroom debate centered on this topic: "Resolved: The costs of the USACE project on Smith Island are worthwhile." Use a standard debate procedure and have the non-debating students evaluate the efficacy of the arguments.
Activity 4: Timeline Connections
Explain to students that they will be conducting research into the ways the Chesapeake Bay has served as a major resource for productivity, population growth, and economic development in the region for centuries, and how that growth has affected, and created drastic problems for, the bay and its watershed.
Divide the class into groups of three or four students. Have each group select a topic upon which to conduct research and prepare a presentation, including a timeline of change specific to their theme that illustrates the relationships between people's changing uses of the watershed and its resources and the state of health of the watershed. They should also include maps and other images to illustrate their findings.
Next, allow each group time to research the issues related to the theme they've selected. Have students visit the Web sites on this listing of Chesapeake Bay Resources (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required) to gather more background information on the bay and its resources.
Tell students there will likely be overlap in the information they find, and that the goal of the project is to present a complete picture of the evolving relationship between the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the people it sustains.
Have students present their research in groups, and then lead a discussion about how the various themes are intertwined. Ask students to reflect upon how the history of the Chesapeake contributes to its stability, and how the health of the watershed and bay contributes to its potential history. Have students present their findings either in a whole class discussion or through a jigsaw approach.
Closing:
A Model for Change
Have students consider the future prospects of the Chesapeake Bay by using the information they gathered in their reports to make predictions about the bay relevant to their themes (e.g., population, economics, etc.). Students should consider how the patterns of change are most likely to continue into the future and provide their rationale. Have students display these forecasts by adding future segments onto their "timelines of change" for the Chesapeake Bay for the next 100 years, being sure to include illustrations showing how this pattern of change will likely impact the watershed's health.
Next, have students research some of the action projects underway in the Chesapeake Bay and amend their timelines in a different color with ways in which such action projects might alter the current course of the bay. Have students share their timelines.
Making Local Connections
Have students research their local communities for watershed and/or other environmental issues. Have students look for maps of and information about their communities' histories to determine what has changed and why. Encourage them to consider factors such as the economy, population changes, resource use, and historical events that both contributed to and resulted from those changes.
As they did in their research on the Chesapeake Bay, have students select one theme (e.g., cultures and lifestyles, transportation, housing and urban development, economy, etc.) that has directly affected and been affected by changes over time in their local watershed. Then have students create a class book that illustrates the relationships between their community's uses of the watershed and its resources and the state of health of the watershed. See the Related Links section for some suggested Web sites for student research.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Just as students did in Activity 4 and A Model for Change, have students illustrate their predictions about what may happen to their local watershed in the next 100 years. Predictions should reflect an understanding of how past or current land use affects the future of that land and should include any anticipated action plans that would be necessary to ensure the successful growth and pattern of change. The following Web sites will help students to conduct their research and to gather action plan ideas:
Adopt Your Watershed
Adopt-A-Watershed
15 Things You Can Do to Make a Difference in Your Watershed
Extending the Lesson:
- Have students use these articles to read about the history of Smith Island's population declines and what some people see as a potential future of ecotourism:
Smith Island Demographic and Economic Analyses
Looking Toward a Reincarnation
Have students discuss the issues and express an opinion as to whether they would leave the island or stay to build its future.
- Help students access John Smith's 1612 Map of Virginia, available on the Captain John Smith 400 Project Web site. If Internet access is not available, distribute printed copies of the map. Spend some time discussing aspects of the John Smith map. Explain to students that John Smith created the map from notes and observations he made while traveling through the region in a small boat called a shallop. Ask students to reflect on the design of the map, and how accurate the map appears to be compared to the National Geographic's Exploring the Chesapeake—Now map they reviewed. What similarities and differences can they find between the maps?
- Have students further investigate Captain John Smith's explorations of the Chesapeake Bay and then compare and contrast the native settlements he and his crew documented with the new colony he helped establish at Jamestown. How did the colonists settlement on, use, and value of the Chesapeake compare to that of the Native Americans? In addition to the Exploring the Chesapeake—Then tour, there is also a page of additional resource links to get students started.
- Join teachers participating in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Chesapeake Classrooms to share classroom resources, lesson and unit plans, current watershed information, and best practices. The program online is part of National Geographic's EdNet communities for educators.
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