Lesson Proposal for Climate Change in geography: Utilization of "Mystery" as a Learning Method

Miyagi Prefecture, in Japan, where my students and I live, faces the Pacific Ocean, named Sanriku east offing fishing ground, where we can see the "tidal current" where the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents meet. Therefore, both warm-water and cold-water fish species can be seen in the coastal waters. Miyagi Prefecture is also a place where different terrains intersect, such as the submerged coast of the Rias coast and the emergent coast of the coastal plain. Matsushima, one of the Three Views of Japan, is also a gift of such complex terrain. So, several fishing ports boasting some of the largest catches in Japan can be seen, and seafood is essential to our daily lives.

One of the brokers at the Shiogama wholesale market has always said this in recent years, "The sea is strange lately, the kinds of fish that are usually landed are often not landed." This is corroborated by data from the Fisheries Agency and others. The catch of cold-water fish species such as salmon is decreasing, and the catch of warm-water fish species such as yellowtail and gazami-Japanese blue crab- is increasing. The rise in sea temperature in coastal waters since 2014 also corroborates this. In other words, climate change is having an impact on the status of seafood landings.

On the other hand, this sea area has undergone significant crustal changes due to The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, and the seabed has been eroded by tsunamis, or conversely, inflow from land has been deposited on the seabed. As a result, the ecosystem of the seabed has changed significantly.

It is impossible to learn all of this in the curriculum of high school social studies geography in Japan, and collaboration with other subjects such as science is necessary. However, not only that, but I propose to learn with students about the impact of climate change from changes in the ocean using the learning method "Mystery" that originated in the UK, which can capture the complex relationship between the global environment and human life. This is because geography is a subject to learn about “RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN PLACES: Humans and Environments”.