Unit Topic: The Galapagos Islands
Grade Level: Middle School
Basic Concepts: Interaction, Categorizing
Content Areas: Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Time: 1 hour
Objectives
Phase 1: The teacher will direct students to find a comfortable place in the classroom. The class will be taking a mental field trip. The teacher will then lead the class in a meditation. (See the following meditation.)
Materials: meditation
Activity 2
Phase 1: The class will be divided into three groups. Each group will create a concept web around one of the following topics: oceans, islands, or how humans depend on/interact with the environment. A large piece of paper will be provided; students will need to clear an area to work in. Each group should complete a webbing around their topic, filling in as many details as possible. There are no limitations to what students can write. They are merely being asked to recall their background knowledge, if any, about the topic they have been given.
It may be a good idea to model the process of creating a concept web. For example, use the subject fish. Write "fish" in large letters in the center of the chalkboard and draw a circle around it. Ask students what they know about fish. Write these details as branches coming off of the large central circle.
Materials: large paper, markers, space in which to work, chalkboard, chalk
Phase 2: Each group will, in turn, share their web with the class. Group members should ask the rest of the class if they know of anything that could be added to the web.
Materials: none
Phase 1: Students will then be introduced to the Galapagos Islands. Where are they located? Why are they important? Why should students study them? What kinds of things will the students be doing during this unit? They will watch the opening segment of the video Galapagos Beyond Darwin. (Running time approximately 14 minutes.)
Teacher Note: Please see the following page "Overview of the Galapagos Islands." For more information about why the islands are important to study and what students will be doing during this unit, please refer to the introduction and table of contents.
Materials: world map, map of the Galapagos Islands, video, "Overview of the Galapagos Islands"
Assessment: The teacher will observe each student's participation and cooperation with their group members during the webbing activity. See the following observational rubric. A successful student will obtain all four's on the rubric.
Extensions:
1. Students may
want to do a brief search on the Internet to locate web sites that may be of
interest during this unit.
2. The teacher could
introduce the concept of latitude and longitude when discussing where the Galapagos
Islands are located.
Resources:
Meditation from: Council for Environmental Education. (1992). Project Wild Aquatic Education Activity Guide. Bethesda, MD: Author.
Video: Clark, D. & Giddings, A. (Producers and Directors). (1996). Galapagos beyond Darwin [Film]. Available from Discovery Channel Video.
Galapagos Overview: *Ecuadortours. (2-16-98). The Galapagos Islands. [On-line].
Other Suggested Resources (* denotes "youth-friendly"):
*Bramwell, M. (1987). The Oceans. London: Franklin Watts. [0-531-10356-0]
-Introduces young readers to the oceans. With full-color photos and detailed diagrams.
*Charles Darwin Research Station. (2-20-98). Charles Darwin Research Station. [On-line]. Available Internet:
www.polaris.net/~jpinson/welcome.html.
-Info about islands, issues affecting the Galapagos, what it's like to work at the Station, scientific
reports, and conservation. Many (but not all) of the sites within the page are youth-friendly.
*International Galapagos Tour Operators Association. (1-10-98). The Galapagos Islands: A world heritage site.
[On-line]. Available Internet: www.igtoa.org/galapgs.htm.
-Includes pictures, links, specific information about the islands, issues, references, climate, and National
Park Rules.
*Interpretation International. (2-16-98). Discover Galapagos. [On-line]. Available Internet:
www.discovergalapagos.com.
-A tour company's home page. Begins with legend of the Galapagos. Leads into links about specific tours
or general information about the islands.
Kawashima, H. (March 21, 1998). 7 days of Galapagos. [On-line]. Available Internet:
www.bekkoame.or.jp/~hirokawa/
-Traveler's log of a 7-day journey through the Galapagos. Includes pictures and a map of the Islands.
Menard, H.W. (1986). Islands. New York: Scientific American Books. [0-7167-5017-1]
-Deals with the birth, evolution, and death of oceanic islands. Concentrates on processes of plate tectonics.
