Text and Photographs by Bianca Lavies
Dutton, 1992
Summary: 26 pages of text and commanding color photographs depict the life cycle of the Atlantic salmon, from its freshwater birth through its journey to the sea and its eventual return to its stream of origin.
Level: RL: 6 IL: 4-8
Theme:
Salmon
Life cycles
Maine
Activities:
1. Find out what a "Möbius strip" is. Make a few. Explore their surfaces and their construction by drawing a line with a magic marker down the center of a strip and then cutting that line with a scissors. Your math teacher may suggest other ways to explore the strips. Now design 3 life cycle charts using Möbius strips. Put the Atlantic salmon's life on one chart. Put on another chart an animal's life cycle that is much shorter than the salmon's. The third would be an animal whose life cycle is much longer than the salmon's. Figure out how wide your strips need to be for text and illustrations of the animals' lives. Decide upon a scale for the length of the strips. If one animal lives for one year and another for three years, one strip could be 2 feet long and the other 6 feet long. If the last animal lived half a year, that animal's strip would be 1 foot long. Arrange each chart so that the end of the animal's life cycle appears just before the beginning of the animal's life cycle. [The Möbius strip makes it possible to see that a life cycle is an endless continuum.]
Choose the animals according to some pattern. For instance, you could choose all fish. You could choose one land, one sea, and one air animal, or you could choose sea animals from 3 different levels of the sea. You could choose your animals according to how many young they had: one - thousands - millions. Check your animals with your librarian/teacher after your initial decision, and again when you are ready to actually make the Mobius strips.
After you have researched your animals and created three charts, write a page about the charts. Begin with describing the basis of your choices. Then write about the similarities and differences in the lives of the three animals that you learned. Hang the strips and your mounted page on display.
2. There are numerous words in The Atlantic Salmon that may be unfamiliar to its readers. Some of these words are fry, redd, alevin, parr. Design and create a hypercard stack to help readers understand the meaning and pronunciation as well as the visual description of such words.
3. Because many rivers have lost their salmon population because of pollution by humans, Lavies writes that "In the United States, there are now regulations designed to prevent further losses." Find out about 3 such pollution regulations. If possible, learn which of these regulations are being effective. Design a fourth regulation that you think could also make a difference. Now prepare a presentation for your class about the 4 regulations. Ask them to identify your contribution. Invite the class to suggest improvements of the 4 regulations and to contribute their own original potential regulations.
OR
Find out about the salmon fishing regulations of three foreign governments. Think about how you might improve upon these regulations, and create some regulations for a fourth "government." Prepare a presentation for your class about the 4 sets of regulations, and ask the students to identify your contribution. Invite the class to suggest improvements of the 4 sets and to contribute their own original potential regulations.
4. Using information from The Atlantic Salmon, create a map that contains the route of the salmon's life cycle. Think of a way to indicate on the map the time a salmon spends in each location and the reason or reasons. Create a map for a European salmon and a Pacific salmon.
5. After describing that many Atlantic salmon return to the sea after spawning, Bianca Lavies states that "Pacific salmon...always die immediately after spawning." Research the Pacific salmon and produce a chart comparing the two fish. Now research another animal that has similar forms in the Atlantic and Pacific, such as the Atlantic Puffin and the Pacific Puffin. Produce a chart comparing the two. Now write a comparison of the salmon with your other animal
OR
With a group, analyze the structure of The Atlantic Salmon and create an outline of the topics it covers and how they are treated. Plan, research, and produce a book, The Pacific Salmon, that uses the same outline and style. Change or add or delete what MUST be changed due to the nature of the fish and its life. Publish a copy of the new book for each member of your class. Also give them a copy of the Atlantic Salmon outline and an assessment tool. When they have completed their assessment, lead a class discussion about your book. Now write a group report describing the strengths and weaknesses of your product. If you were to advise other students who were going to try a similar project, what would you suggest that might help them do a good job? Add these ideas to your report.
6. The Atlantic Salmon doesn't tell the reader everything about this fish. For instance, while describing the salmon's return upstream to its birthplace, Bianca Lavies says that the new hook on the male's jaw is not for catching food but for "final preparations for spawning." What does that mean? Look through the book again and, when your curiosity is aroused, write down what you are curious about in the form of questions. Discuss these questions within a group and/or with your teacher/librarian, re-write them carefully, listing them in priority order. Now research the first three questions via other resources. Write out the answers, including the exact source of each answer. If you cannot locate one or more answers, conference with your librarian and either return to these questions or try some of the next questions in your priority list
OR
Scientists don't know everything about this fish. For instance, they don't know if salmon use the sun or stars to navigate back to their birthplace. They do know that the temperature of waters and the salmon's remarkable sense of smell and probably taste are part of the "how." Perhaps the thyroid gland and hormones are part of the "how." Research the Atlantic Salmon Research Trust that was set up in 1967. What has it discovered? Has the information helped prevent further loss of salmon or has it only improved fishing techniques? How?
