Lessons stress plight of lake fish

OREM — The lesson requires students to study old newspaper advertisements for resorts that used to dot the shores of Utah Lake — yes, Utah Lake used to be a popular swimming and boating destination — and to answer questions about slogans, themes and ideas about recreation in the ads.

The lesson aims to teach Utah students about marketing, history — and the often ignored lake in Utah County that more people identify as murky and polluted than fresh and full of life.

The lesson is one of four developed by the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program, a coalition of government agencies and environmental groups trying to save the June sucker, which was placed on the endangered species list in April 1986. The fish is native to the lake.

The study guide, called "Utah Lake: Legacy Study Guide," is an outgrowth of a movie and coffee-table book the recovery program produced in an attempt to change attitudes toward the fish and lake, said Chris Keleher, an assistant director of the Department of Natural Resources, which is a partner in the recovery program.

The guide recently was sent to 200 schools throughout the state.

Teachers of students ranging from fourth to 12th grade can teach four lessons that integrate social studies, science, English and career technical education. Teachers also can download lessons from www.junesuckerrecovery.org.

"What it does is it uses Utah Lake as a local example of a lot of issues that (educators) teach of global relevance," Keleher said. "It's a local example of things like endangered species and what happens to ecosystems with population growth."

Nearly a dozen volunteer teachers designed the lessons to meet expectations of the core curriculum of the Utah State Office of Education.

For instance, one lesson teaches social studies skills with maps of Utah Lake in 1776 made by the Dominguez-Escalante exploration group, the Utah Territory Survey Map of 1856 and the Utah Geological Survey Map of 2006.

Students are expected to identify features in each map and compare the historical maps to the current map. Younger students can trace the lake shore in each map and compare for scale and accuracy. Older students can discuss how each map was made.

Provo High School science teacher Ty Robinson, who was one of the volunteer teachers who developed the study guide, said he uses parts of the study guide in the classroom.

One lesson discusses how the Earth changes over time. The other lesson examines the number and types of fish in the lake from 1875 to 2005.

He said his students watch the recovery program's movie and recognize some of the people fishing the in in the lake.

"I think it's very valuable for anybody, especially those who live around Utah Lake, to see what change has been done," he said. "And people are the only organism that can determine whether a species can become extinct or not."

---

E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com