Essential Questions

• What factors are causing Great Salt Lake levels to decrease? 

• What are the effects of decreasing lake levels?

• What can we do to help sustain Great Salt Lake?

• How is Great Salt Lake tied to other ecosystems across the world? 

• How can studying microorganisms inform macro-level issues?

Learning Intentions – In this Module, students will:

• Generate hypotheses about Great Salt Lake.

• Analyze and construct an argument based on data and text about the causes and effects of depletion of a natural resource and ecosystem.

• Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool;

• Synthesize and express new information through writing and photography;

• Understand the importance of environmental literacy;

• Expand and share knowledge through investigation; 

• Collaborate and engage in project-based learning;

• Employ communication, and collaboration to broaden perspective.

Learning Outline

This 4.5-hour module is organized around the Bonnie Baxter: Big Lessons from the Microscope on Great Salt Lake presentation by Bonnie Baxter. It can be used as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows:

• 15 minutes: Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Asking Questions and Forming Hypotheses on the Status of Great Salt Lake

• 60 minutes: While Viewing: Microbiologist Delivers A Macro-Level Message

  • Part 1: Great Salt Lake: Its Beauty and Sadness (5:19 min)

  • Part 2: No Water No Brine No Birds (15:41 min)

  • Part 3: A Wide Lens Perspective on Great Salt Lake (18:15 min)

• 45 minutes: Post-Viewing– GSL Selfless Selfies

• 75 minutes: Demonstration: Deep Dive into the Shallow Great Salt Lake

• 75 minutes: Making Connections: Arts Integration Project– Zoom: From Micro to Macro–A New Perspective on Great Salt Lake

Success Criteria

• I can retell the story of the Great Salt Lake using my unique voice and photography.

• I can explain how the GSL microorganisms reveal a macro-level story.

While Viewing Activity

“Salty Investigation” Worksheet

Supplies for Demonstration Activity: 

Here, Near, Salty Dear (1:13 min video) Poem by Jade Swayne on Great Salt Lake 

FactCards- A folder with 5 cards containing facts on Great Salt Lake. Can be used to generate discussion around the 3 driving questions in this unit, or as a jumping off point for the “further investigation” activity in this section. 

“Salty Investigation” Worksheet

Supplies for Art Integration Activity

Zoom Picture Book By Istvan Banyai (PDF Version) - A wordless book that zooms out from a farm to a ship to a city street to a desert island. Nothing is ever as it seems in Istvan Banyai's landscapes of pictures within pictures.

GSL Zoom Photography Sequencing Activity 

• Activity Instructions

• GSL Photo Sequences Folder (found under Quick Links)

• Teacher Key

Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Asking Questions and Forming Hypotheses on the Status of Great Salt Lake

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 1]

Procedures:

• Hook: Share an experience, memory or idea that comes to mind when you think of Great Salt Lake?

• Tell Students: Great Salt Lake (GSL) is often an overlooked entity for the typical person living along the Wasatch Front. Many focus instead on the Wasatch mountain range, the five Utah-based national parks, and opportunities for outdoor recreation throughout the state. Most have visited the GSL no more than a handful of times and even fewer understand the ecology of the lake. This ignorance about the importance of the lake’s ecosystem balance has resulted in years of continuing to divert water that would otherwise come into the lake, while water levels drop at a dramatic pace, threatening ecosystem collapse. In this unit, we will investigate, question, and interpret Great Salt Lake and the greater ecosystem with a focus on

  • What factors are causing the water level of the lake to decrease?

  • What are the effects of decreasing lake levels?

  • How can we effectively respond to help save the lake?

• Think, Pair and Share: Put students in pairs and give them the ‘Salty Investigation’ worksheet.  Ask them to write a hypothesis (a proposed explanation based on their limited knowledge as a starting point for further investigation) for each question in the appropriate column. Have a few volunteers share their hypotheses with the class. 

• Tell Students: We are going to watch 3 videos in which Salt Lake microbiologist Bonnie Baxter explains her work and how her work studying GSL microorganisms helps to answer our three questions. Read the unit, and/or the module introduction out loud to the class. 

While Viewing: Segment I, II, & III: Microbiologist Delivers A Macro-Level Message

[60 min]

[Learning Intentions 2, 3]

Procedures:

• Tell students that while watching, they are listening for and recording answers on the ‘Salty Investigation’ worksheet to the following three driving questions:

  • What factors are causing the water level of the lake to decrease?

  • What are the effects of decreasing lake levels?

  • How can we effectively respond to help sustain the lake?

