A Lot of Axolotls! Environmental Themes in the Spanish Classroom
Spanish teacher, Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez, realized the potential for teaching her 8th grade Spanish students about environmental issues using axolotls (“Mexican salamander”). She created a digital Assignment about the axolotls where students explored the flora, fauna, ecology and physiology of these animals.
The class read several legends and other literature about the axolotls in Spanish. Students viewed news videos from Mexico about the animals and their plight. At the end of the thematic unit, Spanish students took a “field trip” to the fourth floor to visit the axolotls and to share “get well cards” with one of them (who had had a fight in the tank and was in recovery!) As a culminating project, students created a poster advertisement in which they shared information about the animals and tried to persuade classmates to help to save them.