Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms

Project Based Learning Unit Plan - Template

School Type: Public Middle School

Subject: STEM

Grade Level: 7th - 8th

Project Title: Coastal Erosion

Project Concept
Driving Question Project Summary/Big Idea

Has the shoreline changed in the past and is it 1. Students consider their local beach: what we
changing now? How and why? know, what our kūpunas (elders) can teach us in
a coastal erosion Indigenous cultural experience.
2. Students conduct beach profiles surveys.
3. Students use a wave table to dig deeper
through investigation, explorations, art, stories,
experimentation, and modeling
4. Students enact culminating written and spoken
performances.

Subject Content and Interdisciplinary Connections

Ocean currents
Human impact to the environment
Climate change
Erosion
Earth cycles
Weather
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (Goal 6, 13, 14, 15)
The 3 Whys
Geography
Cause and effect
System and system models
Patterns
Stability and change
Using models

Adapted from Fairfax County Public Schools and Buck Institute for Education bie.org
Analyzing and interpreting data
Using mathematics and computational thinking
Global Competencies

Investigate the world beyond Hawaii by exploring the effects of coastal erosion from other places. To
illustrate that we are from different places, but we are still one ocean.
Communicate ideas with fellow students via social media and p4c discussion.
Take action by creating awareness of coastal erosion. Students will complete a call to action by
participating in a field trip to assist with coastal restoration projects at a nearby beach.
Learning/Curriculum Standards

MS-ESS2-2 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed
Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.
MS-EES3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and
inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing human
impact on the environment.
MS-PS4-1 Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how
the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
MS-PS4-2 Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted
through various materials.
CCSS 7.SP Investigate chance processes and develop, use, and evaluate probability models
CCSS 8.F Use functions to model relationships between quantities.
MS-ETS1-1 Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure
a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people
and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
MS-ETS1-2 Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well
they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
CCSS 8.SP Investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.
CCSS 7.EE Solve real-life math problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations.

Authentic Product and Audience

Students will share their outreach plan of what they learned via slide presentation, newsletter, or
story map. They will listen to each other’s education presentations and connect with students in
Alaska to hear what they have to share about their coastline, impacts, and outreach plan. Finally, the
class will reflect on what they have learned and share how their stories, kupuna stories, and science
help them, and their community, consider how to live with the changing coastline in the years to
come.

Students will participate in coastal restoration project in their community.

Project Management
Project Timeframe and Milestones (how many class periods/weeks is this PBL?)

Week 1 - 2 – Record, gather and organize information from your own experiences and kūpunas stories

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Adapted from Fairfax County Public Schools and Buck Institute for Education bie.org
to begin to understand more about the natural and human driven changes that beaches undergo.

Week 3 – Explore ways to measure the beach and figure out how the beach might be changing over
time.

Week 4 – Explore what causes a beach to change over time.

Week 5 – Consider different perspectives in our community concerning the beach and what, if
anything, should be done about the changes that are happening to our beach.

Week 6 – Field trip to a beach to complete coastal restoration.

What will Students Need to Know and How will they Get to Know Them?

What perspectives do different community members, including kūpunas, have about our beach and
our community’s relationship with the beach?

How can we measure the beach and how the beach is changing over time?

What is causing our beach to change?

What should people in our community know as they consider what, if anything, should be done about
changes happening to our beach?

SDG (Goal 6, 13, 14, 15)

The 3 Whys (Why might coastal erosion matter to me? Why might it matter to people around me?
Why might it matter to the world?)

Authentic Performance Based Assessment

Students complete the bulk of the assessments on Concord Consortium website and will receive
feedback.

Students will receive feedback from the teacher, each other, and the Native Alaskan students.

Philosophy for Children (p4c) reflection. The Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education
(p4chawaii.org)

Differentiation and Scaffolds

Concord Consortium website, students can upload response via text, audio, and visual.

Students will work in small groups.

Audio and visual learning and assessments.

Hands-on labs.

Resources

Concord Consortium – Revolutionary digital learning for science, math, and engineering

Articles and videos embedded throughout the lessons

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Adapted from Fairfax County Public Schools and Buck Institute for Education bie.org
Wave tank

Emery method (beach profiling)

Kapa stamps Art in Practice: Printmaking Activity Kapa Stamping - YouTube

Computer

Project Kick-Off and Building Background Knowledge

Students create a native Hawaiian ti leaf lei to set the mood that this will be an indigenous
perspective on coastal erosion. How To Make a Ti Leaf Lei - YouTube
For unit - Your Beach, students are asked to access their knowledge and share their stories,
experiences, and understanding of changes that are happening at their local beach.
Has the shoreline changed in the past and is it changing now? How and why?

