The Shore Line: A Guide for Educators

Find inspiration in The Shore Line videos about people from nine countries who are addressing environmental, economic and social problems. Use our strategy tool kits and workshop cards to help students discover ways to get involved in their own communities. Through videos, visualizations and soundscapes, students can see how communities and the environment are inter-connected, and how they might contribute to a more just and sustainable future. This interactive storybook is designed for high-school to university-level students.

Features

There are three ways to navigate our Shore Line storybook: Chapters, Atlas, or Database.

CHAPTERS

Rising Waters / An Endangered Ocean / Currents of Migration / Manufactured Coasts/ Stormy Skies / Living Shorelines

Each chapter features a unique soundscape, videos, sea level sliders, a floodview, and links to our strategy toolkits.

Sea level slider Each video features a link to a map with a sea level slider that visualizes what six meters of sea level rise would look like in that area.

Flood views At the end of each chapter there is a flooded street view of one of six major port cities, cited as those “most at risk” by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Use the flood views to discuss how to sustain attention on sea level rise, an environmental issue that is often hard to grasp.

ATLAS

With our Atlas you can explore the 43 videos by location and visualize threats to ecosystems around the world. Discuss how data and cartography can help us plan for the future and connect communities or alternatively be used to reinforce power relations.

Data visualization Toggle between datasets of coastal density, wetland and mangrove coverage to consider the impacts of development on the environment.

Shore Line Paths The faces on the map represent users, their location, and what videos they have watched. You can see how your video path intersects with others from around the world.

DATABASE

Our database features 43 videos by strategy, people (occupation), country, and threat so that educators can tailor their selection to their curriculum needs.

Strategy Toolkit We have curated a set of questions, activities and additional resources based on 13 inter-disciplinary strategies of taking action.

Workshops In collaboration with engaged scholars and experts, we have developed workshop cards. Youth Leadership, Environmental Journalism, Water, Activism, and other cards are available for download in the database area.

Language We have translated many of the videos into French and Spanish indicated by the CC (chose captions) in the lower right of each video.

Modes of Learning

Solution based learning: Use the solution-based stories as a catalyst to identify local problems and to consider diverse strategies of getting involved through education, environmental law, art, ecology, policy, activism and more.

Media literacy and production: Use the videos, data-visualizations, maps and coastal soundscapes as a prompt to discuss new forms of visual storytelling, journalism or artistic expression. Use the Atlas and our workshop exercises to interpret, analyze and create maps and data visualizations. Help students understand how data and spatial technologies can be used to address complex problems.

Comparative learning: Use the wide range of stories and perspectives to explore the inter-connectedness of individuals, societies and the environment. For example, how do melting glaciers, nuclear disasters, oil spills, sand mining, or unregulated dumping on one shore affect communities on another shoreline? How do race, class, gender, age and location influence how we perceive and respond to environmental problems?

This project was developed with and for students, teachers and organizers from around the world invested in innovative forms of pedagogy, media-production and environmental literacy.