Beach Bill

Human Use of Resources—Beach Bill

Summary: For many Oregonians, one of the primary ways they connect with the ocean is through recreational tourism. Over one million vacationers visit Oregon’s beaches each year. This topic guide explores the history and unique legislation concerning public beach access in Oregon.

Concepts to teach: Beach bill, legislation, public access, history

Goals: Students discover the story of how Oregon’s beaches have been used for transportation, recreation, and the harvesting of natural resources. The passage of the 1967 Beach Bill continues to affect the way people interact with Oregon beaches today.

Standards:
SS.08.CG.06, SS.08.HS.07, SS.08.HS.08, SS.08.SA.04

Specific Objectives:

  1. Identify the early practical and legislative relationship between the Oregon Department of Transportation and Oregon’s beaches.
  2. Describe the implications of the 1967 Beach Bill
  3. Recognize that public beach access in Oregon is unique compared to many other coastal U.S. states.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Who uses the beach? Who owns the beach? Explore these questions with concept maps.
  • Write a persuasive essay answering “Who owns the beach?” from a personal perspective, or that of a beachfront property owner, recreational fisher, tourist, legislator, or other stakeholder.
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Words from the Ocean

Place—Words from the Ocean

Summary: No matter how far away we might live from the beach, we are culturally connected to the ocean and its resources. Students discover how some common English words and phrases can be tied to maritime history.

Concepts to teach: Language arts, social studies

Goals: Students recognize how the ocean’s prominence in our culture has shaped our language.

Standards:
EL.06.RE.12, EL.07.RE.12, EL.08.RE.12

Specific Objectives:

  1. Identify how the modern meaning of several words has changed from the sense they originally had in maritime cultures.
  2. Construct hypotheses as to the original, ocean-related meaning of several everyday words.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Two resources from Smithsonian’s Ocean Planet exhibition investigate how the ocean has influenced our language:
    • Words from the Ocean—This lesson plan asks student groups to guess the original meanings of several modern words. A worksheet and teacher answer key is provided.
    • Nautical Sayings—A list of eight common sayings and a description of their nautical roots.

Assessment:

  • Use worksheet to try to figure out how the original meaning of each word in the following list is connected to the sea and write your ideas in the space provided.
  • Pick one word and create a THEN and NOW poster contrasting the original meaning of a word or phrase with its modern meaning.
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Algae in Your House

Place—Algae in Your House

Summary: No matter how far away we might live from the beach, we are culturally connected to the ocean and its resources. Students examine the contents of their kitchen cupboards to find evidence of the ocean’s influence.

Concepts to teach: Nutrition, social studies

Goals: Students discover that although we sometimes can neither smell nor taste them, many ingredients in our foods and household products come from the sea.

Standards:
S6.3S.1, S6.3S.2
S7.3S.1, S7.3S.2
S8.3S.1, S8.3S.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Inventory the types and variety of seafood consumed at home.
  2. Find three products at home or school that contain ingredients derived from marine algae.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Survey the students’ personal experiences with marine products. Offer a checklist of seafood to find out which types students have eaten before, eat regularly, or have never tried.
  • As a pre-activity homework task, ask students to list all the products from the ocean they can find in their kitchens.
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Citizen Biomonitoring

Stewardship—Citizen Biomonitoring

Summary: Students contribute to the scientific understanding of a local ecosystem by collecting water quality data and reporting results to the community.

Concepts to teach: Stewardship, action, water quality, process of scientific inquiry

Goals: Students engage in scientific inquiry and come to see themselves as scientists as they collect and report data about a local outdoor site.

Standards:
S.06.3S.1, S.06.3S.2, S06.3S.3
S.07.3S.1, S.07.3S.2, 7.3S.3
S.08.3S.1, S.08.3S.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Adopt a local outdoor site and collect data that describes the health of the ecosystem.
  2. Gain experience with the use of scientific equipment, data collection and reporting.
  3. Draw conclusions and recommendations about the health of the ecosystem based on biomonitoring activities.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • StreamWebs—This student stewardship network from OSU Extension provides open-source, web-based tools for watershed data management, analysis, and networking for teachers and students. Includes data sheets for mapping riparian habitats, canopy cover and pebble counts, etc. See the Nonpoint Source Pollution topic guide for more information.
    • Report water quality findings online on the StreamWebs website. Partner with another class who can do similar sampling at the same site or at at site upstream/downstream from your sample location. Compare and contrast findings between classrooms.
    • Report water quality findings to city government and/or local watershed councils.
  • National Geographic Field Scope—A web-based mapping, analysis and collaboration tool supporting student citizen scientists.
  • Testing salinity: Make your own hydrometer, available with many other ocean education materials on UCLA Marine Science Center’s OceanGLOBE webpages.

