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.

Coastal Ecology—Salt Marsh Mania

Summary: In this activity, students will explore the range of diversity of salt marsh plants. As an introduction, students will learn how to draw and describe key characteristics of familiar plant samples in the classroom. In the field, students will work to observe salt marsh diversity through a variety of sampling techniques using the skills learned in the classroom. While botany, the study of plants, is a complex and expansive discipline, marshes are accessible and excellent starting points for students to begin to appreciate the subtle diversity of structure and the purpose of adaptation. The marsh is generally accessible without specialized footwear or boats. Marsh plants are typically low enough that the entire community of plants can be viewed and examined easily and a sampling transect and plots can be established without difficulty.

Concepts to teach: Marine and coastal ecosystems, salt marsh communities, cycles, adaptations, classification, data collection.

Goals: Students will discover the many different types of plants that have adapted to life in a tidal marsh through careful observation and discovery.

Standards:
4.2L.1, 5.2L.1, 4.2E.1, 3.3S.1, 3.3S.3, 5.3S.2, 5.3S.3

Specific Objectives:

1. Students will be able to define: adaptation, characteristic and salt marsh
2. Students will understand in a simple way to test diversity within one zone of the estuary.
3. Students will gain experience making careful observations to distinguish physical difference and characteristics between species of marsh plants
4. Students will understand how sampling a subset is used to make observations about a larger area.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Summary for the upper elementary level Salt Marsh Mania activity
• Salt Marsh Mania was adapted from the middle school level TIDES “Tidal Marshes, Richness & Diversity” lessons from the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
• Oregon Wetlands Explorer supports the conservation and restoration of Oregon’s wetlands through a variety of multimedia stories, data collections, mapping tools and other wetland resources.
  • Wetland Plants and Fungi—links to resources helpful for identifying marsh plants in Oregon

Assessment:

• Examine student field journals and data graphs for completeness.

Science Concepts—Sea Level

Summary: One consequence of climate change is sea level rise. In order to determine whether global sea level is changing, scientists must be able to understand natural temporal and spatial sea level variability. In this topic guide, students will use online data to learn about how sea level is measured, and how to determine sea level trends. Students then use tidal data to demonstrate how storm events affect water levels.

Concepts to teach:

• Crosscutting Concepts
  • Patterns, Stability and Change, Global Climate Change
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • ESS2.C – The roles of water in Earth’s surface processes
• Science Practices
  • Analyzing and interpreting data, Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Goals:

1. Scientists measure water level to determine patterns and trends.
2. Ocean water levels vary depending on scale and geographic location.
3. Overall, global sea level is rising.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

• MS-ESS3-2. Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Access and interpret sea level data
2. Describe the effects storms can have on local water levels
3. Use online or collected data to describe water levels for an coastal area in Oregon

Activity Links and Resources:

• Understanding Sea Level Using Real Data from Data in the Classroom
  • Level 1: Reading Sea Surface Height
  • Level 2: Finding the Mean
  • Level 3: Reading Tide Data
  • Level 4: Measuring Storm Effects
  • Level 5: Designing Your Own Investigation
• Regional sea level trends – Visit Sea level maps and graphs from NOAA Tides and Currents to find out how sea level changes in the Pacific Northwest compare to other parts of the world.
• Local Sea Level is measured by tide stations, which refer to the height of the water as measured along the coast relative to a specific point on land. Invite students to explore online water level data.
  • Review: OCEP Tides of the Estuary
  • Real time CO-OPS Station water level data
• Visit a coastal or aquatic site to determine current and historic high water level based on:
  • available data sets (local, online, etc.)
  • historical photos (contact the local historical society)
  • landscape indicators (identifying plant communities, erosion effects, etc.)
  • proximity of human infrastructure
  • direct measure with a meter stick, repeat measurements over time if possible

Assessment:

• Assessment questions are included in the Data in the Classroom lessons
• Obtain or collect data and use it to characterize sea level trends for a particular location
• How does measuring tide height patterns help managers forecast impacts of storm events?
• What evidence exists to indicate that sea level is rising?

Planning—Shoreline Structure

Summary: What different kinds of shorelines exist in Oregon? How do different types of shoreline react to flooding and sea level rise? In this topic guide, students learn about different kinds of natural and human-created shorelines, and map a coastal area to show where different types of shoreline are found. They also create a model that demonstrates how water interacts differently with “hard” and “soft” features.

