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Branca, BarbaraOcean Planet. Interdisciplinary Marine Science Activities.Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Office ofElementary and Secondary Education.[95]

66p.Smithsonian Institution, Office of Education, Arts andIndustries Building, Room 1163/MRC 402, Washington, DC

20560.Guides - Classroom Teacher (052)MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.*Conservation (Environment); Earth Science; *Ecology;Environmental Education; *Exhibits; InterdisciplinaryApproach; Intermediate Grades; *Lesson Plans; MarineBiology; Marine Education; Middle Schools; *Oceanography;Secondary Education; Teaching GuidesOcean Management

The Ocean Planet is a traveling exhibition from theSmithsonian Institution designed to share with the public what recentresearch has revealed about the oceans and to encourage ocean conservation.

This booklet of lessons and activities adapts several themes from theexhibition for use in middle and high school classrooms. Lesson plans

include: (1) "Sea Secrets" that explores ocean geography; (2) "Sea

Connections" that looks at plants and animals that live in different marine

ecosystems; (3) "Pollution Solution" that examines the effects of an

environmental crisis; (4) "Stranded Along the Coast" that explores bothnatural and human causes of animal strandings; and (5) "Reflections on the

Sea" that explores the influence of oceans on language and literature. Each

lesson plan contains background information, a statement of learning

objectives, a list of required materials, step-by-step procedures, student

handouts, and a list of educational resources including connections to the

online version of the Ocean Planet exhibition. (JRH)

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CENTER (ERIC)TM document has been reproduced as

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Minor changes have been made toimprove reproduction quality

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Institution

This publication is madepossible by a generous grantfrom Brother InternationalCorporation.

brother.

fter centuries of seafaring,

we're only now beginning to plumb the

workings of our watery planet. The deeper

we go, the clearer it becomes that no matterwho we are or where we live, we all have a hand

and a stakein what happens in the seas. he

Smithsonian Institution created the exhibition Ocean Planet to sharewith the public what recent research has revealed about the oceans and to encourageocean conservation. This booklet of lessons and activities adapts several themes of theexhibition for use in the middle and high school classroom. cean Planet has sixlesson plans. "Sea Secrets" explores ocean geography; "Sea Connections" looks atthe plants and animals that live in different marine ecosystems. "Ocean Market"identifies and values many products of the seas. "Pollution Solution" examinesthe effects of an environmental crisis. "Stranded Along the Coast" explores bothnatural and human causes of animal strandings. Finally, "Reflections on the Sea"explores the influence of oceans on language and literature. ach of the the sixlesson plans has the same elements: background information; statement of learningobjectives; list of required materials; step-by-step procedures; student handouts;and a list of additional resources, including connections to the online version ofthe Ocean Planet exhibition. he instructional approaches in Ocean Planet areinterdisciplinary. Lesson plans will work in different classes, from biology andmathematics to geography and social studies. Many activities employ students'writing skills. e hope that the lessons in this booklet may guide students tobetter understand the diversity and importance of the seas.

4

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Ocean Planet,

a traveling exhibition dQrVeling exhibit "from the Smithsonian Institutionpromoting the celebration, understanding, and conservationof the world's oceans, premiered at the National Museum

of Natural History in April 1995. The exhibition marks theculmination of a four-year study of environmental issues that

affect the health of the world's oceans.

The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

has scheduled the exhibition to tour through the U.S. cities

listed here. You can also visit the online version of the

exhibition at http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html

5

Bishop Museum,Honolulu, Hawaii:May 17, 1997October 5, 1997

Chicago Museum ofScience and Industry:May 23August 15, 1998

Museum of Science, Boston:September 19December 13, 1998

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Connectionsonn tions

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or centuries, people have been challenged by

the mysteries that lie beneath the blue depths of our

ocean planet. Very little was known about the ocean until late

in the nineteenth century, although nearly three-quarters of the planet is covered by

ocean or seawater. Myths and misconceptions abounded. We used to think that the

ocean depths were devoid of life. We thought that the seafloor was flat and that it

was the same age as the continents. How different a picture we now have of the

ocean as the sea has begun to yield its secrets. n the 1870s, the HMS Challenger left

England and sailed the world's oceans, throwing out weighted lines and taking

soundings to measure the depths of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans.

For the first time, scientists had an inkling of the contours of the ocean floor, took

samples of the plants and animals, and measured differences in water temperature

and salinity. But the cold, dark water and extreme pressure of the depths kept

scientists from knowing the secrets of the deep abyss. ollowing in the footsteps of

those pioneering oceanographers, today's scientists have overcome many of the

challenges of the deep by using more sophisticated tools. They can send manned

submersibles and sampling devices to plumb the ocean depths, taking

photographs and samples of animal life and sediment to bring back to the surface

for further study. Even space technology enters the picture. Satellite photos taken

of the ocean provide a wide range of information, including water temperature and

depth, seafloor topography, and the plankton populations. Using sonar and satellite

data, scientists have been able to generate a new map of the ocean floor, thirty times

more accurate than the best previous map. This map shows the ruggedness of the

Mid-Ocean Ridge as it bisects the Atlantic Ocean. This contrasts

to the relatively flat Pacific Ocean floor, its vast expanse

broken up by more than a thousand newlydiscovered underwater volcanoes stretching

from Hawaii to the Aleutians. nd to what

does this vastStreasure trove of data lead?

For

scientists, there is a

broader understanding of

how the ocean basin formed

and continues to evolve. Molten

magma from Earth's interior spews

out at the mid-ocean ridges, spilling over to

either side and hardening to rocky basalt. As the crust pushes away from

the ridges, it cools and thins, forming new seafloor and thus "widening" the

ocean here. As this portion of the ocean floor widens, a section of the seafloor else-

where is slowly sliding beneath the crust, becoming part of Earth's magma once

again. Plate tectonics, the theory of Earth's crustal plates, thus helps explain ocean

formation. ew observations also give scientists a greater understanding of the

dynamic nature of Earth's water and oxygen cycles and how planetary winds affect

ocean currents. Data allow scientists to hypothesize about global weather systems,

earthquake and volcanic activity, and climatic trends of global consequence.