Assessment:

  • Use the open-ended Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) to assess student attitudes about what scientists look like, and to determine the extent to which they see themselves as scientists. Scoring rubric example: DAST Rating Rubric
  • Compare pre- and post- pictures to determine whether students see themselves as scientists, and whether their concept of what “doing science” has expanded to include a wider variety of participants.
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Storm Drain Marking

Stewardship—Storm Drain Marking

Summary: Many people erroneously believe storm drains connect to sewer treatment systems. But in most communities, whatever enters the drains is discharged directly into a neighboring body of water (lake, river or bay) without benefit of treatment. In this activity, students mark storm drains to warn citizens not to dump polluting materials.

Concepts to teach: Storm drain, pollution, public awareness

Goals: Students take what they have learned about nonpoint source pollution and storm drain routes and devise an action plan that will improve the health of the ecosystem. They mark storm drains to increase public awareness of watershed pollution concerns.

Standards:
SS.08.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Identify unmarked local storm drains and determine where the waters end up.
  2. Obtain marking materials and work with local officials to gain permission to mark storm drains.
  3. Stencil/mark storm drains and document the activity through written articles and photos for the local media.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Use Stormwater Pathways topic guide to learn about local stormdrains and their routes.
  • Remember to get permission from the city BEFORE marking storm drains.
  • The Storm Drain Marking how-to video from Clark County, Washington explains what is needed to embark on a storm drain marking project. Ask your local county about the procedures, materials, and programs available in your area. Some areas may have programs tailored to student groups.
  • Oregon Surfrider often holds storm drain marking events.
  • Portland has more than 55,000 storm drains that can be located using a searchable map
  • Students document the activity through reports, photographs, and video and share the information with the local media.

Assessment:

  • Students present information to local officials explaining the need and rationale for storm drain marking.
  • Students document their storm drain marking activity through reports, photographs and video, and share the information with the local media.
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Real Time Data

Human Impacts—Real Time Data

Summary: How is water quality inland related to water quality located downstream? Real time or near-real-time data collected by scientists and remote sensing equipment are available to view online.  In this focus area, students access some of these tools to answer questions about water quality.

Concepts to teach: Water quality, real time data, inquiry, downstream

Goals: Students access and interpret water quality data in the classroom using the internet and remote sensing tools. They use the data to answer questions about how water quality inland influences water quality downstream.

Standards:
S.06.3S.1, S.06.3S.2, S06.3S.3
S.07.3S.1, S.07.3S.2, 7.3S.3

S.08.3S.1, S.08.3S.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Gain experience working with real time data.
  2. Address/answer a water quality inquiry using real time data.
  3. Explain how inland and coastal water quality is connected.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Monitoring Estuarine Water Quality—From the NOAA Data in the Classroom Curriculum
    • Lessons 1-4 show how to read real time water quality data in an Atlantic system
    • Lesson 5 invites students to ask a question about local water quality and look for data to support or disprove a hypothesis. For example, track turbidity and temperature at South Slough Winchester Arm over one year and explain how inland rivers may be influencing seasonal trends.
  • NANOOS—Collect and interpret real time water quality data from ocean observing buoys. Some buoys are located well up the Columbia River, so students are able to conduct an inquiry to compare and contrast aquatic, estuarine and ocean water quality data.
    • Rhythms of Our Coastal Waters interactive online exhibit leads students through real-time data collection and assessment in Yaquina Bay, Newport.
  • Compare StreamWebs data from different sites in the watershed and throughout Oregon.

Assessment:

  • Students prepare a scientific lab report that describes the procedures and outcome of their investigation using real-time data.
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Who Dirtied the Water?

Human Impacts—Who Dirtied the Water?

Summary: Who is responsible for pollution of water resources and the subsequent clean up? Students identify a variety of pollution sources though participating in a story about the progressive contamination of a model body of water. They recognize that once the water is contaminated, it is difficult to determine to what extent various participants are responsible for the problem, and it is difficult to clean up the mess.

