Below you will find a selection of activities, projects, and supplemental materials specifically age-appropriate for Middle School students participating in a Vermont Reads 2025 The Light Pirate program:
Activity Ideas
- Advocate for the environment in Vermont by sharing your thoughts and ideas with the following:
- Vermont Climate Council: You can write to the Vermont Climate Council directly or provide public comments on the Climate Action Plan.
- US EPA: You can also contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) directly with questions or comments about climate change.
- Take a virtual tour of the National Weather Service, online here.
- Learn more about Bioluminescence at the following sites:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescence
- https://www.britannica.com/science/bioluminescence
- https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/themes/bioluminescence/lessons/light-and-color.html
- https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/materials/bioluminescence-fact-sheet.pdf
- https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/materials/3-light-effects-fact-sheet.pdf
- Introduce a companion book, such as Glow: The Wild Wonders of Bioluminescence, by Jennifer N.R. Smith
- Wanda and Bird Dog create a thriving community in the transformed landscape of Rudder. What elements would you include in designing a sustainable settlement adapted to Vermont? Work with a partner and design your settlement, including drawings, maps, and narratives.
- Host a Movie Night. Here are two lists to start with to choose a film:
- Movies about Hurricanes
- Movies about Climate Change
- Create a prominent display of The Light Pirate and other related titles at a public library, school library, or local bookstore, accompanied by helpful information from associated organizations.
- Host a Guest Speaker or Panel Conversation. This could include:
- Conservationists
- Farmers
- Game Wardens
- Hatchery Technicians
- Master Gardeners
- Meteorologists
- Park Rangers
- Water Biologists
- Split into groups and explore the following websites. Then, each group can create a poster and give a presentation.
- EARTH.org: This website features environmental news, data analysis, research and policy suggestions
- Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC): VNRC advocates for strong policies and engages with Vermonters on climate action
- Climate Change Vermont Government: This website provides information on the state’s climate policies and initiatives, including the Climate Action Plan and the Global Warming Solutions Act
- Vermont Climate Action Office (CAO): The CAO manages the state’s climate programs and the implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA)
- U.S. EPA: You can contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) directly with questions or comments about climate change
- Encourage students to explore these interactive online resources:
- CommunitySnow Observations: Contribute snow measurements from your backyard or during your outdoor adventures. Then explore the snow conditions on the interactive map.
- EButterfly: Share your sightings of both rare and common butterflies. Collective data contributes to conservation decisions, scientific knowledge, education, and more.
- eBird: Log your sightings or hearings of birds with a global community of birders and scientists. Sharing your observations helps track bird migrations on a global scale.
- INaturalist: Submit your biodiversity observations, which will then be shared with scientific data repositories and scientists.
- NationalPhenology Network: Phenology is nature’s calendar – when plants bloom, birds nest, and fall leaves change- and is an indicator of climate change. Share your observations and explore the phenology data.
- Learn about Local Environmental Science Opportunities, and encourage participation:
- Citizen Scientists: Volunteer: Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources and its three departments rely on the assistance of Citizen Scientists to enhance our mission of effective, well informed, and environmental stewardship. There are various volunteer opportunities that include invasive species patrollers, forest volunteers, bat population monitors, and more.
- North Branch Nature Center Community Science: Contribute to data collection for major scientific research projects. Current projects include Owl Branding, Songbird Research, Winter Bird Count, Amphibian Conservation, and Mushroom.
- Peregrine Falcon Monitoring and Management Project from Audubon Vermont: Peregrine Falcons suffered steep declines in population beginning in the 1940s due to DDT pesticide and eventually landed on the endangered species list in the 1970s. Through conservation efforts over decades, the Peregrine was reestablished in Vermont and later removed from the endangered species list. Monitoring continues in an effort to maintain the species.
- The Vermont Atlas of Life: Discover and share Vermont’s biodiversity. Dive into the data platform by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to explore what others have already reported. Submit your own observations on birds, butterflies, and more!
- The Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas seeks to gather and disseminate the data on our state reptile and amphibian populations so individuals and organizations can become more informed and effective stewards. You can submit your observations on both common and rare species. Additionally, they will assist with identification or answer questions about natural history and conservation of the species.
- University of Vermont’s Field and Research Instruction and Land Stewardship’s Projects.
- Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Join one of their several projects and contribute to scientific research, monitoring, and data collection. Projects vary from Alpine Butterflies, Common Loon Conservation, or Native Plants and Pollinators Ecotype Experiment.
- Vermont Citizen Reporting of Wildlife: Help Vermont Fist and Wildlife track and monitor our state’s wildlife by reporting both sightings and incidents including bear incidents, heath of bats, tagged fish, or rare species sightings.
- Vermont Institute of Natural Science: Become a Community Scientist page outlining various opportunities.
- Vermont Vernal Pool Atlas: an online, interactive database that compiles and archives data for the Vermont Vernal Pool Mapping Project and the Vermont Vernal Pool Monitoring Project. Vernal pools are small depressions in forests that fill with water in the spring and fall providing breeding habitat for many salamanders and frogs and have characteristic populations of fairy shrimp, fingernail clams, nails, water fleas, and copepods.
- Conclude The Light Pirate activities with a celebratory event. Organize a show that documents your activities with drawings and posters, storytelling and a presentation.
Book Discussion Questions
Leading a Book Club group featuring The Light Pirate? Here are some discussion questions and topics to get the conversation started!
Additional Reading
- Girls Who Green the World: Thirty-Four Rebel Women Out to Save Our Planet by Diana Kapp, illustrated by Ana Jarén
- Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste by Eduardo García, illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows
- Climate Resilience: How We Keep Each Other Safe, Care for Our Communities, and Fight Back Against Climate Change by Kylie Flanagan
- The Twenty-One: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the US Government Over Climate Change by Elizabeth Rusch
- Climate Change Is Racist: Race, Privilege and the Struggle for Climate Justice by Jeremy Williams, foreword by Shola Mos-Shogbamimu
- Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety by Britt Wray, foreword by Adam McKay
- All About Hurricanes (A True Book: Natural Disasters) by William B. Rice
- Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir by Brianna Craft
- Everyday Stories of Climate Change by Gemma Sou, Adeeba Nuraina Risha, and Gina Ziervogel, illustrated by Cat Sims
