All Grades: Letter Writing

Objective	Students will learn how to effectively participate in the legislative process while learning good conservation at the same time.
Materials	None.
Time Frame	1 hour
Teacher Background	See Conservation in the Background Information Section. When expressing concerns to elected officials it has been shown that a hand written letter is one of the most effective avenues possible. It shows a personal connection that type written or copied letters often lack. Even though students are too young to vote their views do carry weight, sometimes for its own sake and sometimes because of the knowledge that there are parents involved as well.
Dive In!	How do elected officials decide what they are going to do? Who decides which species get protected and which don't?
Process	Discuss with your students some issues that they are interested in, related to marine mammals. You can begin this discussion by relating it to themes that they may be familiar with, like recent movies featuring whales and other popular media images. During this discussion, introduce the idea of government regulation and statute relating to marine mammals. There are several laws that relate directly to marine mammals, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act particularly. In addition to these two major pieces of environmental protection there are numerous others that deal with the quality of the oceans, the Clean Water Act and regulations relating to the dumping of wastes and garbage. It is highly encouraged to use local issues that are related to the marine environment, or indeed any aquatic habitat. Students will write letters to a selected local or regional officials. Again, this could be anyone from your local Congressional representative, the Mayor, or members of the town board. These letters should address a specific concern. Letters that are general and cover a wide range of topics are less effective than very specific ones.