Names: Jocelyne Smith and Vicki Lemieux
Lesson Title: Geography of Sperm Whales
Grade Level: Fourth
Goal: For students to link In the Heart of the Sea and the distribution of sperm whales through maps.
Objectives: To be able to draw a path of a boat based on sperm whale distribution, knowing islands, continents and oceans, and knowing the Essex path. Also, understanding real life versus the book used in the lesson plan.
Skills: Use a map; know oceans, continents, islands, understand sperm whale disribution, and connecting it to the Essex voyage.
Geography Themes: movement, location, human environment interaction
Geography Standards: 1) How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
2) How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context.
8) The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on earth’s surface.
9) The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on earth’s surface.
14) How humans modify the physical environment.
Materials: power point, world map, sperm whale map, Essex voyage map
Introduction: Today we will be informing the class about sperm whale migration and how it influenced the voyage of the Essex from Nantucket. We will show the migration of the sperm whale and the voyage and you can see why they went the way they did. You will then construct your own voyage based on the migration and location of sperm whales throughout the world as you would be captain of the ship.
Procedure: Show power point, show maps, handout world map, let students draw their own map starting from Nantucket.
Evaluation: Draw the voyage on your own world map and answer the question: why would you go that way? Taking information that we have taught you today about sperm whales.