Understanding the interactions of the ocean and marine life gives us an indication

of the planet's health and the effects of human activity. he development of

new technologies for underwater exploration has led to exciting and lucrative

expeditions. Photographs of the doomed Titanic taken by remote cameras from a

submersible craft as it probed deep in the North Atlantic captured the imagination

of the world. Recently declassified information about the locations of sunken World

War II vessels has attracted adventurers and investors who would like to bring up rich

cargoes. The old romantic notion of diving for Spanish pieces of eight from pirate

shipwrecks in the Caribbean has been replaced by the idea of using sonar and other

sensors to locate sunken submarines carrying gold. But whether in pursuit of

knowledge or profit, all of these activities contribute to our understanding of the ocean.

9

SearPlan

Identify some of the features of the ocean,including a continental shelf, a deep ocean plain,a trench, and a mid-ocean ridge.

Draw a profile of the ocean using data points.

Infer the conditions of some undersea locations.

1\/16"--"z-z-LZ l S

Student Pages

pencil, straightedge

Optional: world map, globe

Optional: small aquarium, sand, water, salt,metal objects

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social studies, oceanography, mathematics

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1. To introduce Sea Secrets, askstudents to name the highest andlowest places on Earth's crust.They may name Mt. Everest andthe Grand Canyon, respectively.Tell them that the tallest moun-tains and deepest canyons arefound in the ocean. The HawaiianIslands would dwarf Mt. Everest.These islands are merely the topsof huge mountains that have theirbase on the deep floor of thePacific. Also in the Pacific is the

deepest trench on the Earth, theMariana Trench. It measureseleven kilometers below the sea'ssurfaceseven times the depth ofthe Grand Canyon. The Pacific,named by Magellan because itlooked peaceful, is the largestfeature on Earth. It can looktranquil sometimes; but at othertimes huge waves roll, typhoons

blow, and tsunamis strike thecoast. Spin a globe and havestudents observe how great an areaof Earth the Pacific occupies. Spinthe globe again, and have studentsfind and name the Atlantic, Indian,and Arctic Oceans.

. Ask students to speculate onhow people have learned aboutthe ocean. They may know thatmany a sailor who went out tosea on a great clipper ship neveractually went into the watermany of them could not swim.They measured depth using ropesand did their best to stay out ofthe briny deep. Tell students howthe HMS Challenger went out tosea in 1872, and for three yearsthe crew mapped and charted themany mountains and valleys ofthe ocean floor. Today we havea "window" into the gloom ofthe deep sea and can map thecontours using sophisticatedequipment. We use sonarsoundwaves that bounce off the bottomof the ocean and back up to aresearch ship. The longer it takesfor the sound to bounce back, thedeeper the ocean floor. In someways, robotic submersibles arelike spacecraft charting theunknown regions of space. Wehave core samplers that drill holesinto the ocean bottom and bringup layers of sediment.

3. Have students imagine theyare taking the Johnson Sea Link, asubmersible research vessel, intothe gloomy darkness of the abyss.By five hundred feet below thesurface, it is already dark on thesunniest day. Off the coast ofFlorida, it might take an hour toget down to the seafloor. Theincredible water pressure of amillion pounds per square inchactually squeezes the thick wallsof the small capsule. Creatures offantastic shapes are viewed for thefirst time by human eyes as theypass through the craft's lights.Robotic arms carefully funnel

9 11

gauze-like invertebrate animalsinto sampling containers. Theanimals are brought up to thesurface and studied.

4. Discuss with students howmapping, photographing, andtaking core samples from theocean floor have helped scientiststo conclude how the oceansformed. Earth's crust is bothyounger and thinner beneaththe ocean than it is under thecontinents. That is because newocean floor is continually formingat the mid-ocean ridges. Theseridges wrap around Earth like theseams on a baseball. Coming offthe sides of the ridges are "riftvalleys," from which molten rockfrom within Earth pours out likelava from a volcano. When itcools, it forms new ocean floor. Asthe rock cools, magnetic particlesin the lava are frozen, pointing inthe direction of the North Pole.Scientists have matched theseparticles with periods of poleshifts in the geologic record. Theyhave also matched the particles onboth sides of the ridge, showingthat they have spread apart. Thediscovery of these matching"magnetic stripes" in the rockssurrounding the mid-oceanridges propelled the theory ofplate tectonics into theforefront of geology.

5. One interesting connectionbetween biology and plate tecton-ics involves the life cycle of greensea turtles. The fact that SouthAmerican green sea turtles swimto tiny Ascension Island in themiddle of the Atlantic to lay eggsmay help prove the theory ofplate tectonics. Some scientistshypothesize that the ancestors ofthese animals made this journeybefore the continents were so farapart. The turtles have continuedthis behavior over many genera-tions as the distance across theAtlantic has gradually increasedby several centimeters each year.

6. Tell students that the deep,flat portions of the ocean floorare referred to as the abyss orthe abyssal plain. Trenches occurwhere one of Earth's crustal platesis sliding under another. Thecontinental slope is the area ofascent that leads to the continen-tal shelf, the underwater edge ofa continent.

7. Hand out the student pages.Have students examine the mapof the Atlantic Ocean. Explainthat it shows what the oceanwould look like if all the waterwere removed. Compare the areaof the map to a wall map of theworld, then have students find thelabeled continental shelves,abyssal plains, continental slopes,trenches, and ridges. Parts of theAtlantic trenches are more thaneight kilometers deep. To make

that distance more meaningful tostudents, use the distance betweentwo familiar landmarks in yourarea (eight kilometers equal fivemiles). Or have them figure outhow many school buses (eachabout ten meters long) wouldhave to line up to cover a distanceof eight thousand meters (eighthundred). Tell them that parts ofthe Atlantic Ocean are that deepfrom the surface down to theocean floor.

