Students Create Tampa Bay Watershed Informational Videos
Source/Author: Kathryn Jeakle, MS Marine Science Teacher
February 06, 2025
A lesson on watersheds and water quality for eighth graders in Shorecrest Middle School opens the door for learning about the local Tampa Bay watershed. With an overarching goal of developing educated coastal citizens, students were exposed to often-underestimated and little-understood facts about the Tampa Bay watershed.
After completing the lesson, the eighth graders were given an alternative assessment challenge to create an informational video that would teach others about their local watershed, why it is important, and how we can keep it healthy. Students were allowed to bring one page of notes with any content they wanted to help create their videos. Partners were randomly assigned; and the pairs had only 90 minutes to complete their videos during the school day. (Because students were required to complete their work at school, videos may contain background noises such as lockers closing or students in the hallways.)
To involve the greater community, each student was asked to share their video with a parent / guardian and one other adult for feedback. The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive!
You can watch some of their videos here:
