Where the Land Meets the Sea

Science Concepts—Where the Land Meets the Sea

Summary: One consequence of climate change is sea level rise. In this topic guide, students learn how to read nautical charts that show where the sea meets the coast, the depth of coastal waters, and the coastal waterways that are used and mapped by people. They discover how charts are helpful tools for people who live and work at the coast, and think about how changes in sea level might affect the appearance of nautical charts in the future.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. A nautical chart is a special kind of map that shows what is in, on and around water.
  2. Nautical charts help mariners navigate safely.
  3. Over time, rising sea level will require that changes be made to coastal nautical charts.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 4-ESS2-2. Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Describe what a nautical chart is and what it is used for
  2. Read and identify simple features of a nautical chart
  3. Predict how an increase in sea level might change the appearance of a nautical chart

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Online Activity: Nautical Charts from NOAA Ocean Service Education
    • This multi-level interactive lesson can be explored together as a class, with breaks for students to find answers on their own.
    • Where are salt marshes located on the chart?
  • Obtain local nautical charts and practice identifying features, landmarks, water depth, marshes, etc.
  • Obtain local topographic maps to compare and contrast with the nautical charts.

Assessment:

  • Select and focus on a nautical chart and topographic map of a coastal area. Would a 12 inch increase in sea level change the appearance of these maps? Why or why not?
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Ocean Temperature

Science Concepts—Ocean Temperature

Summary: When displayed on a map, sea surface temperature (SST) measurements from the ocean help scientists see patterns in global sea surface temperature changes. Students watch and interpret an animation that shows temperatures varying according to season. Then they use a similar map to visualize temperature anomalies. Students practice reading and interpreting maps and charts to identify patterns, and they describe how patterns in data help scientists understand when new changes are occurring.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Scientists have been measuring ocean sea surface temperature for many years.
  2. Sea surface temperature normally varies according to latitude and season.
  3. By examining long-term datasets, scientists can detect changes that differ from normal patterns.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 3-ESS2-2. Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Identify factors that produce normal patterns of variability in ocean temperatures.
  2. Interpret a map that shows how sea surface temperatures vary over time.
  3. Obtain and evaluate information showing that ocean heat content is rising.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • NASA’s Global Temperature Anomalies visualization 1880-2018
  • What are today’s SST conditions? Check the earth.nullschool website for a visualization of global weather conditions forecast by supercomputers (updated every 3 hours)
  • EPA’s Ocean Heat Content—Ocean heat is an indicator for climate change. This page describes trends in the amount of heat stored in the world’s oceans between 1955 and 2015.

Assessment:

  • What do the colors in the “Anomalies” animation and the SST map indicate?
  • What are today’s SST conditions?
  • The EPA’s Ocean Heat Content graphic plots three different datasets on the graph. How does looking at results from more than one set of data help scientists understand patterns?

 

RETIRED LINK:

  • NOAA’s Global Science Investigator—Use false color images to examine patterns in sea surface temperatures. The Sea Surface Temperature animation can be used to determine normal seasonal variations 2000–2006, while the Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies animation shows temperatures that differ from normal patterns 1980–1999.
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Reduce Emissions

Mitigation—Reduce Emissions

Summary: We know what factors are contributing to a change in our global climate and ocean, so what can students, parents, and schools do to help? There are personal actions everyone can take to help reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere. This topic guide empowers students to take action and make a difference.

Concepts to teach:

Crosscutting Concepts Disciplinary Core Ideas Science Practices
Systems and System Models ESS3.C – Human Impacts on Earth Systems Constructing explanations and designing solutions; Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information

Goals:

  1. Reducing carbon emissions will make a difference to the rate and impact of climate change
  2. There are personal actions everyone can take to help reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 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. Describe how reducing greenhouse gas emissions will reduce the rate and impacts of climate change
  2. Identify and evaluate behaviors that reduce the amount of carbon humans put into the atmosphere

Activity Links and Resources:

  • The bathtub model shows that turning off the tap is an important component to solving the problem of excess greenhouse gases.
  • How does your behavior affect the carbon balance? Calculate your impact:
  • Ideas for reducing your impact on a personal level
  • Ideas for reducing your school’s impact

Assessment:

  • Quantitatively assess the impact of a behavior change
  • Share successful changes with others
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How do we know the world is warming?