8. When students seem ready towork on their own, have themplot the data points to draw anocean profile between Floridaand Dakar, Senegal. (These dataare approximate and have beensimplified somewhat.) Make surestudents understand that a profileis a side view of the ocean floorif you made the journey alonga straight line between twolocations.

9. Tell students that this treasurehunt for the location of gold isbased on real salvage efforts tobring up the cargo of a WorldWar II Japanese submarine

torpedoed en route to Europewith supplies of precious metals.It takes the work of people ofmany nations to accomplish sucha task. This activity raises the

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issue of respect for the dead whowere lost with the vessel as wellas more temporal and legaldisputes about who owns bountythat lies in international waters.Tell students that a nation haslegal rights to waters two hundredmiles off its coast. At one timecountries claimed a mere threemiles because that was as far as acannonball could reach. Later,the limit was extended to twelvemiles, then two hundred.

10. When students finish theirprofiles, have them answer thequestions on the student page. Theywill find that the Nares Deep andCape Verde Basins are the deepestareas in this section of the oceanand that they are separated by theMid-Atlantic Ridge. The sunkensub is located at data point 11at a depth of five and a halfkilometers. To work on such a

project, they would likely operatefrom the Cape Verde Islands, theclosest landmass. They wouldprobably choose to use a remotelyoperated vehicle because of thegreat depth and risk. Perhaps theywould choose to erect a memorialto those who died in the sub.Gold survives well under adverseconditions because it does notreact easily with other compoundsand thus does not corrode likeother metals or deteriorate likeorganic materials.

11. Challenge students to make a

model ocean profile using a smallaquarium, sand, and water. Theycan make their own seawater bydissolving thirty-five grams of saltfor every liter of water. Theymight bury a metallic object at aspecific location and challengeother students to find it withoutdisturbing other parts of theocean floor.

7

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How does the sea reveal its secrets? What does the ocean floor look like? Scientists

have a rough idea based on depth soundings and satellite pictures from space. Thepicture of the Atlantic Ocean that you see here is what the seafloor would look like if

somebody could "pull the plug" and drain the water. The Atlantic Ocean floor is very

rugged, with as many ups and downs as there are on land.

Continentalshelf

HudsonRiverCanyon

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Find theSunken

Student pagFind points A and B on the mapone in Florida and one in Dakar, Senegal, in WestAfrica. Connect the two with a straight line. Somewhere along this route there is a

sunken submarine from World War II, filled with two tons of gold. To find the treasure

sub you will have to draw an ocean profile on the chart provided.

FLORIDA

Bahamas

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3

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1 2 3 4Points

1. Use the data to plot the depthof each point onto the chart, thenconnect the dots.2. Label the two continentalslopesthe parts of the oceanprofile that show the steep dropfrom the continental shelf to thedeep ocean plains.3. Name two parts of the Atlanticthat have depths of six kilometers.4. Label the area of theMid-Atlantic Ridge.5. Now you're ready to locate thesunken treasure sub. It is locatedat the data point approximatelytwo thousand kilometers west ofthe Cape Verde Islands and eastof the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. How

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Total distance of 7,000 kilometers

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deep is it? Mark the spot onyour profile.6. Answer these questions onanother sheet of paper.a. Do you think you'll send down ateam to look at the sub, or will youuse a remotely operated vehicle?b. Do you think that you'll makeyour base of operations the CapeVerde Islands or the Bahamas?Why?c. What will you do about pre-serving the memory of sailorswho went down with the sub?d. Why does gold stay preservedin the deep? What happens toother materials that have beenthere for fifty years?

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CapeVerdeBasin

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The September/October 1995issue of the Office of Elementaryand Secondary Education'squarterly curriculum guide, Artto Zoo (http://educate.si.edu/art-to-zoo/azindex.htm),explores the relation between theworld's oceans and the weather.A background essay, four lessonplans, and activity sheets helpteach students about currents andnavigation, coastal and inlandclimates, and changes in weatherdue to El Nino.

Visit Ocean Planet online athttp://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html.

Using the Exhibition TopicOutline, look under OceanScience to become fully immersedin ocean exploration. Under theResource Room, go to the ImageCatalog for photographs andillustrations of submersibles andother equipment used to plumbthe depths of the sea. To viewthe latest images of the oceancompiled from satellite and sonardata, look at the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric

Administration's global gravitymap at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/

mgg/announcements/announce_predict.html.

13 I5

CC

Conley, Andrea. Window on theDeep: The Adventures of an

Underwater Explorer, Sylvia Earle.

New York: Franklin Watts. 1991.

Simon, Seymour. Oceans. New

York: Morrow Junior Books, 1990

Waters, John E Deep-Sea r-ents:

Living Worlds without Sun. NewYork: Cobblehill Books, 1994.

Res oirr c,(6

Duxbury, Alvn C., and Alison B.Duxbury. An Introduction to the

World's Oceans. 4th ed. Dubuque,Iowa: William C. Brown, 1994.

Whipple, A.B.C. Planet Earth:Restless Oceans. New York:

Time-Life Books, 1983.

ome people go whale

watching. Some people long to

iswim with dolphins. Others earn

1 their livelihood fishing for giant tuna

in a vast ocean. These marine animals

capture our attention and our imagination. We

have a connection to all the living things of the ocean, from the

microscopic floating plants that supply us with the oxygen we breathe to the huge

blue whale that fills its belly with a ton of krill. Microscopic or oversized, plant or

animal, from muddy shoreline to deep ocean floor, the ocean's living things attest

to its endless variety, its biodiversity. Scientists say that there may be millions more

species than we know swimming, floating, and crawling in the deep oceans and as

yet unseen by human eyes. With the aid of submersible technology, entire new

ecosystems are being discovered. Each ecosystem consists of a community of living

things that interact with one another in complex relationships in unique conditions

of water temperature, salinity, chemical composition, and currents. ar below the

surface of the ocean, where no sunlight reaches, hot water laced with chemicals

spews out of cracks in the ocean floor. These cracks (hydrothermal vents) occur

most often along the mid-ocean ridge, where Earth's crustal plates are spreading

apart. Water reaching temperatures of four hundred degrees Celsius and chemical

compounds such as hydrogen sulfide billow out from the vents. At certain vents,

as the hot, sulfide-rich water comes in contact with cold seawater, metal sulfides

precipitate out. The chemicals pile up into structures that resemble chimneys,

which scientists call "black smokers." Scientists have found one black smoker that

is as tall as a fifteen-story building. Can living things survive in such a place?

