Extreme Environments: Integrated Middle School Science and ELA Debate Activity

Extreme Environments: Integrated Middle School Science and ELA Debate Activity

This assignment is a great way to integrate earth science learning and the English language arts skills of speaking and listening. Students think of relevant reasons for and against humans exploring extreme environments such as the desert, space, and the deep ocean.

How to Use:

You can split your class into “for” and “against” before they brainstorm and research or afterwards (depending on if you want them to gather information for both sides or not). Then, you can have an informal class debate/discussion with students from each side presenting ideas and rebuttals. Finally, students sum up their personal thoughts in a paragraph. Will they side with what they presented, or will they be swayed by the other side's points?

Student Instructions:

Extreme environments like the deep ocean, space, volcanoes, and the arctic are full of wonderful sights and discoveries. However, there are downsides to allowing humans to explore these locations. Brainstorm and research reasons for and against allowing human exploration in extreme environments.

Grades to Use With:

This lesson is designed for students in the middle grades (5-8) who are studying extreme environments or space in earth science or science class. It could also be used in English class to target speaking and listening learning standards. Finally, it could be used in high school special education classrooms as well.

What's Included:

3 Page PDF that is ready to print!

1) Title Page and Teacher Instructions

2) Graphic Organizer for Note Taking and Research

3) Paragraph Response Prompt

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