Chiswell Islands Unit

Students launch the unit and first open the anchor book, A Trip To The Chiswell Islands. This gridset utilizes the Learning Magic Table of Contents template to take students on a virtual tour to the Chiswell Islands in the Gulf of Alaska.

Written in a narrative form, the story first takes students to the marina in Steward, Alaska where they board a Kenai Tours boat and head out to the Gulf of Alaska.

Along the way students encounter both sea otters and Steller sea lions. Photographs and short videos plus textual information provide insights into these wonderful marine mammals in their native environments.

Once the tour boat arrives at the Chiswell Islands students learn about this large remote rookery where millions of sea birds congregate each year during the mating season. While slowly moving through the rookery students are able to see, watch and learn about three of the indigenous birds that nest here (i.e. Common Merres, Kittiwakes and Puffins).

Close up photography and videos bring this remote world and its denizens clearly home to students.

Students also learn about the unique nesting habits and feeding patterns of each species and are able to see them in their different nesting/feeding environments. Once students complete this book, they will return to the launcher menu and open The Chiswell Islands Journal to document their trip.

Note: the photographs and videos of this tour were taken on one of the clearest and calmest days within the past year in the Gulf of Alaska.

Once students have read through and experienced the trip to and the tour through the Chiswell Islands, they are next asked to write their own personal journal regarding the trip.

In The Chiswell Islands Journal gridset students have the opportunity to choose from thirteen photographs that they initially encountered on the tour. Students click a pop-up grid to choose a photograph, which is automatically inserted onto the page.

They then write about what they have remembered and learned along the trip in a textbox provided beneath the picture.

Students are instructed to put a different photograph on each of the thirteen pages and then to write about their remembrances. When they are finished they are further instructed to save their work as their own personal journal.

Note: an on-screen keyboard and the Clicker 5 standard vocabulary pop-ups are also available to provide writing support where needed.

Additionally note that these gridsets can be utilized as an independent study unit or they can be used as further information for the Oceans unit that can be found in The Wonders and Magic of Nature collection from Learning Magic, Inc.

Required Software: Clicker 5® Windows.