• Prompt your students in discussing and sharing their knowledge about erosion in Tuktoyaktuk. 

• You can show them the three photos above, and/or you can find many more photos online.

• Prompt students to share what they know about erosion, thawing permafrost and the connections to climate change. 

• Alternatively, and depending on the time of year, you can take the students on a walk to the point where they can observe the shoreline and concrete barriers.

• You can also show them the Tuk TV trailer, these are high school students from Tuktoyaktuk. 

• You can use a thinking routine such as "See Think Wonder" or "The Siqiniq" to support students in organizing their prior knowledge, questions, wonders and curiosities. 

• As you co-create your learning wall with your students, you are strongly encouraged to include some maps and local erosion photos from Tuk.

• As you co-create the essential question, students may explore: their roles and responsibilities in protecting Tuk landscapes, the inter-relationships between land, people and animals, the impacts of climate change and erosion, and renewable and non-renewable resources in the NWT. 

• There are many people in our community who can share their knowledge, expertise and experiences with your students. You can invite them in at any stage of your inquiry journey. You can also reach out the the youth of Tuk TV. 

• Invite a local community member, such as Noe Cockney, who can share their knowledge and their experiences with having to relocate their homes from the point due to erosion. 

• You are also encouraged to connect with some local inter-agencies such as: The Hamlet, TCC and HTC. 

• What do you know about erosion?

• What do you think causes erosion?

• How does erosion happen?

• How might coastal erosion be different than other types of erosion?

• How is erosion connected to climate change?

• How is erosion recorded? What tools are used?

• How has erosion impacted our community and people?

• What other impacts might erosion have?

• How could erosion impact the animals?

• Who in our community can help guide our learning and research? Who can we learn from? 

• What are some potential erosion mitigations?

• What can we do to help our community? 

• How did the Tuk high school students help our community? What can we learn from them? 

• Provide your learners with some sentence stems and the vocabulary relevant to coastal erosion (weathering, erosion, mitigations, deposition, sediments, abrasion, ice wedging...)

• You can include photos and diagrams to go with the vocabulary words.

• You can play vocabulary games with your learners, there is an online interactive one below. 

• Use an oracy strategy such as ABC Summary to support the activation of student schema. 

Mining Matters 

• Mining Matters is a charitable organization that offers free Earth Science webinars, training and outreach programs

• Once you have set up your session, they will mail you and your students any materials required for the virtual webinar (rocs, minerals, maps...)

• Prior to your class webinar, you may want to have your students come up with some questions and/or identify the questions you already have on your learning wall that can be asked to the Earth Scientists. 

• During the presentation, you are encouraged to either record or take notes so that you can scaffold your students in updating the learning wall. 

Rocks and Minerals

• During your science block, you can set up various rocks and minerals centres for your students to rotate through. 

• They can learn more about the rock cycle, different rock types and minerals.

• You can set up different rock testing such as: the hardness test, color streak test, magnetism, acidity and naming. 

Cookie Weathering and Erosion

• This is a fun little experiment that students can do in pairs. 

• Encourage students to make predictions about how weathering, wind, water and rain cause erosion. 

• Any new knowledge can be added to the learning wall. 

Renewable and non-renewable energy in the NWT

• The GNWT website has many resources available that provide more information on NWT's resources. 

• Encourage students to consider and investigate how energy such as solar and wind, may be different in the Arctic. 

• Your students can do some research and even ask these questions to Mining Matters. Alternatively, you can reach out to some local community members who have solar panels. 

• If your students are interested in learning more about renewable energy, you can turn this into a research report of sorts where students work in pairs to investigate a renewable resource in the NWT. 

• Work with your students to co-create a list of success criteria, identifying what information is required to create a research report. 

• You can show them an exemplar and work together to assess the exemplar against the class created success criteria.

• Alternatively, you can even use an AI tool such as Canva Magic Design to create an AI generated report for your learners to assess. 

• Your learners are welcome to demonstrate their learning in any format.

