Chapter 4 of Explore the Salish Sea
Tide Out, Table Set
Photo courtesy of Jan Kocian
What this unit is about…
In this unit, students will solve a mystery about changes in oyster larvae in the Salish Sea, causing oyster farmers to send their larvae to Hawaii until they grow stronger. They will look for clues in:
activities and games, articles, and films that introduce the concepts of habitat and ecosystem
structures and behaviors for survival in intertidal zone habitats
the Earth-moon-sun interactions that drive the tides
the importance of First Foods of the intertidal to first nations communities;
how intertidal organisms interact across the Salish Sea food web
Afterward, they will arrive at the importance of a balanced carbon cycle in the health of the ocean and use a full scientific investigation to test if their local waters have a healthy pH for oyster larvae and other shelled creatures. Clear pathways of hope are woven into this complex issue, so students know that scientists and leaders are working to solve this problem - and kids can help!
Next Generation Science Standards in this unit:
4-LS1-1 Argue that intertidal life has structures with functions for survival.
5-LS2-1 Model an intertidal food web from producers to consumers to decomposers
5-ESS3-1 Use science to help protect shellfish in your community
5-PS1-4 Observe the pH drop caused by the chemical reaction of carbon dioxide with seawater
MS-LS2-2 Predicts patterns of organism interactions across terrestrial, intertidal, and subtidal ecosystems.
MS-LS2-3 Model the cycling of matter and energy among living and nonliving parts of an intertidal ecosystem.
MS-LS2-4 Argue with authentic evidence that changes to seawater pH affects oyster larvae.
MS-PS1-2 Observe and analyze whether a chemical reaction occurred between CO2 and seawater.
MS-PS2-4 Argue using evidence that gravitational interactions of the sun, moon, and Earth are attractive, depend on the masses of each, and cause tides.
MS-ESS1-1 Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases and tides.
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions to lower ocean pH.
Photo courtesy of Don Paulson
Photo by of Sheri Wetherell Flickr Creative Commons
The Sequence
After you have registered for the curriculum, preparing the unit is as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Review the unit plan, and customize it to suit your needs
This unit plan is flexible, adaptable, and in Word format to ensure that your experience can be tailored geographically to your local watershed and community, and to your particular teaching objectives and needs. Use the plan like a map- it has directions, resources, learning targets and performance expectations, and more to guide every step of the way, but the adventure you and your students share is your own.
Review and customize the slideshow
This slideshow presents helpful background information, including links to online resources and videos. With helpful presenter notes, it also acts as a guide as you progress. As with the unit plan, you may want to customize certain slides to make them even more relevant and local. For this reason, it is in PowerPoint. Save a copy and make the change you see fit.
Review, customize, and print the accompanying student journal
This editable Word document is your students’ place to wonder, record observations, take notes, diagram, and plan and record scientific investigation or engineering processes. It is also a place to celebrate hard work with well-deserved stamps on the back page. Review and customize the journal to reflect the changes you’ve made in your unit plan and slideshow.
HOW TO PRINT
In Microsoft Word, click on the Layout menu, then the arrow to expand the Page Set Up options. Click Margins and select “Book Fold” in the drop down menu by Multiple pages. Print in landscape orientation on 8.5 x 14” (legal) paper with two staples along the center fold. Note: the font is Helvetica. Changing the font can change alignment of journal pages.
Utilize the materials below for additional student resources throughout the unit.
Additional Resources & Materials
Assessments
Every unit has its own pre- and post-assessments for tracking the progress and growth that students make throughout the curriculum. Links to these (and additional formative assessments!) are also provided in the unit plan.
TIDE OUT, TABLE SET POST-ASSESSMENT
TIDE OUT, TABLE SET PRE-ASSESSMENT
WONDER
Give your students a visual or sensory experience that provides a chance to wonder at a phenomenon in the ocean. This may be a hands-on outdoor activity, an observational field trip, or an in-classroom presentation, video, or still photo to invoke curiosity about a phenomenon students can’t wait to try to solve.
Essential question
After the experience of “wonder,” it is time to give the Tide Out, Table Set Student Journal to each student. Here is a time to write thoughts, ideas, and questions into their journals inspired by their reading of Explore the Salish Sea Chapter 4, Life at the Edges: The Intertidal World. After students have read and written, invite an open discussion with the class. Develop an essential question around the mystery or problem they’d like to solve.
Background research
Once you have established an essential question, the information-gathering begins...or continues! The Explore the Salish Sea book is a great place to start, there are some additional resources in the link below, and you may find many more of your own. Of course, you’ll come back to this step throughout the process, as your questions and claims will require support.
Develop a Testable Question
This is when your students take that larger essential question and distill it down into specific, testable question.
put science to work
Identify variables, design a procedure, carry out an investigation, analyze data, and see where active discovery leads. Will there be answers? Solutions? More questions to test? It may even be back to the drawing board to start all over again. The scientific process is never linear (and it never ends), but there is always an adventure! Read through this UC Berkeley weblink for teaching Science, then print the scientific process chart for students or to post in your classroom. Find the resources to guide your students’ own scientific process 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 button above to return to the Real Process of Science website’s online tool for students to build the story of their scientific process.
Click the button below to go to the Box folder of all the documents for this unit in one place.
Ideas for improvement? Share ideas and resources with our Education Coordinator, Mira, at mdlutz@ucdavis.edu.