The answer is yes. n 1977, scientists aboard the submersible Alvin, exploring five

thousand feet below the surface of the Pacific, saw large, four-foot-tall tube worms,

some with bright red plumes, living around a hydrothermal vent. Later laboratory

investigation revealed that the unusual worms had no digestive system but instead16

contained about 285 billion bacteria per ounce

of tissue! In this sunless world, a type of sulfur-loving

bacteria was the worms' food source. Clouds of bacteria,

appearing white in the lights of the sub, were able to use

hydrogen sulfide as an energy source. In most other food chains,

plants convert carbon dioxide into food using sunlight duringphotosynthesis. These peculiar bacteria were able to convert hydrogen sulfide into

food during chemosynthesis. Also found around the vents, feeding on the water rich

in chemosynthetic bacteria, were certain kinds of clams and mussels. At this great

depth and pressure, some species of octopus prey upon these shelled invertebrates.

But when the hot water and chemicals coming from the vent slow down to a

trickle, the animals disappear. n the past twenty years, more than three hundred

species have been identified in this unique environment. Similar vent organisms

have been discovered at the base of the continental shelf, where the ocean water is

sulfide-rich but not hot, as in the hydrothermal vents. These "cold seeps," as they

are called, illustrate how little we know about the productivity of the ocean bottom.

As far as scientists can tell, hydrothermal vents and cold seeps have not yet been

affected by human activities. ar away in a tropical ocean is another distinctive

marine ecosystem. One in four marine species on our planet lives in a coral reef, an

underwater world like no other with its colorful variety of swimming and floating

animals making their way among the branching corals. The food chain of the coral

reef begins with photosynthetic algae, microscopic organisms that use sunlight

to make food. Most of the algae live in harmony within the tiny coral animals

themselves. Reef-building corals secrete a hard, stony shell of calcium carbonate

that builds up over time and provides the habitat for reef animals. Colorful

invertebrates such as the coral shrimp feed on algae and detritus around the coral,

where they in turn may become dinner for small fish. Large, sleek, and silvery

barracuda patrol the outer reef, preying on smaller fish such as the butterfly fish.

However, there is trouble in this paradise: pollution from pesticides, sewage, and

117

soil run-off has damaged many reefs in the Caribbean and Pacific. The practice

of dynamite fishing to stun fish and capture them for the aquarium trade has

devastated reefs in parts of Asia, the South Pacific, and Africa. erhaps not as

familiar to us is the frigid water of the polar ocean. The food chains of the polar

ocean also begin with algae, including symmetrically shaped diatoms with hard

silicate shells. Algae are eaten by tiny invertebrate animals, including shrimplike

krill. In the ocean around Antarctica, krill are an important food source, eaten by a

diverse group of animals including fish, baleen whales, and Ade lie penguins. The

penguins are in turn preyed upon by leopard seals. The top predator of the

Antarctic is the killer whale, which eats penguins and seals. Thus overfishing ofkrill

in polar waters may jeopardize not only krill, but whales, seals, and penguins too.

long more temperate seacoasts, kelp forests form another unique ecosystem. Kelp

are brown algae that can grow as much as sixty centimeters in one day, ultimately

reaching as long as eighty meters. Tiny crustaceans called copepods are among the

animal plankton that feed on the floating algae and detritus in the Pacific along the

California coast. Larger invertebrates, such as sea urchins and abalone, graze on the

kelp and are in turn eaten by sea otters. The overharvesting of kelp and a decrease

in water quality have impaired the productivity of these ecosystems. Discharge from

nuclear power plants on the California coast raises the water temperature just

enough so that more sea urchins and abalone survive and grow, eating kelp

and diminishing the size of kelp beds. nderstanding the various marine ecosystems

helps us to better understand the important connections among marineorganisms and suggests how much we still have to learn about the oceans.

This understanding also raises warning flags

about the necessity of monitoring

human activity to keep these

connections from being

severed and to protect 18

marine biodiversity.

16

SeC'onnections

7z plan4.?,7-6.-.. eS

Identify producers and consumers from fourmarine ecosystems.

Describe the delicate balance among organisms ineach environment.

Construct a food chain or web from a marine

ecosystem.

List some of the human activities that can upset thebalance in marine environments.

Student Page

Globe or world map

Playing cards to be copied and cut out

Heavy stock paper for photocopying or pasting cards

Scissors

S Li bye

biology, geography, oceanography, political science, art

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1. Motivate students by rapidlyspinning a globe and asking themto approximate how much ofEarth is covered by ocean. Askthem to think about the varietyof marine organisms and habitatsthat must exist on our wateryplanet, which is over three-quar-ters ocean. Then have studentslocate each of the following on aglobe or world map: the GreatBarrier Reef in Australia (coralreef); the Weddell Sea, Antarctica(polar ocean); Monterey Bay,California (kelp forest); and theMid-Atlantic Ridge (hydrother-mal vent). (If the Mid-AtlanticRidge is not shown on your globeor world map, approximate itslocation by connecting Icelandand the Azores with a large letterC, or look at the map on page 11,the Sea Secrets Student Page.)

2. Using the introduction as a

guide, describe to your studentssome of the amazing biodiversityof ocean life, including marineorganisms in hydrothermal vents,coral reefs, kelp forests, and polaroceans. Challenge students tomatch each of the four ecosystemsyou have described with thecorrect location on the globe. Askthem to name the producers andconsumers from each ecosystem.Producers always begin the foodchain and, in the ocean, aregenerally algae, although

chemosvnthetic bacteria are theproducers near hydrothermalvents. All the other organismsare consumers.