Fairly technical language. Many full-color illustrations and diagrams.
"You are to try to imagine the things you will hear me describing. Sit comfortably and close your eyes. . . Relax,
and do your best to picture what I am describing . . . You are sitting on the edge of a stream (lake, ocean, etc.). . .
Your bare feet are swinging in clean, clear water. . . The water feels good, but it is cool . . . You feel a current
washing over your feet, pulling at them . . . Think about the water flowing past your feet until it reaches a larger
stream . . . The water connects you with the larger stream . . . Feel its more powerful flow . . . See the green
ribbon of trees and plant life on the banks. . . The larger stream carries the water past flat farmlands, cities,
factories and forests until it eventually reaches the sea . . . Through your feet and the continuous currents of water
you can sense the sea . . . Now stretch your mind and realize that you interconnect with all the world's oceans . . .
You are now touching one single body of water that stretches all around the world . . . Your own body contains
water that is part of this system . . . Your touch laps against the shores of the Pacific Ocean, it flows under the
Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco's bay, it leaps and plunges around oil drilling platforms in the North Atlantic . .
It pours from the sky as a storm rages dark and gray . . . It drenches an Alaskan native who shivers on the Arctic
shores before her parka begins to warm her . . . It glistens on the back of a Greek boy who tugs fiercely on fishing
nets in the warm Mediterranean Sea . . . Water connects your feet with every stream flowing into the oceans
around the world . . . You can reach up the rivers to the hearts of continents . . . You can feel the tremor of the
hippopotamus that just dove into an African river . . . You can feel an alligator silently sliding toward a heron in the
Florida Everglades . . . You can feel beavers busily building a dam on a stream in Europe . . . You can see water,
thousands of tons of it, in great drifting fleets of heavy white clouds . . . Your reach embraces all the whales, all
the porpoises, all the sharks . . . You are connected with the mythic creatures, living only in the minds of people in
the past--mermaids, citizens of Atlantis, and the mythic monsters that swim in the Loch Ness . . . Your feet feel
the flow of the current of the miles-wide Amazon River in South America, the ancient Nile River pushing north
through Africa, the Colorado River thundering with a boat full of river rafters through the Grand Canyon . . . Your
watery embrace wraps all around the Earth . . . And, of course, the water flowing over your feet connects you
with everyone else who is now sitting, with feet dangling in a stream, wondering where the water goes . . . It is
time to come back . . . Bring the limits of your senses back from the world's rivers and oceans . . . back to the
surfaces of your feet . . . back to where you are . . . When you feel ready, you may open your eyes."
Council for Environmental Education. (1992). Project Wild Aquatic Education
Activity Guide. Bethesda, MD: Author.
Overview
of the Galapagos Islands 
"To discover the Galapagos Islands is to discover nature in its purest state. So pure, in fact, that it led the young English naturalist Charles Darwin, who visited the islands in 1835, to write "The Origin of Species" . . . and the world has not been the same since.
Located 622 miles off Ecuador's Pacific coast, this mysterious and fascinating archipelago is comprised of 13 large islands, six smaller ones and over 40 islets. Together they cover 2, 938 sq.. Miles. Most are south of the Equator where several marine currents converge. Thus, all of the elements were in place to create this zoological, geological, and botanical wonder.
The islands emerged from the Pacific some three to five million years ago as the result of underwater volcanic eruptions. It is the lava formations and volcanic rock that give the tourist an eerie "other world" feeling when seeing the islands.
Through the evolutionary process, climate, ocean currents, and the comparative lack of predatory enemies--including man--the Galapagos became one of the strangest and most compelling places on our planet. Flora and fauna, arriving on different "routes" across the waters from the mainland, colonized the original Galapagos lava beds."
Excerpt from: *Ecuadortours. (2-16-98). The Galapagos Islands. [On-line]. Available Internet: www.ecuadortours.com/i_galapagos.html.
