Students are introduced to a series of historical events that contributed to the development of Michigan’s ecosystems of today. Students first participate in a play in which they travel back in time; later, they take on the role of news reporters traveling through time, reporting on events and individuals that helped shape Michigan’s ecosystems.

Students answer the following two essential questions: How have Michigan ecosystems come to exist as they do today? What role have people played in shaping Michigan’s environment?

Subject/Target Grade

Science and Social Studies/

Upper Elementary & Middle School ( 4-6)

Duration

60-120 minutes – Classroom setting

Materials

per class

• sample newspaper headlines

• Michigan Environmental Timeline (33 cards printed from the PowerPoint file located on the MEECS Ecosystems & Biodiversity CD)

• Answers to Sequence Activity (transparency master)

• overhead projector

per small group

• Michigan Landcover map

• Sequence Cards (set of 8 cards)

• Michigan Time Machine Fact Find (student activity)

• paper and art supplies (markers or colored pencils, tape, etc.) for creating headlines

per student

• Michigan Time Machine: Journey to 1830 Skit (student resource)

• blank Compare–Contrast Chart (optional student activity)

Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations

Science:

• Describe the effect humans and other organisms have on the balance of the natural world. S.RS.04.18, S.RS.05.17, S.RS.06.17

• Describe how people have contributed to science throughout history and across cultures. S.RS.04.19

• Describe how human beings are part of the ecosystem of the Earth and that human activity can purposefully, or accidentally, alter the balance in ecosystems. L.EC.06.41

Social Studies:

• Use historical inquiry questions to investigate the development of Michigan’s major economic activities (agriculture, mining, manufacturing, lumbering, tourism, technology, and research) from statehood to present. 4 – H3.0.1

• Describe how the relationship between the location of natural resources and the location of industries (after 1837) affected and continues to affect the location and growth of Michigan cities. 4 – H3.0.3

• Draw upon stories, photos, artifacts, and other primary sources to compare the life of people in towns and cities in Michigan and in the Great Lakes region during a variety of time periods from 1837 to the present (e.g., 1837-1900, 1900-1950,1950-2000). 4 – H3.0.4

• Describe past and current threats to Michigan’s natural resources; describe how Michigan worked in the past and continues to work today to protect its natural resources. 4 – H3.0.8

• Create timelines (using decades after 1930) to sequence and describe important events in Michigan history; annotate with connections to the past and impact on the future. 4 – H3.0.9

• Assess the positive and negative effects of human activities on the physical environment of the United States. 4-C5.01

• Describe Eastern Woodland American Indian life with respect to governmental and family structures, trade, and views on property ownership and land use. 5 – U1.1.3

• Use primary and secondary sources to compare Europeans and American Indians who converged in the western hemisphere after 1492 with respect to governmental structure, and views on property ownership and land use. 5 – U1.4.2

• Explain that communities are affected positively or negatively by changes in technology (e.g., Canada with regard to mining, forestry, hydroelectric power generation, agriculture, snowmobiles, cell phones, air travel). 6 – G2.2.2

• Explain how and why ecosystems differ as a consequence of differences in latitude, elevation, and human activities. 6-G3.2.1

• Describe the environmental effects of human action on the atmosphere (air), biosphere (people, animals, and plants), lithosphere (soil), and hydrosphere (water). 6 – G5.1.1

• Describe how variations in technology affect human modifications of the landscape (e.g., clearing forests for agricultural land in South America, fishing in the Grand Banks of the Atlantic, expansion of cities in South America, hydroelectric developments in Canada, Brazil and Chile, and mining the Kentucky and West Virginia). 6 – G5.1.2

• Identify the role of the individual in history and the significance of one person’s ideas. 6-H.1.2.5