The original source for the popular “Who Dirtied the Water?” activity is unknown, and many variations exist on the web with this title. This lesson can avoid inducing ecophobia by empowering students to identify reasonable solutions to the problem of water pollution, creating new rules that change the story, and by discussing the limits of models.

Concepts to teach: Pollution, responsibility, problem-solving, models

Goals: Determining the source of pollution and assigning responsibility for pollution impacts can be a complex process that requires the help of science and the cooperation of many stakeholders. Solutions for aquatic pollution include both pollution prevention and effective clean up technology.

Standards:
SS.08.GE.07, SS.08.SA.03

Specific Objectives:

  1. Identify five distinctly different sources and vectors of pollution to a model body of water.
  2. Engage in a facilitated discussion with peers about who is responsible for cleaning up the model body of water.
  3. Create a model of a device that cleans the polluted water.
  4. Devise new rules to prevent pollution of the water.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Who Dirtied the Water?—The original source for this popular activity is unknown, and many variations exist on the web with this title. This lesson can avoid inducing ecophobia by empowering students to identify reasonable solutions to the problem of water pollution, creating new rules that change the story, and by discussing the limits of models.
    • Consider modifying the “story” to represent your local waters and types pollution common to your area.
    • Clean Water: Is it Drinkable?—The second part of the lesson plan asks students to create a filtration system to remove the contaminants from the water. Since the filters will be unlikely to clean up the water completely, follow this exercise with a discussion about the limits of models.
    • New Rules—Have students devise new rules for the discharge of pollutants, and perform the story again to see if the water is any less polluted by the end. Discuss how the modifications may lead to new problems (for example, lack of fund to build a water treatment plant, toxins seeping out of a landfill, etc)
  • A similar write up of Who Dirtied the Water comes from the Museum of Science and Industry in Illinois.

Assessment:

  • Identify reasonable solutions to the problem of water pollution in the activity. Create new rules and see how the story changes as a result of those rules (for better or for worse).
  • Discuss the limitations of models, why we use models, and how the activity does and does not accurately reflect a real situation.
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Nonpoint Source Pollution

Human Impacts—Nonpoint Source Pollution

Summary: Nonpoint source pollution (NSP) comes from many diffuse sources, and is a leading cause of water quality problems in the U.S.. In this topic guide, students identify different types of NSP and their effects on water quality.

Concepts to teach: Nonpoint source pollution, runoff, point source pollution, toxins, biomagnification, eutrophication

Goals: Students learn about many sources and impacts of nonpoint source pollution and their impact on local and distant waters. They identify how personal behavior and community practices can contribute to nonpoint source pollution.

Standards:
S.06.3S.1, S.06.3S.2
S.07.3S.1, S.07.3S.2, 7.3S.3
S.08.3S.1, S.08.3S.2

SS.08.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Identify the difference between point and nonpoint source pollution, and give examples of each.
  2. Conduct an inquiry to determine the effects of a type of nonpoint source pollution on water quality.
  3. Describe how local nonpoint source pollution affects ocean health.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Nonpoint Source Pollution tutorial—This extensive resource from the NOAA ocean service education pages provides definitions, history, methods used to detect nonpoint source pollutants, and ways to assess and reduce their damaging effects on the environment.
  • StreamWebs—This OSU Extension student stewardship network provides open-source, web-based tools for watershed data management, analysis and networking for teachers and students. Use the provided data sheets and protocols to determine the extent to which nonpoint source pollution and other human impacts may affect local stream health. Compare data within a stream, and to other student studies posted on the StreamWebs website.
    • Water Quality Data: Measure and compare temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity in nearby stream(s).
    • Macroinvertebrate Data: Assess stream health based on the types and numbers of macroinvertebrates found.
  • Classroom inquiry—The EPA Brochure “Ideas for Science Fair Projects on Surface Water Quality Topics” lists several simple inquiry projects for a classroom or student groups to undertake. Topics include:
    • Fertilizers and algal growth
    • Effect of stream health on macroinvertebrate diversity
    • The effect of “first flush” on water quality
    • The effect of buffers on water quality
    • Cleaners and their effect on water quality
  • US Environmental Protection Agency’s Articles and Activities for Middle School Students—A collection of classroom materials relating to an issue of nonpoint source pollution in the U.S.. Most use case studies used are from regions outside the Pacific Northwest.
    • After the Storm—30 minute video co-produced by EPA and The Weather Channel, with supporting resources
  • Excess nutrients
  • NOAA Ocean Explorer curriculum

Assessment:

  • Publish water quality data on the StreamWebs website and compare findings to results found by other classrooms.
  • Reflective assessment ideas included in the Traveling Nitrogen activity.
  • Describe how local water quality issues affect ocean health.
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Dirty Water, Clean Water

Human Use of Resources—Dirty Water, Clean Water

Summary: Where does dirty water go when it leaves your home? This topic guide focuses on wastewater movement and treatment in municipal areas.