• After each segment discuss progress in answering the three questions: 

  1. Video Part I: Great Salt Lake: Its Beauty and Future (5:19 min)

     1. Class Discussion

  2. Video Part II: No Water No Brine No Birds (15:41 min)

     1. Class Discussion

  3. Video Part III: A Wide Lens Perspective on Great Salt Lake (18:15 min)

     1. Class Discussion

• In the space below the chart, have them write 2-3 things they found most surprising, disturbing, confusing, or memorable. 

Post-Viewing: GSL Selfless Selfies

[45 min]

[Learning Intentions 4]

Procedures: 

• Tell Students: Now that we have heard how Bonnie Baxter answers our three questions, let’s do some investigation on our own. 

• Bonnie mentioned that she collaborated with a few artists, which she nostalgically describes as some of the most memorable projects she was involved with outside her own scientific research. Do you remember who she spoke about? DIA Art Foundation out of New York were stewards of the Spiral Jetty, through their original involvement with installation artist Robert Smithson, who built the Spiral Jetty in 1970. Bonnie and the Great Salt Lake Institute of Westminster College helped them look after it and ended up presenting in New York and winning over more advocates for the lake. The other was a photographer, Rosalie Winard, who used black and white infrared film to photograph the GSL birds. Her book and gallery exhibits created a buzz and increased awareness of the lake and its often unnoticed lively ecosystem. 

• Tell Students: Imagine Great Salt Lake. We will take 1 minute of silence for you to envision the lake:  (Optional) Read this out loud to get them started “ its salty waters lapping the salty shoreline; reaching out to the shoreline plants that smell of pickles where spiders hang peacefully, spinning webs that reflect the sun and water; millions of birds- eyes bright blue, wings red, white ancient pelicans, tweety birds, flocking in time and season to open their beaks wide for a mouthful; and underneath the water, the silent rock-shaped, soft and wavy mounds build cone-shaped cocoons until they birth a brine fly– a tiny air bubble that floats gently to the top, while the tentacly brine shrimp swim by.” 

• Tell Students: Now find three photos online that best introduce and reflect the lake’s unique identity.  

• Have students get into groups of 3-4 and each show the others their three photos. Have the viewers describe what they see and how the photos speak to the identity of the lake. 

Demonstration: Deep Dive into the Shallow Great Salt Lake

[75 min]

[Learning Intention 4, 5, 6]

Procedures:

• Ask students:  Why is it important to understand our local ecosystem?

  • Possible Answers: so we understand how and why to protect it; we depend on its health; love of animals and nature; etc…

• There is a term used in science education: Local Environmental Literacy which states that science learning can help students understand their local ecosystems.  And that

  • Observing, questioning, and investigating, isn’t just ‘science learning’ but rather  IS science. 

  • Ignorance about our ecosystem has led to a decrease in water level of Great Salt Lake. 

  • Environmental Literacy is essential for resiliency in the face of climate change and other factors negatively impacting our ecosystem.

• Ask students to get out a blank piece of paper and a pen to be prepared for the “rapid-fire writing” exercise right after they listen to this poem called:  Here, Near, Salty Dear (1:13 min video) by local poet and activist Jade Swayne.  Tell them that this exercise will help them process the poem.

• Think, Write, Read, Repeat: After listening to the poem twice, and using a timer, lead students through this series of steps:

  • 1 min: Quiet thought; no writing. 

  • 3 min: Write (try not to stop writing the entire time) on the GSL.

  • 1 min: Read and circle three main ideas (words or phrases) from what you have written. No writing during this time. You can read, reread, and think, but do not start writing again.

  • 2 min: Write.

  • 30 sec: Read and put a square around one word or phrase.

  • 1 min: Write.

• Wraparound: Tell students you would like to hear the single word or phrase that they boxed. Have students say what they boxed around in a round robin rapid response. Discuss how the word or phrase they boxed could relate to the three driving questions we are trying to answer in order to understand our ecosystem. 

• Tell Students: It is time to revisit the ‘Salty Investigation’ worksheet and fill in the ‘From Further Investigation’ column in an effort to better answer our three essential questions: 

  • What factors are causing the water level of the lake to decrease?

  • What are the effects of decreasing lake levels?

  • How can we effectively respond to help sustain the lake?

• (Optional) Project or hand out the ‘FactsCards.’ Tell students they can use these to get started. Begin filling in the column in their table and as a jumping off point for further research.

• As a class, revisit, and discuss each of the three questions. 

• (Optional) Follow-up with  a field trip out to the Great Salt Lake, and / or search the websites in the Dig Deeper section for educational resources or to bring a young GSL poet or scientist in for a science, poetry, etc. workshop.

Zoom: From Micro to Macro–A New Perspective on Great Salt Lake

[75 min]

[Learning Intention 4, 5, 7, 8]

• Hook: Project the first image in the Zoom Picture Book By Istvan Banyai *Be careful not to show them the next photo right after it! Have students guess what it is. Then show them the next photo. Is that what you thought it was?

• Introduce students to the book called Zoom, letting them know that although this is a PDF version, the original is a very popular picture book by Istvan Banyai, a Hungarian illustrator and animator born in Budapest, Hungary in 1949. This wordless book slowly ‘zooms out,’ image by image giving us more and more context and perspective on what is really going on.

• Ask Students: Before we see the rest of Banyai’s book, why do you think we are ‘reading’ this book while studying Great Salt Lake? We are gaining perspective on the GSL and our ecosystem, starting with the microscopic and Bonnie Baxter’s research and how that informs what is happening on a macro level- that if you zoom out you can see how the tiniest microbe is significant with regards to what is happening with the lake. 

• Finish viewing the book. Tell students that using photographs, most of them taken by Bonnie and her research team, they are going to get into groups of 12 and do a photo sequencing activity of Great Salt Lake.  

• Read the ‘GSL Zoom Photography Sequencing Activity’ instructions  to students and guide them in the activity. 

• Debriefing: Utilize the following questions for discussion.

  1. Why was it hard to get the story together? Everyone had a piece, but no one had the big picture.

  2. What type of communication was used in attempting to solve the problem?

  3. What communication methods might have worked better? E.g., imagine if, at the outset, the group had taken the time to let each person describe his/her picture to the rest of the group. What would have happened then? Would the solution have been faster? 

  4. What kind of leadership was used to tackle the problem?

  5. Who were the leaders? Why?

  6. What style of leadership might have worked best?

  7. If you were to tackle a similar activity again, what do you think this group could do differently?

  8. What did we learn that could help with the water crisis of Great Salt Lake? Images help people connect to and ‘see’ their ecosystem and its far-reaching effects; effective communication is essential between those working at all levels; everyone’s piece is needed and contributes to the bigger picture, etc.

  9. Why is it important to save the GSL ecosystem?

• Tell Students: In order to preserve Great Salt Lake, we have to be able to imagine it with a clear intention for the desired outcome. Think back on the poem you heard by Jade Swayne and how her poem saw the lake thriving in the future, “far and near.”  Now take a few minutes to write a vision statement imagining the lake in 50 or 100 years thriving, where all of the lake’s systems are supporting life in harmonious balance.  

• Have students put it all together (writing, photographs, vision statement, poetry, etc.) and decide how they want to retell what they have learned about the Great Salt Lake with others. Mediums could include:

  1. A digital photobook / or DIY bound printed book

  2. A slide show presentation

  3. Etc. 

• Have students share their final product with the class

Articles

• The Great Salt Lake’s Birds Link Utah to the Rest of the World (Salt Lake Tribune, 2022) 

Websites

• Great Salt Lake Collaborative- The Great Salt Lake Collaborative is a group of 23 news, education and media organizations that have come together to better inform and engage the public about the crisis facing the Great Salt Lake. We will answer the question: During a time of drought, climate change and major population growth, how can Utah better support a critical body of water?

• Great Salt Lake Strike Team- A team made up of Utah’s public research universities who provide a primary point of contact for policymakers as they address the economic, health, and ecological challenges created by the record-low elevation of Great Salt Lake. 

• Great Salt Lake Institute - Founded by Bonnie Baxter, the Great Salt Lake Institute (GSLI) site promotes science and environmental education of K–12 students and actively links the research sector with public outreach.  

• Great Salt Lake Audubon - This site includes events, ways to take action, a list of issues, and resources such as birding tools to what to do if you find an injured baby bird.

• Friends of the Great Salt Lake- This site includes advocacy issues and programs. Check out the Alfred Lambourne Prize, an annual recognition and celebration of regional creativity inspired by our inland sea. FRIENDS invites creative work inspired by the Lake in the forms of visual arts, literary arts, sound and movement. For 2023, submissions accepted from March 1-May 15.

• Check out their educational resources

• Save Our Great Salt Lake- Save Our Great Salt Lake is a group of organizers, artists, business owners, and concerned citizens working together to prevent ecosystem collapse at the Great Salt Lake.

• How To Conserve Water | National Geographic (2:48 min) The U.S could face a water shortage in a little over 50 years. See how Colorado College conserves water and how you can use these tips in your own life. 

GSL Artists & Classroom Opportunities

• Jade Swayne (author of Hear, Near, Salty Dear in curriculum) is a trans, non-binary, black artist who has found an abundance of peace through writing. Their desire to share this wealth has resulted in the creation and sharing of their own long and short form first person poetry, hosting regular poetry events in SLC, and utilizing their educational background in El.Ed to teach the art of writing to others. 

  • If you’d like Jade to teach a writing/poetry workshop you can reach them at jadempswayne@gmail.com.