Introduction—How do we know the world is warming?

Summary: What is climate change? How do we know it is happening? The resources in this topic guide provide an overview to the topic of climate change. Simple explanations and analogies are presented so that students can articulate a big picture view of the issue, with the recognition that these models have been developed based on evidence collected from complex scientific research throughout a number of disciplines. Subsequent sections of the OCEP Climate Change module explore some of these factors in greater depth.

Concepts to teach:

Crosscutting Concepts Disciplinary Core Ideas Science Practices
Stability and Change ESS3.D – Global Climate Change Asking Questions, Analyzing and interpreting data, Engaging in argument from evidence

Goals:

  1. Global climate change is caused by human activities that add excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; namely the burning of fossil fuels.
  2. Scientists interpret patterns to construct explanations and come to evidence-based conclusions.
  3. Climate change affects the ocean.
  4. Climate change affects all of us, no matter where we live.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Define “global climate change”
  2. Explain how scientific data provide evidence of global climate change
  3. Describe relationships between the ocean and the global climate

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Ten Signs of a Warming World—This NOAA Climate Program Office webpage can be used to explore a variety of indicators that help scientists understand that the world is warming. Download a Power Point presentation to use in your classroom. Each topic slide is link to online data. Many of the examples show specific relationships to ocean systems.

  • The Very, Very Simple Climate Model—This lesson plan is from NESTA Windows to the Universe. Students use an online model to graphically visualize and predict the relationship between CO2 emissions and average global temperature.
    • Notes from CLEAN (Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network) about using the model
  • Reading: How we know what we know about our changing climate by L. Cherry and G. Braash – Described as “a non-scary book about Climate Change Science and Solutions for grades 4 -8”, this book introduces readers to more than 40 climate scientists and their research, and offers practical suggestions that empower students to become citizen scientists and contribute toward solutions.
    • Review of this book from NSTA Recommends

Assessment:

  • Choose a graph from the Warming World Interactive power point and describe what the data show.
  • How do the data serve as an indicator of climate change?
  • Describe three ways the ocean is affected by global climate change.
  • Explain “global climate change” in terms a layperson can understand, using one or more of the following: 1) oral presentation, in less than one minute, 2) one written paragraph, or 3) an infographic
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Bycatch Reduction

Stewardship—Bycatch Reduction

Summary: The You’re Excluded topic guide in the previous section helps students learn about the concept of population ecology and sustainability in fishing practices. The activity ends with a stewardship component, highlighted here, which challenges students to devise solution that reduces bycatch.

Concepts to teach: Bycatch, excluder, trawl, iterative, efficiency, selectivity, engineering design

Goals: To deal with the unwanted problems associated with bycatch, the fishing industry must change their gear and/or their practices. Students design models of excluder devices to solve this real-world problem.

Standards:
S3.4D.1
S4.4D.1, S4.4D.2
S5.4D.1, S5.4D.2

SS.03.EC.01
SS.05.EC.01, SS.05.GE.07

SS.03.EC.01
SS.05.EC.01, SS.05.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Demonstrate how a model “excluder” reduces bycatch.
  2. Create a model of fishing gear that maximizes catch efficiency while minimizing bycatch

Activity Links and Resources:

  • You’re Excluded—In this classroom lesson plan from Oregon Sea Grant, students design their own model bycatch excluder devices. See the Activity Options section for suggestions about how to quantify results and allow for student experimentation.
  • See a video of a bycatch excluder device in action.
  • The Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor Center in Newport has a Science for Sustainable Fisheries exhibit which contains models of various fishing vessels and excluder gear.
  • The Washington-based Derelict Fishing Gear project on the Northwest Straits website describes stewardship projects designed to reduce the impacts of derelict gear.

Assessment:

  • Present oral or written description of a bycatch reduction method.
  • List the costs and benefits of a bycatch reduction method.
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Finding a Balance

Stewardship—Finding a Balance

Summary: The How Many Fish? topic guide in the previous section helps students learn about the concept of population ecology and sustainability in fishing practices. Each activity ends with a stewardship component, highlighted here, which challenges students to devise solution that promote sustainability.

