Coastal Impacts

This worksheet is designed for students in Grades 5 and 6 to explore how human activities affect Pacific coastal regions through informational reading and reflective writing. Students read a passage about tourism, fishing, and trade routes, examining both the benefits and challenges these activities create, then respond to a reflection prompt that encourages evidence-based reasoning, environmental awareness, and solution-focused thinking.

Learning Goals

• Human-Environment Interaction (Grades 5-6): Analyze how tourism, fishing, and trade influence coastal communities and ecosystems.
• Environmental Issues: Understand problems such as pollution, overfishing, habitat disruption, and overcrowding along coastlines.
• Critical Thinking: Evaluate both positive and negative impacts of human activity using evidence from the text.
• Explanatory Writing: Practice writing clear, thoughtful responses that propose solutions and support ideas with reasoning.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource: Designed to align with upper elementary social studies, science, and ELA standards.
• Real-World Relevance: Connects geographic concepts to current environmental and economic challenges.
• Reflection-Based Prompt: Encourages students to think beyond facts and consider sustainability and protection strategies.
• Flexible Use: Ideal for geography units, environmental studies, homework, assessments, or discussion starters.

This printable worksheet helps students develop a deeper understanding of how human choices impact coastal environments and communities around the Pacific. By analyzing real-world examples and reflecting on possible solutions, learners strengthen critical thinking, environmental literacy, and explanatory writing skills. It’s a meaningful, no-prep resource that works well in both classroom instruction and homeschool learning, supporting thoughtful discussion of sustainability and human responsibility.