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:
H.4D.1, H.4D.2
SS.HS.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 Derelict Fishing Gear project on the Northwest Straits website describes Washington-based 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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Carbon Capture

Science Concepts—Carbon Capture

Summary: This topic guide focuses on photosynthesis to help students to understand the role that plants 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.

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. Plants play an important role in capturing, storing, and releasing carbon

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Specific Objectives
Students will be able to:

  1. Explain how plants put on mass by obtaining carbon from the air through photosynthesis.
  2. Describe the role plants play in storing carbon
  3. Identify ways carbon can be released from plant material

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment

  • Use Van Helmont’s question as an assessment to elicit ideas about how plants put on mass.
  • Suggest a redesign of Van Helmont’s experiment that includes an understanding of photosynthesis.
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Carbon on the Move

Science Concepts—Carbon on the Move

Summary: Carbon is an important element that comprises part of all living organisms and is found in many nonliving parts of our planet and atmosphere. In this topic guide, students explore the carbon cycle to discover how carbon moves between atmosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. With a clear understanding of the carbon cycle, carbon sources and carbon sinks, students will be poised to better understand the causes and impacts of global climate change.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Carbon moves around the planet in various forms and substances
  2. A carbon source, living or non-living, releases CO2 into the atmosphere
  3. A carbon sink absorbs and holds CO2 from the air or water
  4. Human activities are emitting excess carbon into the atmosphere

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Identify objects in their surroundings that contain carbon
  2. Describe how carbon moves through living and non-living part of the Earth system
  3. Identify parts of the carbon cycle where carbon is released into the atmosphere
  4. Identify parts of the carbon cycle where carbon is held from the air or water
  5. Describe how burning fossils fuels contributes to an increase in atmospheric carbon

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Reading: The Carbon Cycle—From NESTA Windows on the Universe, explores how carbon moves through ecosystems
  • Online Activity: Play the online interactive Carbon Cycle Game
  • Activity: Carbon Walk—In this Lesson 1.1 from the Bringing Wetlands to Market curriculum, students discover the many places carbon can be found in and around the schoolyard. Consider combining this activity with the OCEP Watershed Walk.
  • It All Starts With Carbon—This Aquarium of the Pacific presentation on the Climate Interpreter website provides a simple description of the role carbon plays in climate change.
    • The “Heat Trapping Blanket” image helps students understand and be able to describe the impacts of excess CO2 in the atmosphere

Assessment:

  • From OCEP teacher Nancy Buchanan: After playing the Carbon Cycle Game, students write a paragraph about their trip through the cycle, including 1) where they went and 2) how they got to each destination. Students create a “map” documenting their journey through the carbon cycle.
  • Carbon Walk observations and classifications. Students identify whether or not an object contains carbon, or whether it is a carbon sink or source.
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Carbon on the Move

Science Concepts—Carbon on the Move

Summary: Carbon is an important element that comprises part of all living organisms and is found in many nonliving parts of our planet and atmosphere. In this topic guide, students explore the carbon cycle to discover how carbon moves between atmosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. With a clear understanding of the carbon cycle, students are better prepared to understand the mechanisms underlying global climate change.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Carbon moves around the planet in various forms and substances
  2. A carbon source, living or non-living, releases CO2 into the atmosphere
  3. A carbon sink absorbs and holds CO2 from the air or water
  4. Human activities are emitting excess carbon into the atmosphere

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • MS-LS2-3. Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Identify objects in their surroundings that contain carbon, as well as an example of a carbon sink and a carbon source.
  2. Describe how carbon moves through the system.
  3. Identify anthropogenic factors that have contributed to an increase in atmospheric carbon in recent decades.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Background Reading: Carbon Cycle Science  from NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
  • Activity: Carbon Walk Activity—In this Lesson 1.1 from the Bringing Wetlands to Market curriculum, students discover the many places carbon can be found in and around the schoolyard. Consider combining this activity with the OCEP Watershed Walk.
  • Activity: Greenhouse Gases—What causes excess carbon to end up in the atmosphere? This lesson plan from the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University (Gr. 8) includes information about the carbon cycle and the Keeling curve.
  • Reading:
    • The Carbon Cycle—From NESTA Windows on the Universe, explores how carbon moves through ecosystems
  • Multimedia:
    • Infographic: Components of the Carbon Cycle—From the US Department of Energy, this infographic shows a simplified representation of the terrestrial carbon cycle side by side with the ocean carbon cycle. Fluxes and reservoirs expressed in gigatons are included.
    • Play the online interactive Carbon Cycle Game