3. In advance, photocopy thethree pages of playing cards andpaste copies onto heavy stockpaper. Cut each sheet into ninecards along the guide lines.Each complete deck will havetwenty-seven playing cards andis suitable for a group of up tofour players. After cards are cutout they may be laminated orstored in plastic sleeves designedto hold trading cards.

4. Divide students into groupsof four or fewer. Pass out a deckof cards to each group and theRules of the Game Page toeach player. Read through thedirections together. Make surethat students understand thatthey will be trying to collect allfive cards from one ecosystem inorder to see how they connect toeach other. Tell students that onlyfive organisms have been chosenfrom each ecosystem for thegame, but that these representa-tive organisms are part of muchbigger food webs from eachecosystem. Read through theDisconnect and Reconnect cardsto make sure students understandhow they are used in the game.

5. As students start playing,circulate among the groups.As a player is carrying out thedirections on a Disconnect card,have that student explain to youthe relationship of the organismswithin that ecosystem and tell inhis or her own words the impactof the card.

18

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6. As a student from one groupwins, you might interrupt playto let that student describe thewinning hand to the class. Usethis as a jumping-off point to talkabout how food chains and foodwebs connect the producers andconsumers in an ecosystem. Asthe students resume playing, tellthem that the winner from eachgroup should lay out the winningcards to form a food web forother players to see. Then theycan divide and trade the remain-ing cards so that each player hasall five cards of one ecosystema winning hand.

7. Ask students to fill in theircharts using their cards. Spotcheck the diagrams of eachmarine ecosystem. Student foodchains and food webs should showa pattern of producers first, thenprimary consumers (those that eatproducers directly), followed bypredators. If students use arrowsto connect the organisms, thearrow's point should mean"eaten by."

8. When students have finishedtheir pages, discuss which ofthe Disconnect cards preventedthem from winning. This canlead to a discussion of the inter-national problem of overfishing.Explain to students that when toomany people haul their fishingnets and cast their lines in thesame waters, too few fish are leftto reproduce. In addition, somefishing grounds have becomepolluted, so the overall resultis a dramatic drop in the fishpopulation. The overfishingproblem is so great in someareas that the government has tolimit or halt fishing until certainpopulations recover. Among thoseon the "hardest hit list" are thePacific king crab and the Atlantic

cod and haddock. In 1991 theAmerican Fisheries Societyannounced that about half thenation's stock of salmon was atrisk. Even the mighty bluefintuna, which can weigh fifteenhundred pounds and swim asfast as a speeding car, is down toonly 10 percent of its 1980s

population.

Commercial fishing practicesof the past have also harmednontarget species. In some placesenormous driftnets up to sixtykilometers long were set overhuge areas of ocean. The finefilaments would catch thousandsof fish by the gills, but manyother animals would get caught,

too. Turtles, birds, sharksevenwhales and dolphinsdrownedin these nets. Loud cries fromconservationists and governmentsbrought about a ban on thesedriftnets, although shorter netsare still used close to shore. Otherfishing gear still in use catchesand kills young fish and otherunwanted animals by mistake.

'). Ask students to imagine thatthey make their living catchingfish, as some of their parents andgrandparents did. Ask them tothink about how they would feelif the government set a limit ontheir catch. Their first reactionmight be to the loss of income;however, over the long term theyshould be concerned with findingways to prevent the disappearanceof the species.

). Ask students if they've everplayed the card game Go Fish.Then ask them why the gamethey have just played could becalled Don't Go Fish. They mightanswer that overfishing causesthe reduction or loss of desirableand profitable species of fishand shellfish. It also disturbs thedelicate balance of producersand consumers in each marineecosystem. The purpose of thecard game is to show how bothnatural events and humanactivities, such as overfishing,can disturb this balance andbreak the links that connectspecies in an ecosystem.

Sea ConnectionsSample answers to food webs

Kelp forest

copepod

kelp --No- sea urchin 0- sea otter

abalone

Coral reef

Polar ocean

algae/1

algae

staghorn coral

/1rcoral shrimp

Hydrothermal vent

chemosvntheticbacteria

butterfly fish 0-

tube worms

vent clams

vent mussels

barracuda

krill Ade lie penguin 0- leopard seal

19 21

0- octopus

killer whale

Kelp

produces food

1°."It Copepod

eats kelp and other algae

Sea urchin

eats kelp

Algae

produce food

-C&Bacteria

produce food from chemicals

Lir Staghorn coral

feeds on algae, other organisms

Tube worms

feed on bacteria

22

Coral shrimp

feeds around coral

GiOClams

feed on bacteria

10Abalone

eats kelp

Butterfly fish

feeds around coral

Sea otter

eats sea urchins and abalone

Barracuda

eats other fish

Disconnect

Kelp over-harvested!Too much kelp has beenharvested for use inindustry. If you have anvkelp forest cards, loseyour next turn until thekelp forest recovers.

Disconnect

Blast fishing!Dynamite blows up acoral reef. Coral isdestroyed and the fleeingfish are captured. If youhave any coral reef cards,discard them and takenew ones.

CoMussels Octopus

23

Disconnect

Smoker stops smoking!A smoker stops spewinghydrogen sulfide. Fewbacteria survive. The entirefood chain is affected. Ifyou have any smoker cardskeep them, but you loseyour next turn.

tailoot4 j

make food

Disconnect

Overfishing of krill!As a result, whales, penguinsand seals are also in danger.If you have any polar oceancards, discard them and takenew cards.

Krill

eat algae

Adehe penguin

eats krill

Killer whale

eats penguins and seals

Disconnect

Ocean pollution!Pollution from pesticides,and sewage harms allecosystems. Whatever cardsyou are collecting, you losetwo turns until the oceanrecovers.