• Discuss with your learners how they could share what they have learned with others (other grades, community members and their families...) 

• What do you already know about rocks and minerals?

• Why do you think minerals have different properties, colors and shapes?

• What do you know about mining in the NWT? 

• What are your thoughts on mining and the environment? 

• How are rocks connected to erosion?

• Who in our community can help us answer these questions?

• How can we identify rocks and minerals? What tools and tests do we need?

• I wonder how wind turbines work in the cold, dark winter months...

• I wonder how solar panels work in the cold, dark winter months...What about during summer's 24 hour daylight? 

• How is renewable energy different in the arctic?

• What are some potential challenges? What are some potential positives? 

• How does renewable energy help our planet?

• What do you know about non-renewable resources?

• In your learning, what has surprised you?

• How can we share our learning with our community? What are you most excited to share?

• How does our learning make us more capable? 

• Mining Matters will send you all required materials. 

• To support these lessons, you are encouraged to have the scientific rock, minerals and erosion vocabulary displayed in your classroom.

• You are encouraged to assign some Gizmos lessons to your students, these are very interactive and come with editable worksheets that you can modify to suit your students' needs. Additionally, they are very useful if your school does not have a extensive supply of rocks and minerals.  

• As for assessment, your learners are invited to share their knowledge in whichever format they like (oral presentation, writing, demonstration...) 

Giant Floor Map Coastline Paradox Exploration Activity 

• You are encouraged to set the map up in your school gymnasium to allow space for your students to work through this activity. 

• This will be an open-ended math investigation for your students, and once they have had the time, space and opportunity to work through the activity, you may go onto more explicit teaching of what the coastline paradox is. 

• You can begin this investigation by telling your students that they will be working together to measure the coastline of Tuktoyaktuk. 

• You are encouraged to spend a few minutes reviewing some measurement vocabulary such as: estimation, referent, benchmark, millimeter, centimeter, meter and kilometer.  You may also review some common body benchmarks such as: thumb, hand, forearm and foot. 

• You can also provide students with the options of using math manipulatives to support their thinking. 

• The lesson sequence and structure will depend on your students. You may want to begin by having students estimate and measure using non-standard units first, then move onto standard units of measurement. You may assign a unit to each group or have them select their own. 

• Provide students with a graphic organizer that will allow them to create an estimate, determine their strategies and then record their answers. You can modify the E3 thinking routine. 

• As each pair are working together, you may circulate, check-in and prompt students' thinking and reasoning using the key questions. Take this time to address any misconceptions and support students as needed, as they transition from the planning stage to the actual measuring stage.

• Once the students have finished their work, they can take turns explaining, justifying and demonstrating how they measured the Tuk coastline. 

• You can repeat this with the students now using standard units of measurement. They will be using measurement tools to measure in mm, cm and m. 

• To consolidate the lesson, you can summarize what has been observed and learned. You may use a thinking routine such as: I used to think...now I think. 

• Now you can tell your students that this phenomenon is called "The Coastline Paradox". You can use some videos from YouTube to support students' comprehension. 

• If your students are interested in learning more, you may scaffold them through the extension challenges. 

Extension Challenges

• Your learners are invited to find the fractal dimensions of shapes using box counting, calculators and grid paper.

• In the second extension, your learners will be using Euclidean geometry and its properties in order to find the perimeters of pieces of papers they have torn up. 

•  In the third extension, your learners will be drawing lines and squares to calculate the dimension of a fractal. 

• Although complex, these lessons can be adapted and scaffolded for your learners. 

Ancient Egyptian Royal Cubit

• If your students are intrigued by and interested in learning more about the origins of familiar body benchmarks such as the cubit, you can invite them to learn more about the history and stories behind them. 

• As an extension, your learners are invited to create their own measurement ruler. 

Consolidation

• To consolidate learning, you can play the video for your students and dive deeper into the changing coastline of Tuk, the data and measurements and how the coastline paradox connects to erosion. 

• How long is a coastline? 

• What tools do we need to estimate and measure the coastline of Tuk?

