Land Plan Challenge

Human Use of Resources—Land Plan Challenge

Summary: Community planning can balance human needs and the health of natural resources. In this classroom modeling activity from Windows to the Universe, “students use simplified maps to plan towns, being conscious of water resources, and then learn how their town fits into the larger community.”

Concepts to teach: Maps, land planning, water resources

Goals: Students will work together to learn what services and resources a town needs, and how to meet those needs while protecting water resources.

Standards:
H.2L.2, H.2E.4, H.4D.1, SS.HS.GE.07, SS.HS.GE.08

Specific Objectives:

  1. Learn what services and resources a town needs, and that land planning to protect water resources is important.
  2. Discover that planning a town requires group decision-making, and is most effective if done over a large area and with the cooperation of many communities.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • The Geography of Land Planning (previously entitled Land Plan Challenge) —This lesson plan from the National Earth Science Teachers Association includes worksheets, standards, and suggestions for assessment. Students use simplified maps to plan towns, being conscious of water resources, and then learn how their town fits into the larger community.
  • After mapping, discuss the effects of various types of land use might have on the nearby streams and other waterways. This concept will be further explored in the Human Impact section of the Land and Water Use focus area.
  • Compare and contrast the fictional towns created by students to real maps of the local area.

Assessment:

  • Assessments included in the Land Plan Challenge lesson plan, including “Have student groups write a proposal letter to readers of neighboring towns about what they would like to see changed and why.”
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Land Use and Land Cover

Human Use of Resources—Land Use and Land Cover

Summary: Students use Google Earth to make land use maps, and compare current and historic land uses.

Concepts to teach: Land use, land cover, Google Earth, historical changes in land use

Goals: Students become familiar with using Google Earth mapping software to learn more about and identify land use practices in the local community.

Standards:
SS.HS.GE.02, SS.HS.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Define land use and land cover and provide examples of land cover classes.
  2. Understand how to create a simple land cover map using Google Earth.
  3. Compare current and historical land use for a local area.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Understanding Land Use and Land Cover—This lesson plan from AmericaView gives detailed instruction about how to use Google Earth to make land use and land cover maps for the local area. Student computer access required.
  • Discuss how local land use impacts the environment locally, regionally, and globally.
  • To find current maps of your local area, contact your local:
    • City Planning Department
    • School District (keyword search: facility plan)
  • Identify changes in land use that have occurred over the past 100 years.
    • Use historic maps, photographs, and interviews with community elders and other experts to find out what the area was like in the past.
    • Illustrate the changes by making timelines and comparative maps.
  • Oregon Coast Quests
    • Yaquina Head Tale of Two Hills Quest—This self-guided place-based activity located in Newport tells the story of land use changes at Yaquina Head over 100 years. Featured human impacts include burning, livestock grazing, rock quarrying, golfing, residential development, and modern electrical towers.
    • Make a Quest or other interpretive guide that features the human impacts that students have identified in their local field site.

Assessment:

  • Worksheet and map from Understanding Land Use and Land Cover lesson plan.
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Field Trip Sites

Place—Field Trip Sites

Summary: Planning a field trip to learn about the Oregon coast? Connect students with your field trip destination prior to your visit, to better prepare them for the experience and to reduce some of the novelty that could inhibit effective use of time while on site.

Concepts to teach: Preparation Phase, spatial location of field trip site, watershed, use of equipment

Goals: It will be clear to the students where they are going on their field trip, what they can expect to see and do there, and what behaviors and actions will be expected of them.

Standards:
SS.HS.GE.01

Specific Objectives:

  1. Locate the field trip destination on a map and connect it with the school through both a land and water route.
  2. Preview features of the field trip site through the institution’s website, video, and/or personal contact with staff.
  3. Practice using skills and new equipment at a familiar site prior to the trip.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • B-WET Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences: BWET MWEEs—This document outlines the importance of Preparation, Action, and Reflection phases for experiential learning.
    • Connect your local field experiences with distant trips to the coast. Compare and contrast field sites through data collection, journaling, or other activities.
  • OCEP Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences: OCEP MWEEs—Steps 3, 4, and 5 of this document describes some specific goals for the Preparation phase of field experiences.
  • Research Based Field Trip Challenges and Recommendations
  • The following is a list of OCEP partner institutions, most of which offer educational programming for K-12 classes on field trips. Contact the institutions directly to set up a field trip and to access pre-visit materials. Some OCEP institutions may be able to provide a web-based meeting between their staff and your classroom prior to your visit. View a map with the location of all the OCEP institutions.

