Hawaiʻi Coastal Change Curriculum Unit

This Unit is structured as a PBL and PBE experience. The focus is coastal change, but it could be used for physical, biological & social sciences. Helping students understand coastlines from multiple perspectives including that of their ʻohana, and the broader community is at the heart of this Unit. Moʻolelo and other ways of knowing along with personal reflections encourage students to consider their own relationship to their coasts, making sense of place key to their learning journey.
This curriculum is still under review by faculty. Units identified as Under Review have been submitted by educators. While they are available to view now, they are currently being reviewed by our curriculum committee for addition to this site.

Standards Aligned

Next Generation Science Standards, Na Hapena A'o

Community Partner(s)

We encourage identifying community partners or other locals knowledgeable of your study area to help your students gain a deeper understanding of the study area and community (history, current situation, future plans). Such community partnerships will be key in helping students to understand the site(s) and the many (different) ways that community members relate to and “know” their coastline.

Community partners used for the piloting of this curriculum were based on the coastal study sites and participating schools, as the school location dictated the most accessible beaches and coastal sites. Community partnerships that participating kumu already had were often engaged to deepen connection to place for kumu and haumāna.

Essential Question

How is our coastline changing over time and how do those changes guide our kuleana?

Enduring Understanding

  • Different people in our community have different understandings of and relationships with our coastline.
  • Different understandings come from different ways of looking at, experiencing, and interacting with our coastline.
  • Our community’s relationship and interactions with our coastline changes over time.

Author Reflections

How To Use This Unit

This curriculum was developed and modified based on the learning environments and lessons learned by its first users. AAAM encourages educators to use the whole Unit, specific lessons and or activities that benefit their students and lesson planning. And to adjust, adapt and engage with the Unit in ways that make sense for their own haumāna (students). The teaching manual linked is set up as a Google Doc with 4 individual lessons and with activity and lesson resources in Google files or PDF format. You can view the Tabs and Outline Bar by selecting that option from the View pull down menu. Each lesson contains downloadable student facing materials including: slides, worksheets and a variety of resources related to the lessons and activities. Teachers will want to modify the slides for their use by adding local maps and pictures as they wish; they are also encouraged to focus on content most relevant to their teaching by hiding slides and skipping lessons as needed. We hope that the AAAM Unit can be used in a plug-and-play fashion or adapted to fit your needs.

Teacher Tips

Throughout the Unit there are a variety of Teacher Tips included to point out alternative approaches, modifications and recommendations our community of kumu (teachers) have made for those teaching these lessons. These tips can be found throughout the lesson in italics.

Learner Level Middle

Primary Content Social Studies, Science, Cultural Knowledge