Reconnect

Good news!Because of internationalagreements on overfishing,give the player that wentbefore you a needed cardfrom your hand. Ask for andreceive one card that youneed from any other player24

Leopard seal

eats Adak penguins

Reconnect

Good news!Because of internationalagreements on overfishing,give the player that wentbefore you a needed cardfrom your hand. Ask for ancreceive one card that youneed from any other player.

67e,Ce5, nneCtiO nS4ede nt page

In Sea Connections,

you and your team will play a card game. The playing cards represent some of

the plants and animals that are connected together in the food webs of four very

different marine ecosystems. The cards show how these ocean producers and

consumers depend on one another. The objective of the game is to collect all five

cards from one ecosystem. What will get in your way are Disconnect cards. These

cards describe events that harm ocean ecosystems and interrupt the connections

among the living things that are found there.

of the G1. Decide who will be the

dealer in your group. Thedealer shuffles the pile anddeals each player five cards

face down, then places theremaining cards in a pile facedown. The dealer turns thefirst card up next to the rest ofthe deck to start a discard pile.2. Group your cards by theicon in the top left corner.The icons represent:

I

kelp forest

coral reef

hydrothermal vent

polar ocean

The object is to collect fivecards in one suit, which willinclude all the animals andplants from one ecosystem.For example, if you were dealttwo cards from the coral reef,you may wish to collect all the

cards from that ecosystem.(There are four suits, so eachplayer should be trying tocollect a different suit.)3. When it is your turn, pickup the top card from the pile.If you don't need it, place itface up on the discard pile. Ifyou wish to keep it, discard a

25

different card from your hand.If you pick up a Disconnectcard, use it during that turn.If you are dealt a Disconnectcard, use it during your firstturn. If you are dealt morethan one Disconnect card, useone at each turn. You may usea Reconnect card at any time.Make sure that you finisheach turn with five cards.

4. If the player before youdiscards a card that you want,you may pick it up insteadof drawing from theface-down pile.5. The first person to collectfive cards in one suit wins. Ifno one wins the first timethrough the deck, the dealershuffles the cards in thediscard pile and youcontinue playing.

eC 0

What suit did you collect?

ctivoioata art

What are the some of the living things found in this marine ecosystem?

Draw a food chain or food web that shows how the producers and consumers in this

ecosystem are related. Use arrows to mean "eaten by . . ."

26

0'

e S

(11.

Inc Visit OceanPlanet online at

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html

Using the Exhibition TopicOutline, choose Ocean PlanetMarine Life Facts, Creatures ofthe Thermal Vents, The LivingReef, and Aliens Among Us(under Educational Materials inthe Ocean Planet Floor Plan); andThreatened Habitats and FishingIssues (under Oceans in Peril).Click on "Resource Room" tolink to such resources as theElectronic Zoo.Visit the MarineBiodiversity Sculpture (underOcean Science) or use the ImageCatalog (under Resource Room)for photographs of organismsfrom each of the marineecosystems mentioned in thepreceding activity.

O

SO

# fr

rces

GC

,

,ocesV w strta,M

Brower, Kenneth. Realms of the

Sea. Washington, D.C.: NationalGeographic Society, 1991.

Cerullo, Mary M. Coral Reef ACity That Never Sleeps. New York:

Cobblehill Books, 1996.

Charton, Barbara. The Facts onFile Dictionary of Marine Science.

New York: Facts on File, 1986.

Fodor, R. V. The Strange World ofDeep-Sea Vents. Springfield, New

Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 1991.

Re s 0 Tr c 6 't

Duxbury, Alyn C., f0 r 0and Alison B.Duxbury. An Introduction to theWorld's Oceans. 4th ed. Dubuque,

Iowa: William C. Brown, 1994.

Earle, Sylvia A. Sea Change, AMessage of the Oceans. New York:

G.P. Pumam's Sons, 1995.

25 27 1

he ocean is the source of

many materials, from ores mined

from its depths to relaxing mineral

salts for a bath. Exquisite mother-of-pearl

inlay, decorative shells, and pearl jewelry are

found in gift shops worldwide. And whether

your tastes run to the exotic, like yellowfin tuna sushi,

or the mundane of fast food milkshakes, products from the sea are probably in

your diet. Many species of vertebrate and invertebrate marine animals as well as

marine algae are important sources of food worldwide. xamine the foods in your

own kitchen and you may find the terms "alginate" and "carrageenan" on the labels.

Carrageenans are compounds extracted from red algae that are used to stabilize

and jell foods and pharmaceuticals. Brown algae contain alginates that make foods

thicker and creamier and add to shelf life. They are used to prevent ice crystals from

forming in ice cream. Alginates and carrageenans are often used in puddings,

milkshakes, and ice cream. The commonly used color additive beta-carotene

often comes from green algae as well as many vegetables, including

carrots. n the grocer's shelf and in the pharmacy,

in industry and in the arts, the ocean is

a resource without equal. However,

exploitation of these natural resources

carries with it the responsibility to

use them wisely and preserve

them globally. 28

r' 26

\Ass o c\N

Identify some consumer goods that come from

the ocean.

Classify these items into groups and identify

their source.

Calculate the cost of buying such goods.

A/1

Student Pages A and B

Optional: labels from products containing algae;menu from a seafood restaurant

S 7L bye J.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

biology, mathematics, nutrition, social studies

)7

P o c'eeZzz e

1. Begin by asking students tothink about the variety of thingsthat come from the sea. Youmight have a student write thesuggestions on the board as theyare mentioned. Students willprobably name foods such as fishand shellfish. Ask them to catego-rize their suggestions into "verte-brates" and "invertebrates."Under vertebrates they mightinclude bony fish with which theyare familiar such as tuna, salmon,flounder, cod, halibut, and sole.Less familiar but of commercialvalue are pollack (used in imita-tion crabmeat) and Mako shark (avertebrate with a cartilage ratherthan bone skeleton). Ask studentsabout the relative sizes of thesefish. They might know that atuna, for example, may weighhundreds of pounds whereas aflounder weighs only severalpounds. Ask if students have evernoticed the symbol for "dolphinsafe" on a can of tuna. Theyshould know that it means thetuna were caught using fishingtechniques that do not endangerdolphins. (All tuna are caught thisway today.) Under invertebratesstudents may think of shrimp,

crabs, clams, mussels, oysters,and lobsters. Shrimp, crabs, andlobsters are crustaceans; clams,mussels, and oysters are molluskswith a hard, calcified shell. Mostof the time when we refer to a"seashell," we mean the remainsof the hard shell of a mollusksuch as a conch, snail, nautilus,or abalone. The inside of anabalone shell is a source ofmother-of-pearl.

