Salmon Studies

Coastal Habitats & Species—Salmon Studies

Summary: Through the study salmon habitats, students learn the importance of watersheds to salmon, and how salmon are connected to both inland watersheds and the ocean.

Concepts to teach: Adaptations, survival, migration, freshwater vs. saltwater habitats

Goals: Students will learn about the unique life cycle and migration habits of salmon and how they find their way back to their freshwater breeding grounds.

Standards:
6.2L.2, 6.3S.1, 7.3S.1, 8.3S.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Describe the importance of watersheds to salmon life cycles.
  2. Identify adaptations that enable salmon to inhabit and navigate watersheds.
  3. Define the term “anadromous”

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Salmon Watch curriculum—Lessons in Unit 4 cover salmon anatomy, life cycles, adaptations and habitat requirements.
  • 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 several lessons having to do with salmon, including:
    • Riffles and Pools, p. 357—“Students will apply concepts learned about habitat needs of salmonids during their life cycle by completing a work sheet analyzing riffles and pools.”
    • Home Wet Home, p. 393—“Students will recognize the habitat components necessary for salmonids in a stream, and analyze and describe how each stream structure contributes to salmonid habitat needs.”
    • See the chapter Field Investigations for protocols of complimentary outdoor investigations.
  • 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 students can use to assess the health of salmon habitats.
    • StreamWebs Data sheets
      • Water Quality
      • Riparian & Aquatic Survey
      • Riparian Transect
      • Photopoint Monitoring
      • Streamflow
      • Canopy Cover Survey
      • Soil Survey
      • Pebble Count
    • Post results on SteamWebs and seek out similar data collected by others
    • Identify habitats that are suitable for salmon
  • Salmon dissection resources available in the Elementary level Salmon Studies topic guide
  • Visit the Oregon Hatchery Research Center or a hatchery closer to your school
    • Do the self-guided OHRC Quest, which is a clue-directed interpretive hunt created by 8th graders at Crestview Heights School in Waldport
    • Make your own Quest or other interpretive guide that helps the public learn about salmon and salmon habitat

Assessment:

  • Post sampling data on StreamWebs and seek out similar data collected by others.
  • Determine whether your study site is suitable for salmon, and use data to explain why or why not.
/by

Macroinvertebrates

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:
6.2L.2, 6.3S.1, 7.2E.1, 7.2E.3, 7.3S.1, 7.3S.2, 8.3S.1

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:

  • Macroinvertebrates Summary adapted from Florida Department of Conservation
  • 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 two macroinvertebrate lessons:
    • Build a Bug, p. 319—“Students work in small teams to build an aquatic insect model out of simple materials.”
    • 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.”
  • 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
    • 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? Please support your answer.
    • What advantages and disadvantages would looking at macroinvertebrate populations have over a direct examination of physical and chemical parameters of water quality?
/by

Mapping Your Watershed

Introduction—Mapping Your Watershed

Summary: This laboratory activity is designed to help students use remote sensing imagery to explore and classify natural and human derived land uses in watershed ecosystems.

Concepts to teach: Interconnectedness, cycles, various coastal habitats

Goals: Students will look critically at their local landscape using remote sensing imagery and ground truth to identify habitats present in a coastal watershed and develop a classification scheme of natural and human derived land uses.

Standards:
6.2E.1, 6.3S.1, 6.3S.2, 6.4D.1, 6.4D.3
7.2E.1, 7.2E.4, 7.3S.1, 7.3S.2, 7.3S.3, 7.4D.1, 7.4D.3
8.3S.2, 8.4D.1, 8.4D.2, 8.4D.3

Specific Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to describe what an orthographic photo is and why it is useful.
  2. Students will be able to explain in simple terms what GIS is and how it can be used to interpret data.
  3. Students will be able to explain what remote sensing is and why it can be useful in understanding coastal watersheds.
  4. Students will be able to identify land uses and explain how they relate to the overall watershed health.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Check maps for understanding, clarity and usefulness. Remind students their maps are only useful if another person can pick it up and interpret it or they can use it weeks later and still understand what was being displayed.
  • Challenge students to calculate area of each habitat type shown on their maps
  • Have students work on an inquiry project using their data from their maps as a jumping off point or background for the study
/by

Watershed Modeling

Introduction—Watershed Modeling

Summary: Students will create and explore small scale models of watersheds made from either paper or in a large group using a shower curtain. Students work to identify various living and nonliving features within their model and look at how they function within a watershed. Run-off, erosion, and sources of pollution are explored using water bottles and props.

Concepts to teach: Watershed features, watershed health, runoff & erosion, point & non-point source pollution.

Goals: Students will explore the features of a watershed and understand how various natural processes might be impacted by human activity.

