Science Concepts—The Ocean and our Weather

Summary: The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate. The ocean absorbs heat from solar radiation, and loses heat by evaporation. When water from the ocean enters the atmosphere as water vapor, it condenses and forms rain. In fact, most of the rain that falls on land originally evaporated from the tropical ocean. In this topic guide, students explore relationships between the ocean and weather on land though investigations of the water cycle.

Concepts to teach:

• Crosscutting Concepts
  • Energy and Matter
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • ESS2.C – The roles of water in Earth’s surface processes
• Science Practices
  • Developing and using models

Goals:

1. Water moves through a cycle that includes the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere
2. The ocean plays an important role in shaping climate and weather

Standards:

• NGSS Performance Expectations
  • MS-ESS2-4. Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
• Ocean Literacy Principle 3
  • The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Build a model to show how water moves through the Earth’s systems
2. Describe how the ocean influences weather on land

Activity Links and Resources:

• Lesson: The Water Cycle—In this lesson from NASA GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) students participate in a webquest to learn about the water cycle, and then build a model of the water cycle to observe how water moves through Earth’s four systems.
• Images that describe the water cycle
  • Water Cycle Poster from NOAA Education Resource—Use to review parts of the water cycle with students. Note that much of the water that will end up as rain is evaporated from the ocean.
  • Water Cycle Animation animation from NASA GPM—Visualize how water that evaporates into clouds from the ocean moves toward land and falls as precipitation.
• Use the water cycle to connect the ocean and watershed. Review the Watershed Walk from OCEP Module One
• Activity: The Incredible Journey through the Water Cycle—In this Project WET game adapted by the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, students learn about the physical processes of the water cycle by taking on the role of a drop of water moving through the system.

Assessment:

• The NASA GPM webquest includes a Student Capture worksheet.
• How does water that evaporates from the ocean make its way to land?

Science Concepts—Thermal Expansion

Summary: As the ocean’s temperature increases, its volume expands. In this topic guide, students use a model to demonstrate the relationship between water temperature and volume, and then use their findings to describe the impact a warming ocean has on sea level.

Concepts to teach:

• Crosscutting Concepts
  • Structure and Function
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • ESS2.C – The roles of water in Earth’s surface processes
• Science Practices
  • Developing and using models, Planning and carrying out investigations

Goals:

1. Heated water has more volume than cooler water due to a process called thermal expansion.
2. Thermal expansion is the primary cause of climate induced sea level rise.
3. A model can demonstrate a scientific concept.

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.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate that heated water has more volume than cooler water due to a process called thermal expansion
2. Explain how sea level rise results in part from thermal expansion.
3. Use a model to demonstrate a scientific concept.

Activity Links and Resources:

• COSEE’s Thermal Expansion and Sea Level Rise—In this experiment, students measure the relationship between water volume and water temperature. This activity can be performed as a demonstration, or at the high school level, in student groups.
• EPA’s Sea Level: On the Rise, part I—Another lesson using the same activity.

Assessment:

• What evidence exists to indicate that sea level is rising?
• Why is measured and predicted sea level rise less dramatic on the Oregon coast compared to many other places on the globe?
• How might a large earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone impact sea level on the Oregon coast?

Human Use of Resources—This Land is Your Land

Summary: The classroom-based This Land is Your Land lesson plan from TeachEngineering.org is designed for 4th grade students, with scaling suggestions for 3rd and 5th graders. Because the instructor uses maps of the local area, the activity is place-based, relevant and supports potential field experiences.

“In this activity, students will review and evaluate the ways land is covered and used in their local community. They will also consider the environmental effects of the different types of land use. Students will act as community planning engineers to determine where to place a new structure that will have the least affect on the environment.”

Concepts to teach: Maps, land use, calculating percentage

Goals: Land is used for a variety of human activities, and these uses can be communicated through maps.

Standards:
S6.3S.1, S7.3S.1, S8.3S.1,
SS08.GE.02, SS.08.GE.07, SS.08.GE.08

Specific Objectives:

1. Understand and identify the different ways that land is covered and used.
2. Predict land usage amounts in their community.
3. Describe the involvement of engineers in community planning.

