Beach Debris

Place—Beach Debris

Summary: What kinds of materials end up on our ocean beaches? In this classroom-based activity, students explore the debris found on an ocean beach and sort by type and potential origin.

Concepts to teach: Marine debris, persistent plastics, biotic, abiotic, decomposition, biodegradable

Goals: Students gain familiarity with objects that wash up on Oregon beaches, and connect anthropogenic debris with local activities.

Standards:
S3.2P.1
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Sort debris into categories: abiotic v. biotic, natural v. anthropogenic, biodegradable v. non-biodegradable, local origin v. distant origin
  2. Recognize the prevalence and diverse types of plastic marine debris.
  3. Make a reasonable guess about the original use and physical origin of various types of human-generated marine debris.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Teacher can make or obtain marine debris kits for the classroom for students to explore.
    • Collect debris from an Oregon beach for your classroom kits. Include: a variety of plastic items in various sizes (recognizable and not), fishing gear, household items, familiar items, plastic loops, small plastic granules, Styrofoam, bags, building materials, glass, natural materials (shells, molts, driftwood, surf balls, dry algae) and whatever else you can find.
    • Pair an inland and coastal classroom for a joint exploration of beach debris. Students in the coastal classroom can visit the beach, collect items, and send them to the inland classroom. Classes can compare their results and conclusions.
    • The Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) has marine debris educational kits available in some areas in Oregon, including Lincoln County. Teachers can check out a kit through the C-MORE website. The C-MORE kit lessons are designed for grades 8-12, but some of the materials can be used for younger students.
    • Avoid graphic images and doomsday scenarios as they are not developmentally appropriate for upper elementary students. For more on this topic read the article Beyond Ecophobia by David Sobel.
  • Flotsam and Jetsam and Wrack is an Oregon Sea Grant guide to common (primarily biotic) materials that end up on beaches. Students can use this as a model for making up a similar guide to the common abiotic materials found on beaches.
  • Inquiry: How did a particular piece of marine debris end up on the beach? Examples can be found in the Pathways to the Ocean topic guide later in this focus area.
    • Science: Students explore an object and gather firsthand evidence of its origin, discuss ideas with others, and then describe their conclusions to the class
    • Creative Writing: Students write a realistic fiction story explaining the travels and experiences of the marine debris object
  • Learning Guide on Marine Debris: “Turning the Tide”—This NOAA guide gives the teacher background information and more ideas for marine debris lessons.
  • Trash Travels, a 2010 report from the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup—For teacher background information, this report provides, among other things, lists of the most commonly found items on coastal beaches (#1 cigarette butts, #2 plastic bags, etc.)

Assessment:

  • Probe: Plastics on the Trail—This probe from Alaska Sea Grant’s Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum elicits students’ ideas about how a plastic bottle on a trail impacts the environment.
  • Sort beach debris into categories and explain their common/differing characteristics and probable origins
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Beach Explorers

Introduction—Beach Explorers

Summary: This topic guide features three beach activities from the Surfrider Foundation. The first two activities introduce students to the vastness of Earth’s oceans by way of exploring global geography and calculating percentages. Students share in small groups about what they know and enjoy about visiting beaches and shorelines near the ocean, lakes and rivers and discuss what they may find when they visit the beach.

In Activity 3, Beach in a Bucket, “students work in small cooperative groups to explore a sandy beach (or, for those who cannot or choose not to conduct this activity at the beach, a simulated sandy beach in a plastic tub). Through a sorting activity, they discover that biotic (once-living) objects found on the sandy beach can be grouped into those that represent: evidence of plant life, evidence of animal life, and evidence of humans. They discover the differences between once-living (biotic) and never-living (abiotic) objects. Also introduced in this activity is the concept that sand is made up of tiny bits of virtually everything that can be found on the beach.”

Activity 4 shows students the value of using a field notebook to record data, observations and ideas while exploring outside. Students construct a small notebook and record their thoughts and findings from the unit through pictures and writing.

Concepts to teach: Marine and coastal ecosystems, sandy beaches, interconnections, cycles, productivity

Goals:

  • The world’s ocean covers most of our planet. Everywhere the ocean meets the land there is a shoreline or beach.
  • Objects found on the sandy beach can be grouped into evidence of: plant life, animal life, humans, and non-living material.
  • Sand is made up of tiny bits of everything that is found on the beach.