Standards:
7.2E.4

Specific Objectives:

  1. Identify nonliving and living features found in a watershed and describe how water interacts with those features.
  2. Understand and describe how human activities can affect watersheds.
  3. Name at least two actions they can take to keep a watershed healthy

Activity Links and Resources:

  • A Watershed Model in Your Hands—This activity was written by the Oregon Coast Education Program. Students work individually to create a watershed model using paper.
  • Crumple a Watershed – This similar lesson developed by OMSI includes student instructions, worksheets, and extensions.

Assessment:

  • Students create diagrams and descriptions to predict what will happen when water is added to the model. After the experiment, students compare their predictions to what actually happened when the model was used and explain why the model performed the way it did.
  • Create a Venn diagram comparing the model watershed and natural watershed.
  • Journal reflection: Describe how the model demonstrates watershed processes.
/by

Watershed Walk

Introduction—Watershed Walk

Summary: This topic guide focuses on introducing students to watersheds by experiencing the one right outside their door. Students begin by using mapping programs and brief activities to learn about the water cycle and how water moves through the watershed. Students will then engage in a guided watershed walk on local school grounds to identify features and observe the water cycle in action.

Concepts to teach: Reading maps, local geography, water cycle, watershed features and surfaces.

Goals: Students will learn about how water moves through their local watershed and its related features.

Standards:
6.2E.1, 7.2E.1, 7.2E.4, 8.2E.4

Specific Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to name their home and/or school watershed
  2. Students will be able to identify the main body of water closest to their home and/or school.
  3. Students will be able to define at least four features of a watershed (e.g., rivers, creeks, soils, vegetation, slope, etc.)
  4. Students will be able to describe how water cycles through the local watershed.
  5. Students will be able to describe at least three things people do which have a negative effect on watersheds.
  6. Students will be able to describe at least three things they can do that have a positive effect on the watershed.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Watershed Walk was developed by OCEP Leadership team members and contains the activity description as well as a copy of the “Coastal Water Cycle Journey” (adapted from Project WET’s “Imagine!” activity) that takes students through the life of a water droplet.
  • Why Care for the Watershed PowerPoint—Use this OCEP-created presentation to introduce a watershed unit.
  • Quests are interpretive clue-directed hunts that get people outside exploring their communities.
    • Watershed Quest—This lesson plan from PBS KQED outlines activities essential to place-based understanding of your community’s watershed, and then students create a Quest to share their learning with others.
    • If you make your own Watershed Quest, share your creation with Oregon Coast Quests
  • Google Earth has many different features and layers that allows students to “fly” to any place around the world while exploring their local watershed and even look at historical imagery if available.
  • EPA Surf Your Watershed—find a myriad of information about your local watershed. Type in your zip code to discover stream flow data from USGS, watershed assessments, and even demographic information.

Assessment:

  • Pre/Post Watershed Knowledge survey
  • Use or develop formative assessment probes to gauge student understanding about the water cycle. The following probes from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, vol. 3 could be applied or modified:
    • What are clouds made of
    • Rainfall
    • Where did the water come from
    • Wet jeans and vignette
  • To obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website
  • Evaluate completed student worksheets as a way to gauge understanding and address any misconceptions about watershed knowledge.
/by

Plant for the Planet

Planning—Plant for the Planet

Summary: Despite their youth, elementary students can and do engage in projects that help address the problem of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this topic guide, students learn about local trees in the schoolyard and how individual trees impact global systems. They then propose a restoration project that involves adding carbon-capturing trees to the system, use iTree Design to calculate the ecological benefits of the trees, and share their findings with others.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Trees provide ecosystem services, including sequestering carbon
  2. Planting trees can provide benefits to the local and global system

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
  • 5-ESS3-1.Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

Specific Objectives
Students will be able to:

  1. Identify local trees in their schoolyard
  2. Collect and record diameter at breast height (DBH) of one or more local trees
  3. Assess the impact of an existing or proposed tree on the ecosystem

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Activity: Plant for the Planet—This curriculum includes lessons for students to observe and learn about trees in the schoolyard, and then connect the ecological services of the trees to global issues
    • This video describes how a young boy in Germany has helped plant more than a billion trees to help sequester carbon.
    • Use iTree Design to estimate the benefits of individual trees planted in a local area.