2. Ask students if they have everbeen to a seafood store or seafoodrestaurant. Ask questions aboutthe source of this seafood andwhether it was shipped from faraway. Ask if it is important tokeep seafood on ice. Tell studentsthat many commercial fishingboats are actually factories onwhich workers clean the fish andfreeze it immediately to ensurefreshness at the market. If youhave a price list from a localseafood store or a menu froma restaurant, discuss it withstudents. If regional dishescontaining seafood are popularin your area, ask students tobring in recipes for their. Iffishing is an important regionalactivity, ask students to bring inpictures or "fish stories" to sharewith the class.

2830

3. Some students may suggestseaweed as a food. Types of algaeare eaten most typically inJapanese cooking. Nori and hijikiare two types generally found inspecialty stores. Nori is the darkbrown variety used to roll riceand fish for sushi. Tell studentsthat even if you live thousands ofmiles from the ocean, the vanillashake that you enjoy at your localfast food restaurant probably con-tains some seaweed because car-rageenans are usually added tothicken shakes. If you have anylabels from packaged foods orpersonal care products that con-tain alginates or carrageenans,show them to students andexplain what these compounds do.Ask students to look for thesecompounds on the labels of prod-ucts they have at home or noticethem the next time they visit asupermarket or drugstore.

4. Tell students that they will bedoing an activity that will givethem some imaginary money to

go on a Sea Shopping Spree.Hand out the student pagesand tell students that they willvisit the Fair Harbor Mall, wherethey will browse for gifts atFantasea Creations; buy healthand beauty products at Mermaid'sTresses; have lunch at the Ship'sGalley; then take home somefresh seafood and videos for theevening. Have them "enter" themall at the welcome sign. Theymight want to plan their ownroute; the order suggested aboveis one logical way.

5. Ask students why they wouldwant to buy the seafood near theend of their shopping spree.(Because seafood should be keptcold.) If students would ratherskip buying or eating seafood,you might turn the discussiontoward how people have made aliving from the sea throughouthistory. Ask students why theythink seafood prices seem so high.They may suggest that somekinds of seafood must be flown infrom other regions as suggested

by the names. Tell them also thatthe season for certain kinds of fishand shellfish is limited and certainspecies may have been overfishedin local waters.

6. Students may work indepen-dently to come up with theirpersonalized shopping list andtally the cost. Under the category"Where did it come from?"students should decide if the itemcomes from algae, an invertebrateanimal, a vertebrate animal,or a mineral. When they havefinished, have them comparetheir shopping lists and howmuch money they spent. Even bychoosing the most expensive itemat each stop, students should stillstay within the budget. Havethem discuss their answers aboutthe source of each item.

;11 Catch S Mainelobster and

Gulf shrimp are invertebrates(crustaceans); Atlantic Mako sharkis a vertebrate, although sharkshave no bones, only a cartilageskeleton; Nova Scotia salmon,yellowfin tuna, and flounder arevertebrates.

29 31

<-1" r ShrimpZP IS LI are inverte-

brates. Sushi is rolled nori(algae) with rice and fish (verte-brate); flounder is a vertebrate,although the stuffing mightcontain shrimp, an invertebrate.Pudding and ice cream mightcontain algae in the form ofcarrageenans or alginates.

Fa 71 tasea nC. 7^ e a

The treasurechest contains mother-of-pearl,which usually comes fromabalone, an invertebrate.Scrimshaw in the key ringtraditionally comes from whaletooth or bone (vertebrate).However, tell students that spermwhale teeth and walrus tusks areprotected. Pearls come from theoyster, an invertebrate (mollusk).You might tell students thatoyster shells are also used innatural calcium supplements.Shells such as a conch as well asthose that would be used in anecklace come from shelledinvertebrates, mollusks. Red coralin a pendant comes from thecoral-producing invertebrate

animals (coelenterates). Tellstudents that black coral isendangered. In discussing theseanswers, pose this question tostudents: "Suppose you saw abeautiful item made from theshell of an endangered turtle.Would you buy it?" This maylead to a discussion of being aresponsible consumer and notbuying goods that threatenmarginal species.

1\A-e

onald)j,

Seaweed 9-esSvS

shampoo and kelp iodinesupplement contain algae. Codliver oil (which often comesfrom Norwegian cod, a vertebrateocean fish) is a source of omega-3oil. Natural sponge is the driedouter framework of an inverte-brate (porifera). Sea bath saltscontain minerals that make thesea salty: sodium chloride, mag-nesium chloride, and potassiumchloride, among others. Mentionto students that there is a hugepotential for pharmaceuticalsfrom the ocean, particularly fromcoral reefs. The diversity anddensity of coral reef organismsrivals that of the rainforest.Denizens of the reef have evolvedthe ability to synthesize unusual

compounds to avoid being eatenor grown over. These compoundscould prove to be lifesaving phar-maceuticals for humans.

\Rae° 49/60 r

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under

the Sea is a Jules Verne fantasythat includes a battle with a giantsquid, an invertebrate. Molly Dick,based on Herman Melville'snovel, is the story of the hunt fora sperm whale, a vertebrate. Ifstudents are unfamiliar with theseclassics, you might get copies ofthe books from the library to ji2

30

on hand. Also, encourage studentsto make a list of other videosabout the ocean, such as Jaws orThe Abyss.

