Coastal Ecology—Tidal Flat Exploration

Summary: This field lesson provides a structured experience for students to investigate the life of the tidal flats of the estuary and explore the relationship between sediments, elevation, and the life beneath surface.

Concepts to teach: Marine and coastal ecosystems, habitats, estuaries, benthic organisms

Goals: Students will collect and use evidence to explain the relationship between abiotic factors and the distribution of organisms in an estuary.

Standards:
H.2L.2, H.3S.1, H.3S.2

Specific Objectives: Students will understand that:

1. The tide flats are covered twice a day by salty estuary water.
2. The tide flats are made of sediment which may be sand, mud, or gravel.
3. The type of sediment and the elevation determine what lives where.
4. Most animals burrow below the mud to stay wet, protected, and to feed on the tidewater.
5. Different animals have different types of adaptations for life in the mud.

Activity Links and Resources:

• The TIDES “Tidal Flats” lessons were developed by the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve for middle school audiences, but the lessons are regularly used for high school students as well.
  • Tidal Flats Power Point
• Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport offers Estuary Investigation field classes for all ages. Students use “slurpers” to discover what organisms live beneath the mud of the tidal flats.
  • Pre-visit materials

Assessment:

• Examine student field journals and data for completeness. Students may present their findings in a PowerPoint presentation or report.

Coastal Habitats & Species—Salinity and Tides

Summary: Students learn about tides and salinity in estuaries. Based on observations of time-lapse models of tides and salinity distribution in an estuary, students make predictions about salinity changes, and use salinity data to generate graphs to explain salinity patterns in an estuary.

Concepts to teach: pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, conductivity

Goals: Students identify several factors that determine why salinity changes are different depending on your location within the estuary.

Standards:
H.2E.1, H.3 S.1, H.3S.2, H.3S.3

Specific Objectives: Students will be able to:

1. Analyze different forms of data and synthesize information to develop a hypothesis.
2. Explain how tides and the geology of the estuary affect water circulation in an estuary.
3. Describe daily patterns of salinity changes in an estuary.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Salinity and Tides in York River – from the NOAA Estuary Education website [pdf] 
  • Consider adapting this exercise to a local Oregon estuarine environment such as South Slough NERR.
  • Compare and contrast the conclusions made about salinity in the Chesapeake Bay with salinity patterns in an Oregon estuaries
• Rhythms of Our Coastal Waters—This interactive NANOOS exhibit helps learners discover how salinity fluctuates in the Yaquina Bay estuary in Newport, OR.
  • Use real-time LOBO data to answer one or more of the four posed questions about salinity in Yaquina Bay.
• Background information and activities dealing with salinity can be found in the middle school Life in the Waters topic guide.
• Visit an estuary and measure salinity at a variety of points to generate that can be used to describe patterns and processes.
  • Measure salinity at several points along a transect perpendicular to the ocean and see to what degree the data show a gradient of inland fresh water to ocean salt water.
  • Measure salinity at the surface and at depth to determine whether a salt water wedge can be detected.
  • Measure salinity at different points in the tidal cycle.
  • If possible, compare student-collected data with existing data sets.

Assessment:

• See the Check for Understanding section in the Salinity and Tides lesson for suggestions on how to assess student learning.
• Level 5 of the Rhythms of Our Coastal Waters “tests” your LOBO abilities.

Introduction—Mapping Watersheds & Estuaries

Summary: In these activities, students use remote sensing imagery to explore and classify natural and human derived land uses in watershed ecosystems. The activity from Estuaries 101 focuses on the San Francisco Bay Estuarine Research Reserve, and students trace the extent of its watershed using Google Earth. In the TIDES activity, students use GIS and orthographic photos of Charleston, Oregon to explore connections and land use. In both activities, students investigate human impacts on watershed and estuaries. Extend these mapping and monitoring techniques for use on a local watershed and estuary.

Concepts to teach: Cycles, Productivity, Balance

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Effectively use and interpret remote sensing images.
• Explain how agricultural ares, industrial sites, landfills and sewage treatment plants affect water quality in a watershed.
• Explain how an estuary can act as a filtration system for runoff in a watershed.