Assessment:

  • Students make observations and classifications during their Carbon Walk. They identify whether or not an object contains carbon, and find examples of carbon sinks and carbon sources.
  • From OCEP teacher Nancy Buchanan: After playing the Carbon Cycle Game, students write a paragraph about their trip through the cycle, including 1) where they went and 2) how they got to each destination. Students create a “map” documenting their journey through the carbon cycle.
  • Carbon Cycle Exploration Assessment Sheet from the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University, this traditional worksheet solicits short answers to questions about the carbon cycle and Keeling curve.
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Carbon on the move

Science Concepts—Carbon on the move

Summary: Carbon is an important element that comprises part of all living organisms and is found in many nonliving parts of our planet and atmosphere. In this topic guide, students explore the carbon cycle to discover how carbon moves between atmosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. With a clear understanding of the carbon cycle, students are better prepared to understand the mechanisms underlying global climate change.

Concepts to teach:

  • Crosscutting Concepts
    • Energy and Matter
  • Disciplinary Core Ideas
    • LS2.B – Cycles of matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
    • ESS3.C – Human Impacts on Earth Systems
  • Science Practices
    • Developing and using models, Constructing explanations and designing solutions, Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information

Goals:

  1. Carbon moves around the planet in various forms and substances
  2. A carbon source, living or non-living, releases CO2 into the atmosphere
  3. A carbon sink absorbs and holds CO2 from the air or water
  4. Human activities are emitting excess carbon into the atmosphere

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • HS-LS2-4. Use mathematical representations to support claims for the cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Identify objects in their surroundings that contain carbon, as well as an example of a carbon sink and a carbon source.
  2. Describe how carbon moves through the system.
  3. Identify anthropogenic factors that have contributed to an increase in atmospheric carbon in recent decades.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Background Reading: Carbon Cycle Science  from NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
  • Activity: Carbon Walk Activity—In this Lesson 1.1 from the Bringing Wetlands to Market curriculum, students discover the many places carbon can be found in and around the schoolyard. Consider combining this activity with the OCEP Watershed Walk.
  • Activity: Greenhouse Gases—What causes excess carbon to end up in the atmosphere? This lesson plan from the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University (Gr. 8) includes information about the carbon cycle and the Keeling curve.
  • Reading:
    • The Carbon Cycle—From NESTA Windows on the Universe, explores how carbon moves through ecosystems
  • Multimedia:
    • Infographic: Components of the Carbon Cycle—From the US Department of Energy, this infographic shows a simplified representation of the terrestrial carbon cycle side by side with the ocean carbon cycle. Fluxes and reservoirs expressed in gigatons are included.
    • Play the online interactive Carbon Cycle Game

Assessment:

  • Students make observations and classifications during their Carbon Walk. They identify whether or not an object contains carbon, and find examples of carbon sinks and carbon sources.
  • Use the Infographic or another source to write a mathematical explanation for changes in the balance of atmospheric carbon.
  • From OCEP teacher Nancy Buchanan: After playing the Carbon Cycle Game, students write a paragraph about their trip through the cycle, including 1) where they went and 2) how they got to each destination. Students create a “map” documenting their journey through the carbon cycle.
  • Carbon Cycle Exploration Assessment Sheet from the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University, this traditional worksheet solicits short answers to questions about the carbon cycle and Keeling curve.
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Citizen Biomonitoring

Stewardship—Citizen Biomonitoring

Summary: Students contribute to the scientific understanding of a local ecosystem by collecting data and reporting results to the community.

Concepts to teach: Stewardship, action, process of scientific inquiry

Goals: Students engage in scientific inquiry and come to see themselves as scientists as they collect and report data about a local outdoor site.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S.3.3S.3
S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.3S.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2, S5.3S.3, S5.4D.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Adopt a local outdoor site and collect data that describes the health of the ecosystem.
  2. Gain experience with the use of scientific equipment, data collection and reporting.
  3. Draw conclusions and recommendations about the health of the ecosystem based on biomonitoring activities.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • This Land is Your Land—In this classroom activity from an earlier topic guide, students use their land use maps and use them to determine where to place a structure that will have the least amount of negative impact on the environment.
    • Consider adapting or extending this idea to a current land use issue that is affecting your school (ie, where should we place the new sports equipment shed?)
  • Conduct invasive species surveys in the schoolyard or nearby lands. Share surveys and maps of invasive species occurrence with land managers, city officials, and through invasive species reporting websites.
  • 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 for mapping riparian habitats, canopy cover and pebble counts, etc. This tool is primarily for middle and H.S. level students, but simple assessments (ie, water temperature) could be addressed and reported by upper elementary grades.