Standards:
3.2L.1, 4.2L.1, 5.2L.1, 3.2E.1, 4.2E.1, 5.2E.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Students understand that the world’s oceans cover approximately 70% of the earth’s surface.
  2. Students can give examples of several living and non-living materials that could be found on a beach.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Beach Explorers—Unit 1 from the Surfrider Foundation educational unit “Beachology” is designed for grades K-5 and includes four activities: Blue Planet, Beach Blanket Brainstorm, Beach in a Bucket, and Making an Explorer’s Field Book.
    • Activities 1 and 2 are especially well-suited as introductory activities
  • See the Surveying the Shoreline topic guide in the “Estuaries” focus area.

Assessment:

  • Use a KWL chart as recommended in the lesson plan for sharing student ideas and addressing misconceptions.
  • Create sorted lists of living and non-living items found on a beach. Students will have to decide how to categorize biotic items that are no longer alive (for example, shells).
  • Have students group their wrack and debris findings into their own categories they make up. Alternatively students may group their items according to what ecosystem they came from: watershed (driftwood, terrestrial plants), estuary (crab molts, eelgrass), ocean (kelp, various shells), mystery (plastic, glass, trash).
  • Share student field books with the teacher and classmates.
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Biodegradable Materials

Human Impacts—Biodegradable Materials

Summary: How long does it take materials to break down in the environment? Students investigate whether all substances break down in the environment, and how long it takes various substances to biodegrade. They then apply this knowledge to explain what happens to wastes that end up in landfills, waterways, and the ocean.

Concepts to teach: Biodegradable, decompose

Goals: Students develop an inquiry to discover what types of materials decompose, how long it takes, and what this means for certain types of garbage that makes its way into the environment.

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
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Differentiate between the kinds of material that nature recycles and those it does not.
    Conduct an experiment to answer an inquiry question.
  2. Recommend packaging materials based on their biodegradability.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • What is Biodegradable?—In this inquiry lesson adapted from the Alaska Activities Handbook, students conduct an experiment to determine which materials decompose when buried. Includes data worksheets.
  • What Kind of Trash Bag Breaks Down Fastest?—In this inquiry lesson excerpted from “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Science Fair Projects”, students conduct an experiment to determine which bag materials decompose in a simulated landfill over a four-week period.

Assessment:

  • Have students report their data and findings from their inquiry study.
  • List pros and cons of various packaging materials.
  • Suggest ways to reduce the amount of persistent plastics in the environment.
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Biodiversity

Coastal Ecology—Biodiversity

Summary: “In this lesson, students will explore the biodiversity of two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) national marine sanctuaries. Following a discussion of the term “biodiversity” and why biodiversity is important, students will take virtual trips (via video footage) to Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, located off the California coast, and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. They will then work in groups to further explore one of the two ocean treasures, noting the types of wildlife the sanctuary supports, the importance of the ecosystem, and the threats it faces. Groups will also consider how each sanctuary’s location might affect its health and long-term outlook. To conclude, the class will come back together to share their findings, and compare and contrast the two national marine sanctuaries.”

Concepts to teach: Habitats, Ecology, Biodiversity, Conservation

Goals: Students will be able to define biodiversity and virtually explore national marine sanctuaries while assessing future health of the sanctuaries.

Standards:
6.2L.2; 7.2E.3

Specific Objectives:

  1. Define biodiversity and ecosystem.
  2. Understand the importance of biodiversity to an ecosystem.
  3. Explore the threats to the Cordell Bank and Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale national marine sanctuaries.
  4. Consider the relationship between the location of each sanctuary and the long-term outlook for its health.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Have students write reports that provide information about one of the two sanctuaries focusing specifically on the challenges faced by the sanctuary and the outlook for the future health of the ecosystem. Within the lesson plan, there is a suggested rubric to use to grade these reports.
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Biodiversity in an Estuary

Coastal Ecology—Biodiversity in an Estuary

Summary: In this activity, students investigate the incredible biodiversity that exists in estuarine environments. They begin by exploring using Google Earth to explore a National Estuarine Research Reserve in Florida. Students then produce an estuary biodiversity concept map and individual organism profile that becomes part of an estuary wildlife exhibit. This activity can be modified for use with NERRs in the Pacific Northwest.

Concepts to teach: Biodiversity, endangered species, producers, consumers, habitat types, concept map

Goals: Understand the relationships between habitats, characteristics of the habitats, and the species that inhabit the estuary.

Standards:
H.2L.2

Specific Objectives: Students will be able to:

  1. Describe the physical and biological components of habitats that exist as part of an estuary.
  2. Explain the relationships between primary producers, consumers, and secondary consumers.
  3. Describe some adaptations of living organisms to the changing conditions within an estuary.
  4. Explain why biodiversity is important and worth preserving in an estuary.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Descriptions and instructions for student concept maps and wildlife exhibits are included in the Estuary Education lesson plan.
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Blue Carbon

Science Concepts—Blue Carbon

Summary: This topic guide begins with a review of photosynthesis and progresses to the role marine wetlands 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. Plants living in the ocean have a tremendous role to play in carbon storage, and salt marshes are particularly good at storing carbon. Understanding the important role marine wetlands play in carbon sequestration can help humans prioritize wetlands protection and restoration efforts.

