Human activity can affect the water cycle. Why is the water cycle so important for the balance of ecosystems? Students build a terrarium with small house plants, soil, charcoal and gravel. They decorate it with personal elements like rocks, pieces of wood, creating a mini landscape.

Using design thinking concepts (documentation, sketching ideas, refining ideas, prototyping), this exercise introduces the students to the importance of water on Earth and to graphic design basic techniques. What are the places where there is water on Earth? What are the uses of water? Students translate words about water into simple images, made of a few lines, using contrasts, positive and negative space.

How can things I am doing at home can have an impact on the quality of the water and the health of the wildlife in the watershed where I live? How can I graphically express an idea with simple means? How does the different placement of the different elements (message, explanation, image) change the perception the viewer has of the overall image? Students work individually to create a unique digital poster about the watershed conservation, using a tablet and Pic Collage.

Students learn about the impact of human activities on marine species, and the major threats marine species are facing: overfishing/unsustainable fishing, inadequate protection (not enough sanctuaries), tourism and development, ship strikes, oil and gas pollution, consequences of aquaculture (pollution), climate change (change in ocean temperatures). They learn how to draw a recognizable shape to create a silhouette. They explore simple circuitry by constructing a simple circuit, with LED, battery, conductive tape, and a switch system.

Telling a story about human impact on the ocean with a show puppet theater and documenting the story with a tablet to make a short video (01:00 – 02:00 min.). In small groups, students research aspects of human impact on the ocean, like overfishing, fishing techniques that damage the seafloor, by-catch (whales, sea turtles, sharks, birds), invasive species, tourism damage, plastic pollution. What makes a story a story? and How are we going to tell the story with shadow puppets? Students create a scenario, and write a simple storyboard. They make the props (with construction paper, skewers, and tape), using precise documentation for their shapes (fish, shark, turtles, fishing boats, coral, etc.). Students rehearse, present, revise and present again. They videotape and edit their video afterwards, adding title and credits.

From getting stuck in nets to eating plastic that they think is food, creatures worldwide are dying from material we made. Plastic is a plague and we need to make decisions in our life to try not to use plastic when we can, for example with single use plastic bottles, straws, plastic cups at the coffee store, plastic containers at the take-away. Using plastic bottles collected in recycled bins, students make a jellyfish lit with an LED. Turn off the light and the ensemble makes a school of jellyfish floating in the darkness of the classroom.

Students create elements for a collective mural representing an ensemble of enlarged plankton organisms. Why is plankton so important? Why should we care about it? Why should we take the time to create a mural that is a tribute to it?