Activity Links and Resources:

• This Land is Your Land
  • From TeachEngineering.org, a digital library collection of searchable, standards-based K-12 curricula
  • This lesson plan includes worksheets, standards, and suggestions for assessments. The instructor needs to find land use maps of the local area.
• To find maps of your local area, contact your local:
  • City Planning Department
    • See examples of land use maps from Portland and Bend
  • School District (keyword search: facility plan)
  • Historical Society
• Use both current and historical maps to show how human use of resources have changed over time.
  • 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.
• 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 in the Human Impact section.

Assessment:

• Suggestions for pre-activity, activity embedded and post-activity assessments are included in the lesson plan.

Coastal Ecology—Tidal Flat Exploration

Summary: This field lesson provides a structured experience for students to investigate the life of the tidal flats of the estuary and explore the relationship between sediments, elevation, and the life beneath surface.

Concepts to teach: Marine and coastal ecosystems, habitats, estuaries, benthic organisms

Goals: Students will collect and use evidence to explain the relationship between abiotic factors and the distribution of organisms in an estuary.

Standards:
6.2L.2, 6.3S.1, 7.2E.4, 7.3S.1, 8.3S.1

Specific Objectives: Students will understand that:

1. The tide flats are covered twice a day by salty estuary water.
2. The tide flats are made of sediment which may be sand, mud, or gravel.
3. The type of sediment and the elevation determine what lives where.
4. Most animals burrow below the mud to stay wet, protected, and to feed on the tidewater.
5. Different animals have different types of adaptations for life in the mud.

Activity Links and Resources:

• The TIDES “Tidal Flats” lessons were developed by the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve for middle school audiences.
  • Tidal Flats Power Point
• Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport offers Estuary Investigation field classes for all ages. Students use “slurpers” to discover what organisms live beneath the mud of the tidal flats.
  • Pre-visit materials

Assessment:

• Examine student field journals and data for completeness. Students may present their findings in a PowerPoint presentation or report.

Coastal Ecology—Tidepool Diversity

Summary: This activity uses common data collection methods to introduce students to how scientists study highly dense and diverse rocky intertidal populations. Written for a site near Cape Perpetua, the concepts are highly adaptable to any intertidal area, or even a habitat nearby school. Students can compare data to long term data sets collected along the Central California coast in the LiMPETS program and explore the broader context of their data collection.

Concepts to teach: Population ecology, rocky intertidal communities, vertical zonation, data collection & monitoring

Goals: Students will use standard field monitoring techniques to understand and describe the community of species that live in a rocky intertidal habitat.

Standards:
H.2L.2, H.3S.2, H.3S.3

Specific Objectives: Students will be able to:

1. Understand and explain why diversity is important and why long term data sets can help us monitor changes over time due ecological change
2. Conduct a simple population survey along a transect of a rocky intertidal habitat
3. Identify and describe the dominant organisms in the rocky intertidal ecosystem and where they occur
4. Students will understand classic vertical zonation patterns in the rocky intertidal
5. Students will use critical thinking skills to determine whether their data are consistent with published data.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Tidepool Diversity Sampling – Instructions for sampling in tidepools using transects
• LiMPETS: Long-term Monitoring Program and Experiential Learning for Students Created by and for use in California National Marine Sanctuaries, this website provides rocky intertidal monitoring lessons and resources, research protocols and a format for data entry and analysis.
• Instructions for making quadrats and other field equipment from South Slough NERR
• Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport offers one hour Rocky Intertidal lab classes for Grade 5 and up. Students interact with live animals and investigate ecological relationships among species and environmental factors.
  • Pre-visit materials

Assessment:

Assessment ideas in lesson plans include:

• Summarize data in clean tables.
• Identify dominant species that occur most frequently along the transect and create 4 line graphs that who the vertical zonation patterns of these species.
• Present data and conclusions in a report or display.