Concepts to teach:

• Crosscutting Concepts
  • Cause and Effect
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • ESS2.A – Earth materials and systems
• Science Practices
  • Developing and using models

Goals:

1. Shoreline features vary in different places along coastlines
2. “Soft” shorelines absorb wave energy and water, and “hard” shorelines reflect or redirect wave energy and water, often causing erosion nearby.
3. Soft shorelines such as coastal wetlands can help protect communities from damaging sea level rise and storm surges.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

• 4-ESS2-1. Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Identify different types of shorelines on the Oregon coast
2. Experiment with a model to show how different types of shoreline interact differently with waves.
3. Understand that coastal wetlands can help control flooding and erosion.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Activity: Plan a visit to a coastal area that has a variety of shoreline features and provide students with a simple map of the shoreline. Ask the students to notes the types of shoreline they observe on the map and make a key to their notation so that others can understand their map.
  • Example: Hatfield Marine Science Center Nature Trail mapping worksheet—Walk the HMSC Estuary Nature Trail and draw on the map different symbols and colors to indicate shoreline features. Create a key to the symbols and colors.
  • Which types of shoreline will absorb water and wave energy? Which types will reflect water and waves? If possible, observe how waves come ashore in different areas. Is there evidence of erosion at the field site?
  • Using the map scale and a ruler, calculate the distance of the shoreline on the map (this is easier on a straight shoreline). Determine the proportion of shoreline that is “natural” vs. “human-made”, or “hard” vs. “soft”.
• Activity: Experiment with a wave tank to see how different structures interact with waves.
  • Visit the wave tank in the HMSC Visitor Center
  • Create your own wave tank in a large pan or sink, and create model shorelines from sand, gravel, bricks, sponges, etc and generate a wave that travels toward the ‘shore’ and see what the water does
• Review: How Do Trees Affect Erosion? topic guide from OCEP Module 2 which focuses on how vegetation helps stabilize shorelines.
• Activity: Wetlands and their ecological services—in this Lesson 1.3 of the Bringing Wetlands to Market curriculum, students learn about the different types of wetlands and their ecological roles, and they identify one or more local wetlands.

Assessment:

• Observe and map the hard and soft shoreline features of a coastal area
• How does water interact with different shorelines in your model?

Planning—Shoreline Structure

Summary: How do different types of shoreline react to flooding and sea level rise? In this topic guide, students learn about various “hard” and “soft” features of coastal shorelines, the role wetlands play to control flooding, and some engineering solutions for absorbing wave energy that could lead to coastal erosion. As a field experience, students examine characteristics of a shoreline and predict its resiliency to sea level rise. Finally, students are challenging to identify resilient engineering solutions that could be applied to shoreline structures.

Concepts to teach:

• Crosscutting Concepts
  • Cause and Effect, Structure and Function
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • ESS2.C – The roles of water in Earth’s surface processes
  • ESS3.A – Natural resources
  • ESS3.B – Natural hazards
• Science Practices
  • Planning and carrying out investigations, Constructing explanations and designing solutions

Goals:

1. Shoreline features vary in different places along coastlines, and are differentially impacted by sea level rise and storm surges.
2. Soft shorelines absorb wave energy and water, and hard shorelines reflect or redirect wave energy and water.
3. Coastal wetlands can help protect communities from damaging sea level rise and storm surges.
4. Engineered shorelines can positively or negatively affect coastal resiliency.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

• HS-ESS2-5. Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
• HS-ESS3-1. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Read and create maps to describe the shoreline features of a coastal area.
2. Describe how different shoreline structures might respond to flooding and sea level rise.
3. Identify the ecological services wetlands provide to control flooding and erosion.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Activity: Shoreline Survey field experience—Look at National ESI Shoreline database maps for a study site. Visit the site with students to survey and map hard and soft features of the coastal shoreline and compare it to the ESI maps. Based on the shoreline structures, ask students to forecast the impacts that rising sea level might have on the area.
  • National ESI Shoreline (Environmental Sensitivity Index) maps
  • Example Field Experience at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, OR
    • National ESI Shoreline screenshot for Yaquina Bay
    • Hatfield Marine Science Center Nature Trail mapping worksheet—Walk the HMSC Estuary Nature Trail and draw on the map different symbols and colors to indicate shoreline features. Create a key to the symbols and colors
    • Example of a completed map
• Activity: Wetlands and their ecological services—in this Lesson 1.3 of the Bringing Wetlands to Market curriculum, students learn about the different types of wetlands and their ecological roles, and they identify one or more local wetlands.
• The role of wetlands in coastal flooding
  • RISE Webstory 5: The Flood Next Time—Video (5:40) Converting salt ponds back to original wetlands could help a small community near San Francisco survive flooding from sea level rise
• Reading
  • Shoreline Armoring: Pros and Cons—From NOAA’s State of the Coast website
  • Living Shorelines—This NOAA website shows how natural bank stabilization techniques are implemented to restore shorelines.
  • Coastal habitats shield people and property from sea level rise and storms
    • E. Rauer, 2013. Stanford News Service article. The best defense against catastrophic storms: Mother Nature, say Stanford researchers
    • W. Koch, 2013. USA Today article Dunes, reefs protect US coasts from climate change.
    • Original source article: Arkema, K.K. et. al., 2013—Nature Climate Change
  • Komar, P.D. and Allan, J.C., 2010. USGS article “Design with Nature” strategies for shore protection –The construction of a cobble berm and artificial berm and artificial dune in an Oregon State Park

Assessment:

• Map the hard and soft shoreline features of a coastal area. How many different shoreline types are there? Which features are natural and which are human-made? Is there evidence of existing coastal erosion or flooding?
• Share survey findings with local land managers.