• Harbors, coves, inlets, islands, tides...considering the properties of a coastline, how might these affect our measurement? 

• How could we end up with different results?

• What referents and/or benchmarks would be most appropriate? Why?

• What standard unit of measurement would be most appropriate? Why? 

• How could erosion affect our measurement? 

• What about geologic and human activity? 

• How could the season and/or time of the year affect the measurement? 

• What estimation strategy are you using? Can you explain why? 

• How does your plan demonstrate your strategy?

• Did you use any manipulatives to support your thinking? Why or why not? 

• I wonder if you explored other strategies first before selecting this one...

• Can you describe each step of your measurement process? 

• Have any of your peers selected a similar strategy? How do you know?

• What challenges did you face? How did you overcome them? 

• What surprised you during this activity? 

• What is something you are proud of? 

• How do these skills make us more capable? 

• Multi-modal display of estimation and measurement strategies and vocabulary

• Student/Teacher conferencing

• Manipulatives are provided (gird paper, multilinks, rulers, calculators...) 

• Technological support such as Google Maps

• You can either provide your students with some news articles, or have them do some research of their own. 

• You may incorporate some other non-fiction texts into your Guided Reading and focus on the components of news articles. 

• You can support your students in analyzing and responding to these texts. 

• You can also facilitate connecting your students with some community members who can help them learn more about the local impacts of erosion. 

• Your learners can work on their interview questions using the Question Matrix. 

• Expository: Students can create research reports on any of the topics covered (rocks, minerals, rock cycle, coastal erosion, coastline paradox, renewable energy). They can create presentations in Canva or Google Slides, they can create 3D models/representations, infographics, posters etc... 

• Formal letters: Students can write a letter to the mayor, MLA or Prime Minister about erosion and climate change in Tuk. Alternatively, they can write a persuasive text. 

• Class presentation: As this unit comes to an end, you are encouraged to work with your students to plan and execute a class presentation. You can invite students' families and friends, local community members, elders, the DEA and any of the guests who helped your students in their learning journey. Your learners can present their learning wall and any of the work/projects they have created over the unit. 

• Students are given the choice to select any creative/communication activity they like. 

• Allow your students the option to use Google's Text-Speech features. 

• Students are presented with the opportunity to share their work using multi-modal formats. 

• Multi- modal written expression: demonstration, play, podcast, puppet show, clay animation, stop motion, comic book, song, dance or any other ideas your students may have. 

• Your learners can work together to create a CriCut logo for t-shirts. These t-shirts can be worn during your class presentation. The photo example is from a Grade 4 erosion inquiry (Driscoll, 2022). 

• You can invite an Elder into your classroom to do some felt sewing. Your learners can share some stories of their favourite places and landscapes in Tuk, and then sew them using felt.  

• On your walks to the point, your students can collect some rocks to create their own rock art. They can also paint the rocks. 

• Invite students to create an art piece representing erosion and/or climate change. This can be open-ended and students can use any mode, material and/or technology.

• You can incorporate musical artistic expression through N'we Jinan Artists. In the video below, a group of youth from Tuk created this song and video, with the chorus focusing on the potential relocation of Tuk due to coastal erosion. 

• Your students can also explore musical expression through the Google Chrome Music Lab. 

BDDEC. (2022). ABC Summary. Oracy Strategies. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ch0x1PL24aSBTA1R5EcUceQCm2-Led-KyExTE_1TGog/edit

BDDEC. (2022).  Carousel. Oracy Strategies.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgOid09tLInxpCxlfH-jLmFg9KCLKFk-/edi

CBC Kids News. (2023). How 1 kid inspired 700 others to make artwork on climate change. https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/ottawa-girls-comic-inspires-700-works-of-art-from-kids-on-climate-change/

CBC North. (2020). Tuktoyaktuk working with feds to address climate change and eroding shoreline. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/tuktoyaktuk-climate-change-fenderal-funding-1.5644810

CBC North. (2023). Feds promise $53M to help protect Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., from shoreline erosion, climate change. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/tuktoyaktuk-erosion-infrastructure-funding-1.6920622#:~:text=North-,Feds%20promise%20%2453M%20to%20help%20protect%20Tuktoyaktuk%2C%20N.W.T.%2C%20from,climate%20change%20and%20coastal%20erosion.