Standards:
H.2L.2

Specific Objectives:

1. Identify the processes in the watershed that affect conditions in the estuary and explain some specific examples
2. Describe and demonstrate several ways of visualizing and mapping large ecosystems.
3. Apply understanding of changes in the watershed and the resulting effects on the estuary to explain real-life situations regarding land use and weather in watersheds
4. Understand how water quality factors are affected by natural and man-made sources of pollution and contamination.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Estuary and the Watershed: Part 3 from Estuary Education
  • Summary for Mapping Watersheds and Estuaries
• TIDES “Mapping Watershed, Habitat & Uses” lessons from the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
  • PowerPoint: OCEP Remote Sensing and GIS: An introduction to the world of Mapping Your Watershed
• EPA Surf Your Watershed find a variety of information about your local watershed. Type in your zip code to discover stream flow data from USGS, watershed assessments, and even demographic information.
• Mapping the Connection—This topic guide in OCEP Module 2 focuses on how watersheds are connected to the ocean.

Assessment:

• Apply mapping techniques to a local watershed and estuary.
• See the Check for Understanding section of Estuary Education lesson plan.

Coastal Ecology—Watershed Health

Summary: The health of watersheds can be affected by a myriad of factors, and watershed councils and managers often must prioritize issues and projects for local regions. In this topic guide, students connect with local watershed councils to identify, learn more about, and participate in the resolution of current local watershed issues. Because issues will vary from place to place, examples are provided as a guide.

Concepts to teach: Place-based education, community organizations, public communication, resource management

Goals: Students understand and can explain an issue affecting the local the local watershed, and can identify, propose and/or participate in concrete solutions to the issue.

Standards:
H.2E.4

Specific Objectives:

1. Meet with and interview representatives from local watershed organizations, land managers, or other community members who are involved with maintaining and improving the health of the local watershed.
2. Propose or take part in activities that address local watershed health issues.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Oregon Watershed Enchancement Board (OWEB)
  • An Overview of Oregon Watershed Councils
  • Find your local watershed council and get involved.
  • How Watershed Assessments are conducted and used
• EPA Surf Your Watershed provides a variety of information about your local watershed and and organizations that may be working on projects related to watershed health in your area. Type in your zip code find “Citizen-based Groups at work” in your watershed.
• Oregon Explorer—Use this natural resources digital library to find issues, actions, maps and data from wetlands around the state.
• Bureau of Land Management Environmental Education highlights a variety of ways students throughout the state participate in projects focusing on watershed health.
• Conduct water quality studies as described in the Macroinvertebrates and Salmon Studies topic guides. Report findings to local watershed council.

Assessment:

• Honoring our Rivers—The Honoring Our Rivers student anthology project showcases Oregon student writing and artwork focused on rivers and watersheds. From poetry to prose and fiction, from illustration to photography, students from across the state submit their work to a juried-review process and finalists appear before the public in an annual anthology and at exhibits, events and readings hosted by Honoring Our Rivers.
  • Address a local watershed issue in a piece submitted to Honoring our Rivers.

Coastal Habitats & Species—Macroinvertebrates

Summary: Students will examine different aquatic habitats, collect macroinvertebrates from each and use an index to determine water quality based on the relative presence and absence of tolerant and intolerant species of macroinvertebrates found in each sample.

Concepts to teach: Aquatic habitats and species, biomonitoring

Goals: Students will understand how macroinvertebrates can be indicators of environmental and habitat quality.

Standards:
H.2L.2, H.3S.1, H.3S.2, H.3S.3

Specific Objectives:

1. Identify common macroinvertebrates
2. Explain the meaning of tolerant and intolerant species
3. Understand the role of an index as a tool for generating a single number for comparison of diverse entities.
4. Students use collected data to assess the health of aquatic environments.

Activity Links and Resources:

• The 550-page Stream Scene curriculum is available in .pdf format on the ODFW website, and covers a variety of watershed topics.
  • The chapter Aquatic Organisms contains lessons pertinent to macroinvertebrates, including:
    • Water Wigglers, p. 335—“Students collect material from microhabitats within a determined reach of stream. Invertebrates are taken from these samples and sorted into feeding groups. A count is kept of each feeding group on the data sheet and the percentage of each group/habitat is calculated.”
  • In the chapter Field Investigations, find sampling protocols in Macroinvertebrate Survey Team p. 471
• 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 a data sheet for assessing stream health through macroinvertebrate sampling.
  • Sample macroinvertebrates from one or more streams or ponds, and calculate Water Quality Ratings
    • StreamWebs macroinvertebrate data sheet
  • Post results on SteamWebs and seek out similar data collected by others
  • Compare Water Quality Ratings for sites separated by geography or time
• Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Dichotomous Key (from Georgia)

Assessment:

• Use collected data to answer the following questions:
  • Based upon your data, what is the relative health of the water body you studied? Use evidence to support your answer.
  • What advantages and disadvantages does looking at macroinvertebrate populations have over a direct examination of physical and chemical parameters of water quality?