Assessment:

  • Use the open-ended Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) to assess student attitudes about what scientists look like, and to determine the extent to which they see themselves as scientists. Scoring rubric example: DAST Rating Rubric
  • Present data findings to land managers, city officials, and/or data reporting websites.
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Citizen Biomonitoring

Stewardship—Citizen Biomonitoring

Summary: Students contribute to the scientific understanding of a local ecosystem by collecting water quality data and reporting results to the community.

Concepts to teach: Stewardship, action, water quality, process of scientific inquiry

Goals: Students engage in scientific inquiry and come to see themselves as scientists as they collect and report data about a local outdoor site.

Standards:
S.06.3S.1, S.06.3S.2, S06.3S.3
S.07.3S.1, S.07.3S.2, 7.3S.3
S.08.3S.1, S.08.3S.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Adopt a local outdoor site and collect data that describes the health of the ecosystem.
  2. Gain experience with the use of scientific equipment, data collection and reporting.
  3. Draw conclusions and recommendations about the health of the ecosystem based on biomonitoring activities.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • 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 for mapping riparian habitats, canopy cover and pebble counts, etc. See the Nonpoint Source Pollution topic guide for more information.
    • Report water quality findings online on the StreamWebs website. Partner with another class who can do similar sampling at the same site or at at site upstream/downstream from your sample location. Compare and contrast findings between classrooms.
    • Report water quality findings to city government and/or local watershed councils.
  • National Geographic Field Scope—A web-based mapping, analysis and collaboration tool supporting student citizen scientists.
  • Testing salinity: Make your own hydrometer, available with many other ocean education materials on UCLA Marine Science Center’s OceanGLOBE webpages.

Assessment:

  • Use the open-ended Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) to assess student attitudes about what scientists look like, and to determine the extent to which they see themselves as scientists. Scoring rubric example: DAST Rating Rubric
  • Compare pre- and post- pictures to determine whether students see themselves as scientists, and whether their concept of what “doing science” has expanded to include a wider variety of participants.
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Citizen Biomonitoring

Stewardship—Citizen Biomonitoring

Summary: Students contribute to the scientific understanding of a local ecosystem by collecting water quality data and reporting results to the community.

Concepts to teach: Stewardship, action, water quality, process of scientific inquiry

Goals: Students engage in scientific inquiry and come to see themselves as scientists as they collect and report data about a local outdoor site.

Standards:
H.3S.1, H.3S.2, H.3S.3

Specific Objectives:

  1. Adopt a local outdoor site and collect data that describes the health of the ecosystem.
  2. Gain experience with the use of scientific equipment, data collection and reporting.
  3. Draw conclusions and recommendations about the health of the ecosystem based on biomonitoring activities.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • 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 for mapping water quality, turbidity, canopy cover, pebble counts, etc. Use the provided data sheets and protocols to determine the extent to which changes on land may be affecting water quality. Compare data within a stream, and to other student studies posted on the StreamWebs website. Examples include:
    • Water Quality Data—Measure and compare temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and turbidity.
    • Canopy Cover Data—Relate canopy cover to nearby activity on land and water temperature, and determine whether the area is suitable for salmonids.
  • National Geographic Field Scope—A web-based mapping, analysis and collaboration tool supporting student citizen scientists.
  • Student Watershed Research Project (SWRP)—Based at Portland State University, SWRP provides teacher training, protocols and data sheets for stream analysis.
  • Collect and report invasive species information to school administrators, land managers, city officials, and through invasive species reporting websites.

Assessment:

  • Use the open-ended Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) to assess student attitudes about what scientists look like, and to determine the extent to which they see themselves as scientists.  Scoring rubric example: DAST Rating Rubric
  • Compare pre- and post- pictures to determine whether students see themselves as scientists, and whether their concept of what “doing science” has expanded to include a wider variety of participants.
  • Use collected water quality data to determine whether a given body of water is an appropriate habitat for salmonids (or other species).
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Classroom Recycling

Human Use of Resources—Classroom Recycling

Summary: What kind of waste is generated in the classroom, and how much of what is in the garbage bin could be placed in the recycle bin instead? Students inventory their garbage, monitor their recycling output, and learn local recycling policy to ensure they are recycling all that they can.