7. Research the salmon's sense of smell and a human's sense of smell. Include the relationship between the brain and the sense of smell. Create comparative diagrams and charts that are informative and that would be helpful in a presentation. [Others in a group may research the sense of hearing or taste.] Prepare and give a presentation that includes some conclusions. [If a group researches hearing and taste as well, the group presentation should include how these senses are used jointly by a salmon.]
8. Bianca Lavies mentions the commercial and sports fishing of salmon. Research who fishes for Atlantic and Pacific salmon and how. In what ways is salmon marketed? How important is salmon as a commercial fish? Research the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission. What reasons can you find to support the statement that this has resulted in the world's best example of the husbandry (domestication) of a wild resource?
9. The Atlantic salmon may have originated in the ocean and eventually took to the rivers to spawn, or it may have been a freshwater fish that began going down to the sea to feed. Reread The Atlantic Salmon and write down clues with page numbers to help you come to your own conclusions. When you have finished rereading and gathering clues, write a page stating your final opinion and giving the reasons why you made that decision. Hand in your written clues with your paper
OR
Anadromous fish are those which grow and mature in the ocean and then swim into fresh water to reproduce, such as the Atlantic salmon. Another Maine fish which is anadromous is the smelt. Research Maine smelt and prepare a comparison with the Atlantic salmon, including charts and maps.
OR
Anadromous fish experience a "chloride turnaround" as they move from fresh water to salt water. Research how a salmon has to change in order to survive the move from fresh to saline water. Prepare a series of diagrams that illustrate the change and the dangers of not changing. Use these in a presentation that explains the physical and chemical modifications that take place.
10. Read the last page of The Atlantic Salmon . Draw a large diagram of the contraption Bianca Lavies invented that made it possible for her to illustrate her book so well. Choose another animal that you might like to research first hand. Invent a contraption that would help you in your research. Draw a large diagram with labels. Now write a page telling why you would need such a contraption and exactly how it would work. [You may wish to create an animated hypercard stack to show your contraption at work -- with pop-up cards to explain labels.]
11. Explore and list how many ways you could buy salmon in your community. Before you begin exploring, design a chart on which to record this information. Include on your chart prices and weights. Also try to find if each product is Pacific or Atlantic salmon. Check your chart design with your teacher/librarian before using it. Create two bar graphs from this information, and present your findings to a pre-selected group.
12. Find some books about sea animals that describe a life cycle as their main goal, but that do so using an imaginary sea animal. [Three examples you might find are Hermit Crab Lives in a Shell by William and Peggy Stephens, Holiday House, 1969, The Blue Lobster - A Life Cycle by Carol and Donald Carrick, Dial, 1975, and Little Calf, adapted from The Year of the Whale by Victor B. Scheffer, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970.] These imaginary sea animals have adventures and experience changes that inform the reader of how real sea animals live and change. Explore your selection and make three lists: one of some fictional adventures the sea animals have and what the reader learns from these adventures about real sea animals, and a list of the changes that they undergo that the author describes in a nonfictional way, and what the reader learns about the changes. A third list is made up of descriptions or photocopies of some book illustrations and what they show about the sea animal's life, and especially what they show that the text does not describe or even mention. The lists below were drawn from the three book titles above.
Now create an imaginary salmon. Then choose a part of The Atlantic Salmon to rewrite. List the information you will need to include in your rewrite. Imagine some adventures that could happen to your salmon that you could use to show visually. If you intend to illustrate, plan which information can be communicated well in that way. Conference with a partner, a group, or your teacher/librarian before you begin to write. Rewrite and illustrate the chosen part and conference with your librarian/teacher. [If a group is working together, the entire book may be divided and rewritten in the same manner. Plan a way to have the plot flow in a reasonable manner.]
13. In The Atlantic Salmon Bianca Lavies states that "Salmon mothers lay about 800 eggs per pound of their weight." On another page she states the range of salmon weight. Make a graph that shows this relationship. Now find another source that states Atlantic salmon eggs per pound of female weight and the range of weight. If it is the same, place this source and Lavies' book as a source on your graph. If it is different, make another graph. If there is a difference, discuss with your teacher/librarian how you might explain or verify or choose which source is more reliable. Present and explain your findings to a pre-selected group. [If you prefer, find other information in The Atlantic Salmon that you can graph and check in other sources, following the same instructions.
Prepared by Audrey Conant - MEMA
