CH. 7 of Explore the Salish Sea
Migration
Coho salmon hatching from eggs in a gravel nest or redd. Image by Florian Graner
NOTE: This unit is in draft form. Revisions and additions will be made until this note does not appear. For questions or suggestions, contact:
mdlutz@ucdavis.edu
Next Generation Science Standards
Grade 5
5-LS2-1 Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
Grades 6-8
MS-ESS2-1 Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
MS-LS2-1 “Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
Migration explores the routes, distances, and purposes for wildlife migration with a special focus on Pacific salmon. This iconic species of the Pacific Northwest has shaped life in Salish Sea watersheds since they first entered rivers and creeks to spawn, bringing their ocean-derived nutrients in reach of land animals, plants, and people. Nearly 1/4 of the nitrogen in the leaves of our giant temperate rainforest trees once swam in the sea in salmon. They are the reason for the great natural wealth of the Salish Sea and beyond.
Learning to identify habitat needs based on their specific migrations will empower students to identify ways they can improve salmon habitat near their own schools and possibly design and carry out a salmon habitat improvement project. Reach out to salmon experts in your community for support for this unit and project, from protecting storm drains to raising salmon in the classroom. Share your salmon project story along the way. Your school may just be featured as our next Salish Sea Heroes!
By downloading this curriculum, I agree to complete the educator surveys and pre- and post-assessments with my students.
UNIT PLAN
The unit plan for Migration is arranged in four 50 minute sessions, but may be arranged to suit your schedule. You may download and print the plan or follow along on your computer where all links to external websites and documents will be live at your fingertips. Here you will find NGSS, Learning Targets, Success Criteria, what to prep, and a list of materials and online resources you will use in the lessons, activities, games, labs, and stewardship project that will help students explore their essential question on salmon.
Spawned-out coho salmon in Cabin Creek. Photo by Jake Castle, WDFW
STUDENT JOURNAL
This is your students’ place to wonder, record observations, take notes, diagram, and plan and record scientific investigation or engineering processes. It will scaffold each step of learning, but give the locus of control to the students as they explore. It is also a place to celebrate hard work with well-deserved stamps on the back page.
HOW TO PRINT JOURNALS
In Microsoft Word, click on the Layout menu, scroll down to Pages options, and select Book fold in the drop down menu by Multiple pages. Print in landscape orientation on 8.5 x 14” paper with two staples along the center fold.
SLIDESHOW
Use these PowerPoint slides with video and resource links as an aid to help guide, but not dominate, your learning progression. Feel free to modify content and add or remove slides to best fit your learning goals. Where there are place-based maps, videos, or project examples, replace with similar content, specific to your school’s region or relevant to your students’ lives and interests.
PRE-ASSESSMENT
Gauge pre-existing knowledge and interest with this brief quiz.. When the unit is finished, don’t forget to take the post-assessment. Classroom teachers, use student achievement data gathered from these assessments for a TPEP Cycle of Inquiry.
WONDER
Give your students a visual or sensory experience that provides a chance to wonder at an inaccessible place in the ocean. The unit plan and slideshow provide a glimpse of coho salmon eggs hatching, then a look at a stream near your own school to inspire wonder about whether your neighborhood stream is viable salmon habitat
Coho salmon eggs hatch in a gravel redd. Photo by Florian Graner.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
After students have wondered about the phenomenon that sets the stage for exploring salmon migration, invite an open discussion with the class. Develop an essential question around the mystery or problem they’d like to solve, guiding them to frame it around determining if the chosen stream is healthy for salmon.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
Explore Teams, this link is for your research and stream survey prep. Find your topic and search for articles, videos, field procedures, identification guides and more. Click the button below!
DEVELOP A TESTABLE QUESTION
This is when your students take that larger essential question and distill it down into specific, testable question that can be explored using the process of science. In this case it will be whether the stream is healthy for salmon.
PUT SCIENCE TO WORK
Identify variables, design a procedure, carry out an investigation, analyze data, and see where active discovery leads. To answers? Solutions? More questions to test? Or maybe even back to the drawing board to start all over again. The scientific process is never linear and never ends, but it is always an adventure! Find resources in the Slideshow and Student Journal.
COMMUNICATE YOUR FINDINGS
This is a crucial part of the scientific process. It is the part where the results of all your hard work can make a difference. This may be a difference in the choices a few citizens make each day to help the sea or a new bill on the Senate floor that changes the way our whole state helps the whales. Click on the Learn More button below for three options for Science Communication, with resources to guide you and your students toward making your work public.
POST-ASSESSMENT
At the end of the unit, administer this post-assessment and record the results, then calculate the difference between the pre- and post-assessment scores to measure student growth for the individual and the whole class.