Concepts to teach: Recycling, audit, measuring weight, histogram

Goals: Students gain an understanding of the garbage and recycling output from their classroom. After learning about their classroom habits and the local recycling policies, students challenge themselves to reduce their garbage waste and increase the proportion of waste that can go in the recycle bin.

Standards:
S3.1, S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S3.4D.2
S4.1, S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.4D.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Conduct an inquiry to determine the types and amount of garbage and/or recycling generated in the classroom.
  2. Identify which classroom waste products can be recycled, and which cannot.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Trash Pie lesson plan from Kids’ Science Challenge: KSC Lesson Plans—This lesson plan helps students investigate and classroom garbage output
  • Classroom Recycling–K-6 classrooms in Newport use a hand-held fish scale to weigh and chart their classroom recycling bags once a week over 2 months, and report their findings at the annual Newport Science Fair.
  • Recycle it, or not? – Recycling policies vary by region. Contact your local sanitation department to learn the details of your community’s recycling policy. Invite a recycling expert to the classroom to answer student questions.
  • Observe trucks removing waste and recycling from school dumpsters and bins. Follow up with a field trip to the local landfill, transfer station, or recycling center.

Assessment:

  • Students create a posters describing what should be done with various types of unwanted plastics in their school and/or community.
  • Share findings from recycling inquiry studies with peers and adults:
    • through a school exhibition such as Science Fair
    • bring the information to other classrooms or to adults in their workplace through a presentation or poster
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Climate vs Weather

Science Concepts—Climate vs Weather

Summary: Sometimes people who are trying to understand climate change have asked the question, “How could the planet be warming given that it is so cold outside today?” Weather and climate are not the same thing. Weather is what’s happening outside your window; atmospheric conditions that you can see, feel or measure. In contrast, climate is an area’s long-term weather patterns, and understanding climate requires looking at data taken over a longer period of time. In this topic guide, students analyze data to describe typical weather and climate patterns for different regions and seasons.

Concepts to teach:

Goals:

  1. Climate is an area’s long term weather patterns; generally the record is at least 30 years.
  2. Temperature and other records can vary from year to year, place to place, and season to season.
  3. Climate records show patterns in this variability.

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

  • 3-ESS2-1. Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
  • 3-ESS2-2. Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

  1. Describe the difference between weather and climate.
  2. Calculate average minimum and maximum temperatures in a climate record.
  3. Use online climate records to observe seasonal and regional climate differences.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Comparing Climate and Weather—This Power Point was created by educator LuAnn Dahlman from the NOAA Climate Program Office. It begins with a story of a personal observation and leads to interpretation of long term datasets.
    • Use the tables and graphs in slides #9-12 to guide students through identifying extreme annual events, determining temperature ranges over a climate record, and calculating average minimum and maximum temperatures.
    • The presentation ends with a Climate? or Weather? quiz.
    • Access NCDC DataTools to find out the minimum, maximum and average temperatures for other areas in the U.S. Compare the Minneapolis July 4th min/max temperature data to datasets from other regions. For a given area, compare July min/max data to data from other months of the year.
  • Activity: Oregon Climate Data—Explore climate data for various cities throughout Oregon to see how temperature and precipitation vary throughout the year and in different locations. Students will observe that coastal areas experience a smaller temperature range and greater precipitation than areas in Oregon that lie east of the Cascade Range.
    • Reading: Climate of Oregon—Background information from the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute that describes how the Pacfic Ocean and Cascade Range influence climate.
  • Reading: Weather and Climate—EPA Climate Change Indicators in the US. Explore the headings to see how long term temperature and precipitation data are used to indicate climate change.
  • Video: Weather vs. Climate—The second video of the CoCoRaHS Educational Series in collaboration with NOAA and NSF. Learn about the differences in this fun video.

Assessment:

  • Take the quiz at the end of the Comparing Climate and Weather Power Point
  • How do long term datasets help us better understand climate? How would Charlie’s understanding of climate been different if he had only collected temperature data in 1972? What if he only collected data in 1982?
  • How does the average climate in Minneapolis compare to another area in the U.S. in July?
  • How does distance from the ocean affect climate in various locations in Oregon? Why?
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