Assessment:

  • Students propose a restoration project that will harness the power of plant photosynthesis to reduce atmospheric carbon levels.
  • What other services does the tree provide that impact the ecosystem?
/by

Protecting Wetlands

Planning—Protecting Wetlands

Summary: Plants living in the ocean have a tremendous role to play in carbon storage, and salt marshes are particularly good at storing carbon because the plants decompose so slowly. This topic guide focuses on the role marine wetlands play in carbon sequestration. Students visit a local wetland to better understand what ecological services it may provide, and then share the information with others who can help prioritize wetlands protection and restoration efforts.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Through photosynthesis, plants take in and store carbon dioxide from the air
  2. Salt marshes store a lot of carbon because the organic material is slow to decompose
  3. Wetlands provide a variety of ecosystem services, including sequestering carbon

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Specific Objectives
Students will be able to:

  1. Describe the role marine wetlands play in storing carbon
  2. Describe the many other ecological services provided by wetlands

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Students create and share with others presentations that describe the role a local wetland has in sequestering excess carbon from the atmosphere. Examples of presentations may include a poster, a theatrical interpretation of the carbon cycle, a slide presentation, video, PSA, etc.
/by

Too Much Carbon

Impacts—Too Much Carbon

Summary: What happens when humans burn fossil fuels? The excess carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere causes the many climate change impacts explored in other areas of this module. In this topic guide, learn how CO2 is measured, interpret data charts to describe how CO2 levels have changed over time, and and find out what the current average CO2 levels are.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. When humans burn fossils fuels, CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere
  2. CO2 and other greenhouse gases trap heat and raise the temperature of the planet
  3. Measurements of atmospheric CO2 show that the levels are increasing

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 4-ESS3-1.Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

Specific Objectives
Students will be able to:

  1. Describe ways in which CO2 gets into the atmosphere
  2. Obtain scientific information that describes how atmospheric CO2 levels change with seasons and across years
  3. Compare current CO2 levels to past levels

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • How much has the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide increased in the air just in the last few years?
  • How do carbon dioxide levels vary throughout the year?
/by

Carbon Capture

Science Concepts—Carbon Capture

Summary: This topic guide focuses on photosynthesis to help students to understand the role that plants play in carbon storage. Through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Animals, in contrast, breathe in oxygen, and breathe out carbon dioxide. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been adding more carbon into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, and this imbalance in the carbon cycle has led to changes in the Earth’s climate. The role that plants naturally play in carbon uptake is becoming increasingly important as humans look for ways to deal with increasing amounts of carbon in the atmosphere.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Through photosynthesis, plants take in carbon dioxide from the air
  2. Most of a tree’s mass is made up of carbon
  3. Plants play an important role in capturing, storing, and releasing carbon

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Specific Objectives
Students will be able to:

  1. Explain how plants put on mass by obtaining carbon from the air through photosynthesis.
  2. Describe the role plants play in storing carbon
  3. Identify ways carbon can be released from plant material

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment

  • Use Van Helmont’s question as an assessment to elicit ideas about how plants put on mass.
  • Suggest a redesign of Van Helmont’s experiment that includes an understanding of photosynthesis.
/by

Carbon on the Move

Science Concepts—Carbon on the Move

Summary: Carbon is an important element that comprises part of all living organisms and is found in many nonliving parts of our planet and atmosphere. In this topic guide, students explore the carbon cycle to discover how carbon moves between atmosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. With a clear understanding of the carbon cycle, carbon sources and carbon sinks, students will be poised to better understand the causes and impacts of global climate change.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Carbon moves around the planet in various forms and substances
  2. A carbon source, living or non-living, releases CO2 into the atmosphere
  3. A carbon sink absorbs and holds CO2 from the air or water
  4. Human activities are emitting excess carbon into the atmosphere

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Identify objects in their surroundings that contain carbon
  2. Describe how carbon moves through living and non-living part of the Earth system
  3. Identify parts of the carbon cycle where carbon is released into the atmosphere
  4. Identify parts of the carbon cycle where carbon is held from the air or water
  5. Describe how burning fossils fuels contributes to an increase in atmospheric carbon

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Reading: The Carbon Cycle—From NESTA Windows on the Universe, explores how carbon moves through ecosystems
  • Online Activity: Play the online interactive Carbon Cycle Game
  • Activity: Carbon Walk—In this Lesson 1.1 from the Bringing Wetlands to Market curriculum, students discover the many places carbon can be found in and around the schoolyard. Consider combining this activity with the OCEP Watershed Walk.
  • It All Starts With Carbon—This Aquarium of the Pacific presentation on the Climate Interpreter website provides a simple description of the role carbon plays in climate change.
    • The “Heat Trapping Blanket” image helps students understand and be able to describe the impacts of excess CO2 in the atmosphere

Assessment:

  • From OCEP teacher Nancy Buchanan: After playing the Carbon Cycle Game, students write a paragraph about their trip through the cycle, including 1) where they went and 2) how they got to each destination. Students create a “map” documenting their journey through the carbon cycle.
  • Carbon Walk observations and classifications. Students identify whether or not an object contains carbon, or whether it is a carbon sink or source.
/by