Concepts to teach: Problem-solving, engineering design, fisheries management, sustainability

Goals: Students use models to design potential solutions to overharvesting.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S3.3S.3
S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.3S.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2, S5.3S.3

S3.4D.1, S3.4D.2
S4.4D.1, S4.4D.2
S5.4D.1, S5.4D.2

SS.03.EC.01
SS.05.EC.01, SS.05.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Recognize that fish populations remain stable when life history characteristics, ecological relationships, and harvesting practices are in balance.
  2. Propose an improvement to a fishing or gear that increases sustainability.
  3. Explain the role of fisheries managers in maintaining sustainability of the ocean’s resources.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Alaska Fisheries Science Center – See how fishers, scientists, fishery managers and seafood inspectors work to maintain sustainable fisheries.
  • NOAA Fisheries Northwest Regional Office School Curricula highlight how scientific evidence and stakeholder input help NOAA Fisheries policy makers and manager to decide on regulations and other actions to conserve and manage the resources for which the agency is responsible.
      • Lesson 3—Data collection and analysis, Halibut Derby activity
      • Lesson 4—Government, Policy and Management
      • Lesson 5—Compare science in classroom to NOAA’s work
    • Saving Salmon
      • Lesson 3—Management and Policy
      • Lesson 4—Economics and Stakeholders
      • Lesson 5—Civics, Rights and Responsibility
  • One Fish, Two Fish—Designed by OIMB Graduate students, this lesson encourages students to find a balance in their fishing practices. Students create new rules for a fishing game to improve sustainability.
  • Fishing for the Future—This lesson plan from Alaska Sea Grant’s “Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum” simulates fishery activity using increasingly sophisticated technology. In the Elaboration section, students create new rules for a fishing game to improve sustainability.
  • What can we do to keep seafood sustainable? Share your findings with others through a display, report, skit, or Public Service Announcement. Some examples:
    • Recreational Fishing Practices
      • Wash Your Boat—Use background information from the Oregon State Marine Board to create a PSA advising the recreational fishing community how to reduce the spread of invasive species.
      • Article: Make sure you have the correct escape cord on your crab pots –  explains how using cotton cord on crab pots can save thousands of crabs.
    • Seafood Consumer Practices
      • Seafood Watch —Monterey Bay Aquarium’s guide to sustainable seafood.
      • NOAA Fishwatch—Helps consumers make informed decisions about U.S. seafood
      • Help Wild Salmon—Salmon-safe’s top ten ways you can take action and be a salmon hero.

Assessment:

  • 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 and 4 could be applied or modified (to obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website):
    • Is it a model? (vol. 4)—elicits student ideas about how models are used to explore and test scientific ideas.
    • Doing science (vol. 3)—explores scientific inquiry concepts.
  • Assessment worksheets and other tools are included in many of the curricula in this topic guide.
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You’re Excluded

Human Impacts—You’re Excluded

Summary: Although fishing gear may be designed to catch a particular species of marketable fish, sometimes other species also accidentally get caught. Through hands on simulation, students explore how fishing trawls may be modified to reduce bycatch.

Concepts to teach: Bycatch, excluder, trawl, iterative, efficiency, selectivity, engineering design

Goals: To deal with the unwanted problems associated with bycatch, the fishing industry must change their gear and/or their practices. Students design models of excluder devices to solve this real-world problem.

Standards:
S3.4D.1
S4.4D.1, S4.4D.2
S5.4D.1, S5.4D.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Define “bycatch” and how it affects the fishing industry and the environment.
  2. Describe how a fishing trawl works to catch fish.
  3. Create and demonstrate how a model “excluder” reduces bycatch.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Discussion Questions included in the You’re Excluded curriculum.
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How Many Fish?

Human Impacts—How Many Fish?

Summary: How many fish do humans harvest, and can we harvest as many as we can and still expect fish populations to remain stable over time? Through hands-on modeling activities, students explore issues of population ecology and stock management issues in the Pacific Northwest. All of the activities presented here lead to stewardship activities that are listed in the Finding a Balance topic guide.

Concepts to teach: Renewable and non-renewable resources, population ecology, fisheries management, sustainability

Goals: The ocean’s resources are vast but not unlimited. With the help of scientific research and modeling, fisheries managers make rules about fishing so that the industry will remain (or become) sustainable.

