by Natalie Osborne | Apr 5, 2023
This 3-day investigation begins with students listening to a variety of underwater sounds, and deciding if the sound was made by an animal or something else. They learn about sound and how sound works in water, and about a researcher in the Bering Sea who is using sound to study the North Pacific right whale. Students learn about hydrophones and participate in an activity that simulates the use of hydrophones. Finally, they learn about spectrograms and try to identify animals by looking at the spectrograms and listening to the associated sounds.
by Natalie Osborne | Apr 5, 2023
In this investigation, students will work in small groups to research a current issue related to human interaction with the ocean, using Internet and library resources. They will communicate the facts about their issue on a poster, participate in a poster viewing session, and ask questions about the information presented on the other posters created by members of their class.
by Natalie Osborne | Apr 5, 2023
Students develop an understanding of interconnections among the ocean, humans, and other living things through a case study of harvesting bidarki (katy chitons) in the Alaska Native villages of Port Graham and Nanwalek. They reflect on their own connections to the ocean.
by Natalie Osborne | Apr 5, 2023
In this 4-5 day investigation, students examine hypotheses and evidence related to the causes of the sea otter decline. They narrow down the hypotheses to one, then play a food web game to help them better understand relationships in the kelp bed ecosystem, and predict the outcome of an experiment to test the killer whale predation hypothesis. They put together some of the big ideas about interactions in ecosystems to come up with plausible explanations for the sea otter mystery. Finally, they evaluate whether the hypothesis has been proven. They reflect on their learning by diagramming the sea otter’s food web and predicting what might happen if parts of the ecosystem changed.
by Natalie Osborne | Apr 4, 2023
In this 3-4 day investigation, students revisit the sea otter mystery story and discuss what scientists did to study sea otters in the Aleutians. They simulate the observation, identification, sampling, and counting methods used by scientists in two different activities, then reflect, discuss, and pose questions about scientific data collection.