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. Salt marshes store a lot of carbon because the organic material is slow to decompose

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • MS-LS1-6. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Articulate an explanation of photosynthesis to describe how plants put on mass
  2. Define Blue Carbon
  3. Describe the role marine wetlands play in storing carbon

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Use Van Helmont’s question as a formative assessment to elicit ideas about how plants put on mass.
  • Redesign Van Helmont’s experiment.
  • Both exercises from the Bringing Wetlands to Market include specific performance tasks that can be assessed
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Blue Carbon

Science Concepts—Blue Carbon

Summary: This topic guide begins with a review of photosynthesis and progresses to the role marine wetlands 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. Plants living in the ocean have a tremendous role to play in carbon storage, and salt marshes are particularly good at storing carbon. Understanding the important role marine wetlands play in carbon sequestration can help humans prioritize wetlands protection and restoration efforts.

Concepts to teach:

  • Crosscutting Concepts
    • Energy and Matter
  • Disciplinary Core Ideas
    • LS1.C – Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms
    • LS2.B – Cycles of matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
  • Science Practices
    • Planning and Carrying Out Investigations, Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Developing and Using Models, Constructing Explanations, Engaging in Argument through Evidence

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. Salt marshes store a lot of carbon because the organic material is slow to decompose

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • HS-LS1-5. Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy.
  • HS-LS1-6. Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for how carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen from sugar molecules may combine with other elements to form amino acids and/or other large carbon-based molecules.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Articulate an explanation of photosynthesis to describe how plants put on mass
  2. Define Blue Carbon
  3. Describe the role marine wetlands play in storing carbon

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Use Van Helmont’s question as a formative assessment to elicit ideas about how plants put on mass.
  • Redesign Van Helmont’s experiment.
  • Both exercises from the Bringing Wetlands to Market include specific performance tasks that can be assessed
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Bountiful Birds

Coastal Habitats & Species—Bountiful Birds

Summary: Estuaries support an abundance of life, and a diversity of habitat types. How have birds adapted to survive in estuary habitats? This curriculum from the NOAA/NERRS Estuaries 101 website contains two exercises that address this question. In the first exercise, students engage in a role-playing activity to model different bird beaks and discover that differently shaped beaks are needed by birds to acquire the many different food sources found in the different estuary habitats. In the second exercise, students compare and contrast the great blue heron and osprey with other birds living in estuaries. Plan to observe adaptations of birds in estuaries while on a field trip to the coast.

Concepts to teach: Adaptation, estuary habitats, diversity

Goals: Bird species have adaptations that help them survive in particular environments. Estuaries are excellent places to look for different kinds of birds due to the diversity of habitat types within estuaries, and because estuaries serve as good stopping areas along migratory routes.

Standards:
6.2L2, 8.1L.1, 8.2L.1

Specific Objectives: Students will understand that:

  1. Birds have basic needs for air, water, food, protection from predators, and a place in which to breed.
  2. Estuary habitats, such as the salt marsh and the mangrove swamp, meet the survival needs of many birds.
  3. Birds have adaptations that allow them to efficiently feed in specific estuary environments. Beaks differ in design depending on where the bird feeds and the function for which the beak is used.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Bountiful Birds from the NOAA Estuary Education website—Estuaries support an abundance of life. Discover how birds are adapted to live in estuaries.
  • The International Brant Monitoring Project—Through observation and field monitoring, students learn about the ecology of shorebirds, and in particular the estuary-dwelling Brant goose, along the Pacific Flyway.
  • Christmas Bird Counts—Become a citizen scientist by contributing to this longest-running annual wildlife census.
  • International Migratory Bird Day—Find educator resources and local events that support learning about migratory birds and their conservation.
  • Find birds on your field trip! The Audubon Society of Portland provides a map and site descriptions for Important Bird Areas in Oregon. Remember to bring binoculars, spotting scopes and bird identification guides.
    • The Estuary Nature Trail in Newport is located adjacent to the Hatfield Marine Science Center and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Access the trail from the south entrance.
    • The Cape Arago Audubon Society gives detailed directions for a variety of birding sites in Coos County.

Assessment:

  • Assessment questions based on content can be downloaded on the Estuaries 101 web page for the Bountiful Birds activity.
  • Identify and count birds at a coastal field site. Observe and describe how the behavioral and structural characteristics of the birds fit with the environment in which the birds were found.
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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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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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