Standards:
S3.1L.1, S3.3S.1
S4.1L.1, S4.3S.1
S5.1L.1, S5.3S.1

SS.03.EC.01
SS.05.EC.01, SS.05.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Recognize that fish populations remain stable when life history characteristics, ecological relationships, and harvesting practices are in balance.
  2. Explain how technology changes success in fishing.
  3. Demonstrate how fisheries managers use scientific research, models, and math to determine how many fish can be harvested.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • From the Alaska Fisheries Science Center:
    • Population Estimation– This narrated learning module introduces the concept of population estimation and then provides five examples using different species to describe the various methods AFSC scientists use to estimate population sizes.
    • Fish Fetch – This activity helps students understand how to estimate population size from samples.
  • Use the NOAA Fisheries: Office of Science and Technology website to download actual data on fish caught from year to year. The site allows you to sort for a specific species such as “salmon, sockeye” and for a location, “Oregon.” Use the data for graphing, finding mean and median, comparing, and other math exercises.
  • NOAA Fisheries Northwest Regional Office School Curricula highlight how scientific evidence and stakeholder input help NOAA Fisheries policy makers and manager to decide on regulations and other actions to conserve and manage the resources for which the agency is responsible.
    • Sustainable Halibut Fisheries
      • Lesson 1—Halibut life history, anatomy and adaptations
      • Lesson 2—Sustainability, technology changes
      • Lesson 3—Data collection and analysis, Halibut Derby activity
    •  Saving Salmon
      • Lesson 1—Salmon Needs and Historical Perspective
      • Lesson 2—Geography, Habitat and Government
  • One Fish, Two Fish—Designed by OIMB Graduate students, this lesson encourages students to find a balance in their fishing practices.
  • Fishing for the Future—This lesson plan from Alaska Sea Grant’s “Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum” simulates fishery activity using increasingly sophisticated technology.

Assessment:

  • Assessment worksheets and other tools are included in the NOAA Fisheries curricula.
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Fishing

Human Use of Resources—Fishing

Summary: For many Oregonians, one of the primary ways they connect with the ocean is through catching and eating seafood. This topic guide explores the story of Oregon’s fishing history, and invites students to reflect on the impacts seafood and fishing have in their own lives.

Concepts to teach: Recreational fishing, commercial fishing

Goals: Students recognize that they are connected to the ocean through the seafood they eat.

Standards:
SS.03.GE.05, SS.03.HS.01
SS.05.GE.07, SS.05.GE.08, SS.05.HS.01, SS.05.HS.07

S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S3.3S.3
S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.3S.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2, S5.3S.3

Specific Objectives:

  1. List three species of fish brought in to Oregon ports and consumed by at least some students in the class.
  2. Find out what kinds of seafood can be purchased locally, and from where the seafood was harvested.
  3. Identify changes that have occurred to the fishing industry in Oregon over the past century.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • The Oregon Story: Fishing—This OPB documentary offers on-line teacher resources, including complementary classroom activities, maps, and extensions.
  • ODFW list of sport fish species of Oregon—Students may have personal experiences fishing for or eating these species.
  • Sustainable U.S. Seafood—This resource from Alaska Fisheries Science Center was created to help educators introduce the complex process of how seafood gets to market.
    • What’s science got to do with it?—Introduces the science behind sustainable seafood.
    • Sets the stage for science and math activities in the Human Impacts and Stewardship sections of this focus area.
  • Bayfront Quest—This self-guided, place-based exploration of Newport’s commercial fishing industry can be used as a field trip activity, or as a model for creating a local Quest.

Assessment:

  • Probe: Connections to the Ocean—Consider specifically how students are connected to the ocean through diet.
  • Based on Fishing Inquiry studies, create a map showing the origins of various seafood that can be purchased locally.
  • Create histograms showing the most frequently consumed seafood among members of the class.
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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.03.CG.02, SS.03.CG.03, SS.03.GE.05, SS.03.HS.02, SS.03.SA.03, SS.03.SA.04
SS.05.CG.05, SS.05.CG.06, SS.05.GE.07, SS.05.GE.08, SS.05.HS.06

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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