Along the ocean lies a town named Polluterville.  As its name suggests, the townspeople cannot keep their garbage to themselves!  Instead, the garbage, chemicals, and other pollutants end up in the ocean.  The citizens of this town do not realize the impact they are having on the animals, corals reefs, and even themselves.  Someone needs to make them aware of their harmful actions!  This someone is YOU!!!

Your teacher should have placed you into groups of three people.  The job of your group is to investigate these three areas of concern: humans, coral reefs, and animals.  First, all of you must understand the importance of oceans and how the oceans are polluted.  Then, your teacher will assign each of you to one of the three areas of concern.  You will learn about your area, the impact of pollution on the area, and what can be done to help.

When you have finished investigating, your group will get together again and design a newsletter for the townspeople of Polluterville.  This newsletter should include information on ocean pollution and how the citizens can change their actions.  This means, each of you must share your findings with your group members, so that each area will be covered in the newsletter.  Once you are all experts in each of the three areas, you may begin making your newsletter!

You will plan what to write in your newsletter together and write this plan on notebook paper.  Be creative!  Make sure to include:  title; general information about pollution; information on humans, coral reefs, and animals; possible solutions for the problems; pictures; and your names.  Once you have a plan, come back to the computer and write your newsletter using a word processing program (such as Office Word).  Ask your teacher if you need help inserting pictures into your newsletter.

Let's start investigating!