Costa, B., Viera, G., & Whalen, D. (2020). The fast-changing coast of Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula (Beaufort Sea, Canada): geomorphological controls on changes between 1985 and 2020. Arctic Science Summit Week. https://www.assw.info/images/posters/Costa_Bernardo-compressed.pdf

Dennison, M. Edible Erosion, Weathering, Elementary/Middle School Science Experiment Handouts. Teachers Pay Teachers. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Edible-Erosion-Weathering-ElementaryMiddle-School-Science-Experiment-Handouts-7931363

Egyptology Lessons. (2022, Sept 22). Explaining the Royal Cubit Ruler of Ancient Egyptian Replica [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMYvwPsSvcc

ESL Games Plus. (n.d.) Weather and Erosion Science Game. https://www.eslgamesplus.com/weathering-and-erosion-science-game/

GNWT. (2023). Renewables and Alternatives. Energy. https://www.inf.gov.nt.ca/en/services/%C3%A9nergie/renewables-and-alternatives

Konczakowski. (2018). La La La Land LOL GIF. Tumblr. https://konczakowski.tumblr.com/post/170961987185

Lamberink, L. (2022). These plant, fish and bird species all have something in common — aside from the N.W.T. CBC North. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-key-biodiversity-areas-hairy-braya-1.6695317

Mason, L. (2023). Erosion and Land Planning. National STEM Cell Foundation. https://stemscholarlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Land-Planning.pdf

Math 4 Real. (n.d.) The Coastline Paradox. Math in Nature. https://math4real.weebly.com/math-in-nature.html

Micro:Bit. (2020). Make a micro: bit weather station. https://microbit.org/news/2020-07-06/make-a-microbit-weather-station/

Microsoft. (n.d.) Soil Moisture. Micro:Bit. https://makecode.microbit.org/projects/soil-moisture

Murray, W. (2019). The vanishing point: life on the edge of the melting world. The Narwhal. https://thenarwhal.ca/the-vanishing-point-life-on-the-edge-of-the-melting-world/

NASA. (2023). Interagency Sea Level Rise Scenario Tool. https://sealevel.nasa.gov/task-force-scenario-tool

Nerberg, S. (2021). Meltdown - The Permafrost that Holds the Arctic Together is Falling Apart. The Arctic Institute. https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/meltdown-permafrost-arctic-together-falling-apart/

Nwe Jinan (2023, Mar 27). N'we Jinan Artists - "DON'T GIVE UP" // Tuktoyaktuk, NWT [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_0AVTfsf28

Practical Action. (n.d.). A renewable energy STEM challenge where pupils learn about life without electricity before designing and making  a simple wind turbine suitable for pupils aged 7-19. https://practicalaction.org/schools/wind-power-challenge/

RealLifeLore. (2018, Mar 3). The Coastline Paradox Explained [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFjq8PX6F7I

Sirdeshmukh, N. (2013). Mapping Monday: The Coastline Paradox. National Geographic. https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2013/01/28/mapping-monday-the-coastline-paradox/

Spinning Scientist. (n.d.). Weathering, Erosion, Deposition sort and vocabulary cards. Teachers Pay. Teachers. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Weathering-Erosion-Deposition-sort-and-vocabulary-cards-1174792?st=9bf44d110bff38404d51978e544aab41

Thinking Pathways. (n.d). I used to think...now I think. https://thinkingpathwayz.weebly.com/iusedtothinknowithink.html

Thinking Pathways. (n.d.). See Think Wonder. https://thinkingpathwayz.weebly.com/seethinkwonder.html

Youth Climate Report. (2019, Nov. 29). Happening To Us Trailer COP25 [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFoYO-LYF4g