Assessment:

  • Discuss with students what they know and how they feel about the field trip site, and address misconceptions and concerns.
  • Use field equipment properly to collect reliable data in a familiar environment.
  • Generate a list of equipment, protocol for collecting data and/or driving directions to the field site
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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:
S6.2L.2, S6.3S.1
S7.2E.1, S7.3S.1
S8.3S.1

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:

  • 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
  • One Fish, Two Fish—Designed by OIMB Graduate students, this lesson encourages students to find a balance in their fishing practices.
  • Empty Oceans—This lesson plan from National Marine Sanctuaries focuses on how humans affect seafood species populations.

Assessment:

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

Stewardship—Protected Areas

Summary: Marine resources can be conserved through the establishment of National Marine Sanctuaries, Marine Protected Areas, and other protections. Students will learn about the importance of and controversies surrounding these protected areas.

Concepts to teach: National Marine Sanctuary, Marine Protected Area, conservation

Goals: Students learn about spatial planning issues affecting marine environments in Oregon, and how they affect ecosystem health, natural resource availability, and the economy.

Standards:
S7.2E.1
SS.08.SA.01

Specific Objectives:

  1. Locate and compare National Marine Sanctuaries and Marine Protected Areas in Oregon.
  2. Identify the habitats and species most affected by these protections.
  3. Describe how protected areas affect the fishing community.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Exploring Sanctuaries—This NOAA lesson from National Marine Sanctuaries focuses on diverse marine ecosystems and resource protections.
  • Common Ground—These online videos about Marine Protected Areas in Oregon describe highlight the diversity in views among stakeholders.
  • Oregon Marine Reserves Partnership – Find out where Oregon’s marine reserves are located, what makes them special, and how to learn more about what is happening inside them.
  • Hold a debate about the effect Marine Protected Areas have or may have on the fishing industry.

Assessment:

  • Poster and oral presentations included in the Exploring Sanctuaries curriculum.
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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:
S6.4D.1, S6.4D.2
S7.4D.1, S7.4D.2
S8.4D.1, S8.4D.2

SS.08.EC.01

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 Science for Sustainable Fisheries exhibit at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport has 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.
  • Tuna/dolphin controversy—This lesson from FORSEA tackles the controversial issue of how managers tried to reduce dolphin bycatch through changes in regulations in the tuna industry. Consider using this as a debate topic for mature students.

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

S6.4D.1, S6.4D.2
S7.4D.1, S7.4D.2
S8.4D.1, S8.4D.2

SS.08.EC.01

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
  • 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.
  • Empty Oceans—This lesson plan from National Marine Sanctuaries focuses on how humans affect seafood species populations.
  • 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.
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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:
S6.4D.1, S6.4D.2
S7.4D.1, S7.4D.2
S8.4D.1, S8.4D.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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Mapping the Connection

Place—Mapping the Connection

Summary: This focus area begins with the recognition that the ability to read and understand maps is essential to place-based learning, and can help students construct ideas about the relationship between where they live and the ocean. Students practice reading different kinds of maps, and they use maps to find out how their school is physically connected to the ocean through natural and human-made geographic features.

Concepts to teach: What maps show, map symbols, scale, cardinal directions, watersheds

Goals: Students locate their position within a watershed and determine how they are physically connected to the ocean. They understand the spatial concepts of location, distance, scale, movement and region, and use maps and other tools to acquire, process and report information from a spatial perspective.

Standards:
SS.HS.GE.01, SS.HS.GE.02

Specific Objectives:

  1. Use maps to find distant and local landmarks.
  2. Define a watershed and identify the watershed in which the school belongs.
  3. Trace both a land and water connection between school and the ocean.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Exploring Maps—Four lessons from USGS arranged around themes: location, navigation, information and exploration
  • Google Earth hunt—Instructor creates a scavenger hunt of relevant locations that can be found on Google Earth. Students virtually “fly” from site to site collecting place-based information.
    • Extension: Have students create their own hunts and then test each others’ creations.
  • For maps of your watershed, contact your local watershed organization. Search OWEB for watershed councils in Oregon.
  • Real-time streamflow data is available on the USGS WaterWatch website
  • Online source for visualizing different kinds of Oregon maps

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. 4 could be applied or modified (to obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website):
    • Where Would it Fall?—gets students to think about how much of the planet is covered by the ocean.
  • Probe: Connections to the Ocean—explores student ideas about connections between Oregon communities and the ocean.
  • Have students use a map and written instructions to describe a driving route from school to the ocean.
  • Have students use a map and written instructions to describe a water route that connects a nearby stream to the ocean.
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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:
S6.3S.1, S6.3S.2,
S7.3S.1, S7.3S.2, S7.3S.3
S8.3S.1, S8.3S.2

SS.08.HS.01

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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