Curriculum+Review+Crabs

What organization developed the curriculum module you are evaluating? Monterey Bay Aquarium

What is the overall mission of the organization? Inspire conservation of the oceans

What is the educational mission and philosophy of the organization? The aquarium provides a variety of curriculum for elementary aged children because it hopes that by educating the younger generations it will inspire them to appreciate and care for our oceans.

What does the curriculum module aim to teach? In other words: what are the learning outcomes supposed to be? The curriculum aims to have kids understand crabs, how they survive, how they adapt to feed and protect themselves and how different species of crabs differ from each other. It is the hope that if kids know more about crabs, they will be more interested in protecting them.

Do you think the curriculum is appropriately designed to produce the intended learning outcomes? I really like this curriculum because I think that it is something the kids would enjoy learning about, and also the way that suggests teaching the kids seems like it would be a fun way to learn. There are lots of hands-on activities that have the students actively thinking about how a crab works, and the kids can relate that to how they work as humans (a claw instead of a hand, etc). It brings awareness to how an exoskeleton protects a crab, and how some crabs need shells for extra protection.

Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies advocated by EcoEd? This is a very specific curriculum that does not fully teach the literacies advocated by EcoEd, but with some supplemental education it can achieve a few of the literacies.

What could be layered into this curriculum so that it addresses more of the learning outcomes advocated by EcoEd? In the context of a crab, the students will understand how a crab’s health and well being are shaped by its surroundings. If we introduce into the curriculum how a crab’s habitat and survival methods are being threatened, we can include the literacy that asks students to use empirical understanding of causation to address points of intervention as well.