CH.4 of Explore the Salish Sea
Tide Out,
Table Set
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
One of the most diverse, tough, and fascinating habitats in the Salish Sea, a tide pool in the intertidal zone of the rocky shore. Photo by Marc Chamberlain
About the unit
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 concept of habitat, structures and functions and behaviors for survival in intertidal zone habitats, the Earth-moon-sun interactions that drive the tides to create this unique zone, the importance of First Foods of the intertidal to first nations communities, and how specific intertidal organisms fit into the Salish Sea food web. They will conclude their detective work. Afterward, they will arrive at the importance of a balanced carbon cycle in the health of the ocean and test if our own waters have a healthy pH for oyster larvae and other shelled creatures with a full scientific investigation. They will add the skills of research-design (procedure) and conclusion-writing to their science and engineering skill set. As always, 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
Grade 5 Grades 6-8
This curriculum may be used and modified, but not reproduced for sale in any way.
Please register below and let us know your thoughts as you go!
UNIT PLAN
The unit plan for Tide Out Table Set comes in 3 parts. You may download and print each one 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 scientific research that will help students explore the essential question they choose.
eelgrass meadow at low tide
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
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” 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, locale, and interests.
PRE-ASSESSMENT
Gauge pre-existing knowledge and interest and measure student growth with this brief quiz. When the unit is finished, don’t forget to administer the post-assessment.
WONDER
Give your students a visual or sensory experience that provides a chance to wonder at an inaccessible place in the ocean. This may be a hands-on outdoor activity, an observational field trip, or an in-classroom presentation, video, or still photo, such as the one to the right, to invoke curiosity about a phenomenon students can’t wait to try to solve.
Oyster larvae in different levels of CO2
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Here is a time to write thoughts, ideas, and questions inspired by their reading into their journals. 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. Background research will begin with the reading of the book and continue through the games and activities described in the unit plan. In this link you will find a few more resources students may need along the way. 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. 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.
How Science Works Web Interactive
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.