Building Background Knowledge

Students consider their local beach: what we know, what our kūpunas can teach us in a coastal
erosion Indigenous cultural experience.
Students conduct beach profiles using a simulation and then build a classroom size model. This
introduces relevant Western science and an opportunity to compare and to contrast Indigenous and
Western perspectives. Students predict the future of the beach/coastal erosion.
Students use a wave table to dig deeper through investigation, explorations, art, stories,
experimentation, and modeling.
Students enact culminating written and spoken performances.
Students will communicate and expand on what they need to know for successful project completion.

Project Development Outline

Week 1 – 2 – Record, gather and organize information from your own experiences and kūpunas
stories to begin to understand more about the natural and human driven changes that beaches
undergo.

Learning Objectives
 Describe and record information about your beach from your personal experience.
 Describe how changes in the coastline may impact life in your community.
 Describe how kūpunas in your community view changes to your beach. 

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Adapted from Fairfax County Public Schools and Buck Institute for Education bie.org
  Compare how your stories and those of your kūpunas are similar and different.
 Create and share your story about your beach using a storytelling practice of your choice.
 Reflect on what you have learned from sharing your story and listening to other students’
stories.

Week 3 – Explore ways to measure the beach and figure out how the beach might be changing over
time.
Learning Objectives
 Compare different approaches for examining how the shape and structure of beaches change
over time.
 Use a computer simulation version of the Emery Method to collect and to record beach
elevation data.
 Collect, analyze, and represent data to show and explain how the shape of a beach changes
over time. 
 Explain how creating multiple beach profiles that span over time can serve as a helpful
monitoring tool.
 Use beach profile data to create a cardboard model of the surface of the beach.

Week 4 – Explore what causes a beach to change over time.

Learning Objectives
 Name and define wave properties including crest, trough, amplitude, wavelength, and
frequency.
 Explain what happens when a wave meets an obstacle.
 Describe different patterns that waves make when they meet a beach.
 Explain and predict what happens when waves meet different shaped beaches.
 Notice patterns in changes to beach profiles caused by different waves. 
 Create rules to summarize the patterns you have noticed.
 Explain how and why waves and different conditions (such as sea level rise and large storms)
are changing the shape of your beach over time.

Week 5 – Consider different perspectives in our community concerning the beach and what, if
anything, should be done about the changes that are happening to our beach.

Learning Objectives
 Discuss recent news of coastal erosion happening in your state and the world.
 Understand impacts of powerful storms.
 Understand different adaptations that other communities have used. Why might it matter to
the world?
 Present a coastal change education project (such as a newsletter, slide presentation, or story
map) to your classmates and other community members.
 Reflect on what you learned from your classmates’ plans and plans from students in Alaska.
 Reflect on the many different ideas, views, and opinions that were shared with you and how
they might be helpful for your community.
 Reflect on how your own ideas and abilities have grown over the course of the unit
 Link Coastal Erosion to the SDG
 Reflect on the 3 Whys

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Adapted from Fairfax County Public Schools and Buck Institute for Education bie.org
Week 6 – Field trip to a beach to complete coastal restoration and learn about the ecosystem.
Working with Bellows Airforce Base Environmental Management to assist in their restoration projects
at Bellows Beach. Environmental Management — Bellows Air Force Station (bellowsafs.com) Bellows
AFB will offers my students the chance to visit the Pu‘ewai Wetland and the Hawaiian burial vault, to
remove invasive shrub and plant native flora. The students will learn about wetland ecology,
endangered Hawaiian water birds, and native plants.

Authentic Audiences
Student Connection with Authentic Audiences

Students will complete a galley walk of their work. Each student will complete a 3-2-1 on another
students work. Engagement and feedback from the Alaskan students.

Student Reflection
How will students reflect on their growth and learning after the project?
p4c

Feedback from others

Presenting their coastal change education project to the class and other community members.

Teacher Reflection
(To be completed after the project)

What am I proud of from the project? Describe a highlight moment.

How did my students grow during the project (think about core content, global competence and
personal growth)?

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Adapted from Fairfax County Public Schools and Buck Institute for Education bie.org
What would I change or improve for next time?

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Adapted from Fairfax County Public Schools and Buck Institute for Education bie.org