This interactive resource allows students to track polar bears in Hudson Bay as they hunt on the winter ice and are sent back to land by melting summer ice.
Students will learn about polar bears' patterns, the ice they use to hunt in winter, the research projects happening to help them, and how to get involved in polar bear conservation.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This resource is interactive and engaging for students.
The included slides are incredibly informative and feature teacher notes for presenting to students.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have basic knowledge of polar bears and their habitat.
Differentiation
This resource would work equally well in a science class thinking about habitats and patterns of movement or in a social studies class working on geography and mapping.
For a long-term project, have small groups of students "adopt" a bear to track over several months. They can map the bear's movements, research additional polar bear information, calculate the distance traveled, and predict future movement based on ice.
This resource can be used for a one-session lesson or over time to track the bears over a semester or year.
Biology classes could use this interactive map to discuss how climate change is affecting plants and animals all over the world. Consider having students read this article or watch this video to extend the lesson.
Scientist Notes
This resource shows the migration pattern of polar bears and how they could be protected in their ecosystem. The technique used in tracking the bears is appropriate and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.3.6-8 Use paper-based and electronic mapping and graphing techniques to represent and analyze spatial patterns of different environmental and cultural characteristics.
D2.Geo.2.3-5 Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.10 By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
