# data[].attributes.body
As an English teacher, my occasions to draw on nature in my lessons are somewhat limited - but the Transcendentalists, Thoreau and Emerson, both speak to a need for us to return to simplicity and leave the civilized world behind. We usually read sections of Walden and Nature and I have them go through a chart of modern issues, asking students to support with textual evidence how each writer would feel about this issue if he were alive today. In order to make this study more inquiry-based and student-centered, I might remodel it to allow the students to come up with the modern issues themselves - forces that hinder or limit our interaction with nature. Perhaps groups could share the issues they've generated with a neighboring group, and they could work together on supporting each issue with textual evidence.

# data[].attributes.body
I let the students create an over-sized Jenga block (cut from 2 X 4's at our local votech center). Each student will choose a creature from the bay. They use the block to paint a picture of the creature, write its scientific name. Create a question and add a "fun fact" about their creature. I did this for several years and have quite a collection of "blocks". The rules are a little different as each student must answer the question correctly or put the block back in the stack. The biggest problem has been that some students wrote really specific questions, like "how much did the biggest rockfish weigh?" not the question I really wanted. I would like to improve this activity to require a little more research without being off-putting to others. The kids really love the game and used to come and get it to play in other classes! (pre-pandemic)

# data[].attributes.body
I'm thinking of using the open ended question, "How has urbanization impacted our school grounds?" I would provide a guided tour of our school property. I would ask students to come up with a list of potential issues related to urbanization (storm water runoff, invasive species, lack of biodiversity, etc). Students would have an open discussion about the issues that they saw and rate them based on level of environmental, social, & economic importance. Students would then need to form groups and create an experiment to investigate their topic of choice. After approval, students would carry out the experiment, analyze the results, and propose a solution to the issue. Students could present their results to the class, perhaps even to the school board for a future project.

# data[].attributes.body
Students explore the phenomenon of flooding by analyzing data related to  flooding in Ellicott City, Maryland. Students then construct an explanation of the potential impacts of the flood on people. The lesson provides students with the opportunity to observe what exactly happened when the city flooded, but then allows them to develop an action plan to prevent future flooding disasters. I believe allowing students to develop their own systems as opposed to finding systems already created is a great start. Students can create mock designs and test them to see their impact. We also could use an erosion table to help support testing of their ideas.

# data[].attributes.body
In our ecosystems unit, I take my class behind our school where we have a forested area. They take a field guide and identify plants that are invasive species. Perhaps to make this more student centered, we could talk about invasive species in our area and have them focus on one that is in our backyard and come up with a plan to bring awareness to our school community and how to control it.

# data[].attributes.body
I tell a story about ecosystems where I describe the process of an ocean ecosystem. Although this story can be a good way to begin, I would like to add follow-up work where we ask a question about the ecosystem of our school campus, county, or state. I believe this could lead to a lot of student exploration and discoveries about interconnections of life in our local area.

# data[].attributes.body
Currently in Oceanography we do a heat capacity lab where students compare the heat capacity of 3 different substances (freshwater, salt water, veg oil). They enjoy the lab because it is hands-on, but it's very cookbook. To revamp this lab I would give students the driving question - 'how does the heat capacity of salt water compare to other substances', and maybe have the students design & then complete their own lab. I feel like I would need to scaffold this process - I imagine a lot of blank looks as we venture into inquiry-based learning! If anyone has suggestions for revising the lab to more inquiry based I am open to ideas!