Education Commons^™

Shifting Sands: Coastal Dunes In Motion, Elizabeth Davis

Reports

Grades: 5+ Subjects: General Science, Geology, Environmental Science

Students will use “before & after” dune profile graphics to determine how the dune has changed and hypothesize why this change occurred.

How Resilient Is It? The Resilience Quotient Zoning Ordinance, Qiong Wang, Yao Wang

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Environmental Science, Earth Science, Oceanography

The Resilience Quotient (RQ) system uses zoning ordinance to address coastal resilience development issues in the city of Norfolk, Virginia. This lesson plan goes through key resilience concepts and its strategies that can promote flood risk reduction, stormwater management, and energy resilience. The activity provides several scenarios to help students understand, simulate, visualize, discuss, and practice how the Resilience Quotient works for coastal developments in the city.

Killer From The Deep!, Tor Mowatt-Larssen

Reports

Grades: 6-12 Subjects: Life Science | Ecology

Explore the deep-sea environment and biological adaptations to living in the deep sea through murder-mystery investigation and graphing activities.

Tiny Killers, Sarah Pease

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Biology | Environmental Science | Oceanography

What different methods and new technologies are used to monitor harmful algae and the toxins that they produce?

Students will learn about how harmful algae threaten human health through the processes of bioaccumulation and biomagnification. In small groups, they will design a harmful algae monitoring program based on mock harmful algae data, and then they will test their monitoring program and discover some of the challenges and limitations of any monitoring plan that attempts to measure variable, natural events.

Wave Fever: The Climate Induced Range Expansion Of The Atlantic Marsh Fiddler Crab, Kayla Martinez-Soto

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Biology | Environmental Science | Oceanography

In 2014, scientists found that the Atlantic marsh fiddler crab had extended its northern limit by ~90 miles to New Hampshire, which is in the Gulf of Maine. Range expanding species can alter salt marsh characteristics such as biodiversity and food webs. In this lesson, students will combine sea surface temperature data from a federal database and fiddler burrow densities from field photos to determine the relationship between ocean warming and range expansions.

Dna Detectives: Protecting Endangered Species, Samantha Askin

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Biology | Environmental Science | Oceanography

For this lesson, students will be U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologists. They will be tasked with figuring out which endangered or threatened species they have by identifying a genetic sequence unique to their species. The students will then have to research why their species in endangered or threatened and write a formal report of their findings to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Old Macdonald Had An Aquaculture Farm, Shantelle Landry

Reports

Grades: 6 Subjects: Earth Science | Natural Resources

With this activity, students will learn the importance of aquaculture and how it can be used to manage a resource.

Trees Of The Seas, Michelle Woods

Reports

Grades: 6-8 Subjects: Biology | Life Science

What are harmful algal blooms and why do they occur?

In this lesson plan, students will run their own experiments to investigate how eutrophication can cause harmful algal blooms and investigate strategies for preventing them.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Whose Fish? Subjects: Life Science, Environmental Science, Marine / Ocean Science, Shelby White

Reports

This activity invites students to assume the role of various stakeholders in fisheries management and actively discuss the influence of economics, ecology and human interactions in decision-making.

Students will demonstrate their argument for/against a certain regulation by participating as a specific stakeholder (i.e. commercial fisher, recreational fisher, scientists/researcher, environmental group, management agency, and citizen). Students will recognize that stakeholders tend to advocate based on their individual needs, often making it difficult for proposed policies to satisfy the needs of all stakeholders and achieve sustainability goals.

The Watershed Game: Land Use & Water Quality. Subjects: Environmental Science, Marine/Ocean Science, Life Science/Biology Grades: 9-12, Shanna Williamson

Reports

This lesson plan is a hands-on activity that allows students to explore how water and nutrients are transported from a watershed with three different land cover types and eventually ends up in a nearby stream.

Plastic As A Habitat For Bacteria And Human Pathogens. Subjects: Life Science / Biology Grades: 6-8, Amanda Laverty

Reports

This lesson plan invites 7th grade life science students to investigate marine plastic pollution as a habitat for bacteria and human pathogens. Students will examine the hazards of marine plastic pollution and learn about current science. They will have the opportunity to use data to create graphs and discuss patterns.

Wonderful Wetlands: Why Do We Need Them And What Can They Do For Us? Subjects: Environmental Science, Marine/Ocean Science, Life Science/Biology Grades: 9-12, Amanda Knobloch

Reports

This lesson plan introduces students to a variety of different types of wetlands and how they function in the coastal environment. Students will work through activities that illustrate the economic importance of wetlands and the services wetlands provide, as well as building conceptual models of wetlands to illustrate these points.

The Mystery Of Ocean Acidification, Patricia Thibodeau

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Biology | Life Science | Environmental Science | Chemistry

This lesson plan invites middle-school students to solve a mystery: what is ocean acidification and how is it affecting marine life in the Antarctic? To solve the mystery, students will participate in an ocean acidification scavenger hunt, and propose hypotheses and arrive at their own conclusions with interpretation of real-time data from the Antarctic.

Assessing The County’S Readiness For A Climate Related Event, Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve In Virginia

Reports

Grade Level: 9-12

Subject Area: Earth Science, Environmental Science

Students will participate in a role playing scenario in which they represent different stakeholder groups, including emergency responders, land planners, and watermen. Using a variety of provided resources, students are given a task to present on, whether it be creating an evacuation route for their county and identifying shelters, establishing new areas for development, or locations for the best catch of crabs in the year 2050.

Lesson plan has 2 parts.