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 interrelationships between people and places. They will then apply a similar approach to their local area. Through an examination of a timeline of change, students will make connections between present interactions with a 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.
Ask students what a visitor to their local community would find if they explored the area. Discuss the term "resources" with students. Suggest some of the resources they might find, such as lakes or rivers, and then ask students to suggest some others. Ask students to name some things they like and do not like about living in their local community. Then, ask students to think about whether things might have been different a hundred years ago. What about hundreds or even thousands of years ago?
Discuss with students how people are attracted to places because of the resources they provide, and that the ways in which people interact with and use these resources can affect the places where people live. Offer an example related to your own community. Some examples could include a local river, used to ship goods from a local industry, that has now become heavily polluted, or an animal species that is threatened due to destruction or loss of habitat. Share some pictures of your local community with students. Have volunteers name the resources shown in each picture. Ask students if they have ever visited any of these places, and how they and their families might use the resource. Ask students to think about ways the resource might change over time.
One well-documented example of this interrelationship is the Chesapeake Bay 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. The bay was the location for Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, and it has continued to the present day to play an important but changing role—culturally, economically, and environmentally—in the history of the United States. Show students the area covered by the Chesapeake Bay watershed using a map of the United States. (You may wish also to view the interactive map of the watershed found on this page of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Program Web site.) Locate or have students locate your community on the United States map. Ask students if your community is near, far away from, or part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Tell students that they will explore the history of the Chesapeake Bay, how people have used its resources, and how people have affected the watershed.
Activity 1: Introduction to the Chesapeake Bay—Then and Now
First familiarize yourself with the history of the Chesapeake Bay with these teacher resources:
Exploring the Chesapeake—Then and Now
National Geographic documentary "Voyage of Discovery"
Read Chesapeake Bay Walk, by David Owen Bell (Tidewater Publishers, 1998) to help students become familiar with the Chesapeake Bay environment. Ask students to name some of the resources provided by the Chesapeake Bay. Then ask students if they think those resources were there 100 or 1000 years ago. What do they think the Chesapeake Bay was like in the past?
To help students visualize what life may have been like in the Chesapeake Bay's past, share some of the images contained in the Jamestown Settlement Resource Packet (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required) found on the History is Fun Web site. Explain how Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay watershed and started the Jamestown settlement. How do they think people have affected the resources in the Chesapeake Bay? How do they think the region was different in Captain Smith's time? Explain that as people came to live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, waters became polluted from factories and shipping. This affected people as well as the plants and animals that live on the Chesapeake Bay.
Then have students draw pictures about the Chesapeake Bay. Tell students they can draw a "then" picture, a "now" picture, or include both pictures on their page. Have them write words or sentences about their drawings and then present them to the class.
Activity 2: How Did "Then" Lead to "Now"?—A Chesapeake Timeline of Change
Now help students explore how the Chesapeake Bay has changed over time. Gather background information on the Bay's history at the following Web sites:
An interactive bay timeline
The Noblest Bay
Chesapeake Bay Timeline
About the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay History
Bay Plain and Piedmont: A Landscape History of the Chesapeake Heartland from 1.3 Billion Years Ago to 2000
From your research, identify 10–15 key events in the Chesapeake Bay's history, and record each one on a 9x12 sheet of poster paper. (Use fewer events for younger students, and more events for older students.) These sheets will each be an event on a timeline. List these same key events, in order, on a piece of lined chart paper. Read through the events recorded on the list, and discuss each event. Locate appropriate pictures for each event and show them to students as you move through the list of events.
Then pass out the timeline events (9x12 sheets) to students or pairs of students, so that each student is holding or helping to hold a card. Have students look at the list of timeline events, and then arrange themselves in order according to list of events. For younger students, you may want to number the events on the list, and then place matching numbers on the board under which students can stand.
Then ask students to predict how changes to the Chesapeake Bay might continue into the future.
Activity 3: A Community Case Study
First gather background information on the Smith Island community, which has been inextricably linked to the Chesapeake Bay as far back as John Smith's time. Visit these Web sites:
Smith Island
National Geographic News: The Case of the Vanishing Islands
Martin National Wildlife Refuge
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Baltimore District Report Smith Island, Maryland Environmental Restoration and Protection Project
Then introduce students to Smith Island by reading On an Island in the Bay, by Patricia Mills (North South Books, 1994) and The Private World of Smith Island, by Sally Foster (Dutton Juvenile, 1993). After reading these books together, discuss the following questions:
- What are the people of Smith Island like?
- How do these people depend upon the Chesapeake Bay?
- How has the bay influenced the community? (culture, economics, and history)
- What is one current threat to the community?
Explain to students that the Smith Island ecosystem is home to many animal species, which are affected by the humans who live there. Tell students that people are working to preserve the Smith Island marshes, grasses, and woods that provide homes for animals such as ospreys, ducks, otters, foxes, crabs, and oysters. Preventing erosion and restoring the marshes are keys to restoring the area.
Share images of some creatures that call the Chesapeake Bay home from the Chesapeake Bay Program's Bay Safari. Some additional pictures of the watershed region can be found in the Virginia Department of Education's Watershed Gallery.
Have students create posters depicting one or more of Smith Island's animal inhabitants, creatures who depend on the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Students should be sure to label their posters—younger students can label animal names, while older students can write sentences that describe the animal and its habitat. Students can use coloring book blacklines to cut and glue on to their posters.
Activity 4: Timeline Connections
Discuss with students how the resources provided by the Chesapeake Bay have affected the area over time, and that growth and development have created drastic problems for the bay and its watershed.
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.
Have students brainstorm a list of all the creatures that live on the Chesapeake Bay. How do these creatures use the bay? (Answers might include: a place to live, nesting, or food.) Then ask students to name some of the ways people use the bay's resources today. Possible answers should include:
- recreation, such as boating and fishing;
- industries and factories;
- businesses such as boat tours and fishing; and
- water for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, etc.
Make a list of students' answers on the board. Then ask students to consider each use of the bay on the list—and whether they think the bay was used for that purpose in Captain John Smith's time. Ask students if they think any of the uses on the list may have a negative effect on the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Then explain to students that people's interactions with the Chesapeake Bay have had serious effects on the health of the watershed. Boats and factories have caused pollution that affects the quality of the water for people as well as the animals living there. Then ask students to think about the possible future of the Chesapeake Bay.
Finally, have each student select one of the uses of the bay listed on the board, and then draw a picture showing how interaction between people and the environment has affected that resource. For instance, a student may choose to show the effects of industry on the bay by drawing a picture of clear water, and then polluted water with a factory in the background.
Activity 5: A Model for Change
Have students think again about the possible future health of the Chesapeake. Discuss with students some of the efforts being made to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay and have them think about how these action projects may alter the bay's possible future. Read about the Chesapeake Bay restoration beforehand and then share material that is appropriate to the level of your students. Then, have students create "get-well cards" for the bay. Have each student identify one health concern of the bay and create a card depicting and describing how the bay can heal. Students should use a combination of text and drawings in their cards.
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