Concepts to teach: Storm water, wastewater, water treatment plant, septic system

Goals: Students recognize that water is an important resource used by humans, and that wastewater must be managed in order to conserve resources and to prevent harmful contaminants from escaping into the environment. They learn about various engineering solutions to wastewater management, including sewer systems, water treatment facilities, and septic systems.

Standards:
S6.4D.1, S6.4D.3
S7.4D.1
S8.4D.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Describe the difference between sewer lines and stormwater lines.
  2. Trace the route toilet water takes after it is flushed, and explain what happens to the water at each stage along its route.
  3. Illustrate how a septic tank works.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Review the Water Use topic guide from the Land and Water Use focus area in this module
  • Contact your local city planning department or soil and water conservation districts for maps of local sewer lines. For example:
  • Dirty Water Clean Water—This investigation from Alaska Sea Grant’s “Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum” is designed for younger students, but the basic structure can apply to middle school students as well. Invite a wastewater expert to the classroom, or take a field trip to a wastewater treatment facility.
  • Virtual tours of wastewater treatment plants in locations outside the Pacific Northwest are also available:
  • Septic Tanks
    • What is a Septic Tank?—This activity has students create a model septic tank. To make this lesson inquiry-based for middle schoolers, ask students to make their own septic tank model and explain how it works.
    • Background article to help students make their model: What Happens After the Flush?
  • EPA’s Enviromapper—This website provides access to several EPA databases to provide information about environmental activities that may affect air, water and land anywhere in the U.S. See which facilities in your zip code have permits to discharge wastewater into rivers
  • The Story of Dryville from USGS—Water management in a fictional, growing town.

Assessment:

  • Discuss differences between sewer lines and stormwater lines.
  • Trace the route toilet water takes after it is flushed, and explain what happens to the water at each stage along its route.
  • Using a drawing or model, describe how a septic tank works.
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Stormwater Pathways

Place—Stormwater Pathways

Summary: Where does rainwater go after it hits the ground? In this topic guide, students find out where stormwater around their school or other local area goes, and what environmental contaminants might get picked up along the way.

Concepts to teach: Stormwater, storm drains, sewer system

Goals: Students work with storm drain maps to ground-truth their location and function, and determine pathways for stormwater in the local area. They also identify potential pollutants that could contaminate stormwater.

Standards:
S6.4D.3
SS8.GE.02, SS8.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Use storm drain map to determine where local storm water ends up.
  2. Identify potential sources of stormwater contaminants in a local area.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Contact your local city planning department or soil and water conservation districts for maps of storm drains around the schoolyard. Remember to ask them for a KEY to go along with the map! Examples:
  • Trace the route stormwater takes from the schoolyard to its outflow site. Discuss how and the extent to which the stormwater may reach aquatic and marine ecosystems.
  • Stormwater runoff: Pervious and Impervious surfaces
  • Take the maps outside and locate the drains, their contents, and the direction stormwater (if any) is running inside the drain. Survey the area round storm drains for potential contaminants to stormwater, including: sediment, sewage, oil, nutrients, toxins, etc.
    • Note any discrepancies between the maps and student direct observations, and if necessary, report problems to the city or other authorities
    • Remove debris that may be clogging storm drains or gutters.
    • Visit the drains in dry and wet weather conditions.
  • Survey the area round storm drains for potential contaminants to stormwater, including: sediment, sewage, oil, nutrients, toxins, etc.
  • Create a Quest that traces the pathways stormwater takes when it falls on and around your school. Example: Taft Stormwater Quest

Assessment:

  • Probe: Rain on the Parking Lot—The purpose of this OCEP probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how rainwater interacts with impervious surfaces.
  • On a map, trace the route stormwater takes from the schoolyard to its outflow site.
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