7. To follow up the discussion ofthe importance of products fromthe sea, have students use thelibrary or go online to find outhow scientists use organisms fromthe sea in research. For example,sea urchins are used in embryolo-gy, and sharks are studied inimmunology because of theshark's amazing immunity todiseases such as cancer.

8. Encourage students to try theirhand at making a work of artinspired by the sea. They mighttry carving "scrimshaw" out of abar of soap, using fishbones tomake jewelry, or using seaweed tomake a picture. Students mightalso make a display case for a

shell collection.

cean 0 A

stude,t potivYou are about to go on an imaginary Sea Shopping Spree at the Fair Harbor Mall.

Imagine you have been given a hundred "clams" ($100) to spend at the mall. But the

"catch" is that you have to buy certain things on your shopping list to take home. Look

at some of the ocean products that are advertised at each store. List the ones you would

buy in the chart. Tally up the total cost to stay within your budget.

Of the items you purchase, you will find that some come from vertebrate animals

and some from invertebrates. Some items are made with substances that come from

algae and some are made with minerals from the sea. In the column under "Where did

it come from?" identify the source of each item you select.

Item

A gift for an

important person

in your life.

Your selection Cost Where did it come from?

Three personal care

products for you or

someone else.

Lunch for you and

a friend

while shopping.

Fresh seafood (at least

two pounds) to take

home for dinner. as>

A video or two

to rent

for the evening.

Total (not to exceed $100)

31

33

cean WAStude Palo'

FreshCatchSeafoodLive Maine lobster $8 /lbYellow fin tuna $7/lbAtlantic Mako shark steaks $6/lbNova Scotia salmon $8 /lbJumbo gulf shrimp $14/1bLocal flounder $9/lb

A

A

Fantasea CreationsUnique GiftsMother-of Pearl Treasure Chest $30Scrimshaw Key Ring $29Pearl Earrings $30Seashell Necklace $20Coral Pendant $25Conch Shell $20

Ship's GalleyShrimp cocktail, Sushi, orStuffed flounderOnly $8.00

Video HarborRentals $2Classics WeekMoby Dick20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Mermaid's TressesHealth and Beauty Products from the Sea

Seaweed shampoo $4.50Kelp iodine supplement $4

Cod liver oil $5Natural sponge $3

Relaxing sea salts for the bath $6

3234

S 0 u rces

online1/' (1Ces 0 It,Visit Ocean

Planet online athttp://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html

Using the Exhibition TopicOutline, go to PharmaSEA andSEAfoods under SeaSTORE. Alesson plan and activity sheet areavailable by clicking on "SeaStore Lesson Plan: There AreAlgae in Your House!" underEducational Materials in theOcean Planet Exhibition FloorPlan. Under Resource Room,use the Image Catalog to getphotographs and illustrationsof specific marine organismsand products suggested in theactivities above.

-.eSOltrCeSfOr f,,

e11),

Pringle, Laurence P.Coral Reefs: Earth's Undersea

Treasures. New York: Simon and

Schuster, 1995.

Taylor, Barbara. Coral ReefLondon: Dorling Kindersley,1992.

3335

c.)

for teach`z14'

Benchley, Peter. Ocean Planet:Writings and Images of the Sea.

Edited by Judith Gradwohl. NewYork: Harry Abrams, in associa-tion with the SmithsonianInstitution, 1995.

Chapman, V. J., and D. C.Chapman. Seaweeds and TheirUses. New York: Chapman andHall, 1970.

Earle, Sylvia A. Sea Change, AMessage of the Oceans. New York:

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995.

ore than 60 million

gallons of oil enter the

oceans every year, but it's

not reported on the news.That's because this oil seeps from oil-bearing

rock layers into the ocean as part of a natural process. When

tankers running aground spill oil, that's news, and currently these

accidents deposit about 37 million gallons of oil into the ocean every year.

The largest amount of oil entering the ocean through human activity is the

363 million gallons that come from industrial waste and automobiles. When

people pour their used motor oil into the ground or into a septic system, it

eventually seeps into the groundwater. Coupled with industrial waste dis-

charged into rivers, oil becomes part of the run-off from water-

ways that empty into the ocean. All of this oil affects

ocean ecosystems. hen an oil spill occurs in the

ocean, the oil may spread across miles of open

water and up onto beaches, littering them

with tar balls. The intertidal zones-

14 36

coastal areas that are the

habitat for fish, birds, and

other wildlifeare often themost vulnerable. Animals may perish

when the oil slicks their fur or downy

feathers, decreasing the surface area so they are no

longer insulated from the cold water. Or the animals may ingest the oil, then

become sick or unable to reproduce properly. hen an oil spill occurs along a

coastline, it affects the human population as well as wildlife. Emergency equipment

and personnel must be rushed to the scene. The responsible party must be identi-

fied to determine who will pay for the cleanup. Usually the cleanup is a group effort

by oil companies, government agencies, local groups, and volunteers. People rescue

and clean birds and animals and painstakingly scrub the oil from the rocky shores

with brushes and detergent. Coming in by sea and by air, crews skim the spreading

oil from the water's surface. Oil that cannot be skimmed is emulsifiedthat is,

droplets of oil are scattered into tiny particles that will then float away and disperse

out to sea. ometimes microscopic helpers are put to work. Genetic engineers have

developed oil-eating bacteria that can be used to ingest the oil, to clean up long

after the crews and volunteers have left. The experience gained from several well-

publicized oil spills has ushered in an era of greater understanding and internation-

al cooperation with regard to containing spills and avoiding environmental disasters

that affect our global ocean. One bright spot of news is that ecologists revisiting oil

spill sites have found marine population recovery better than they had predicted.

0-

7;J! 37

Predict the effects of an oil spill on a marineenvironment.

Establish a list of solutions to avoid unnecessaryoil pollution.

1Vi 1!`c- -S

Student Page A

Optional: additional photographs or articlesabout oil spills

S tr, &-e-,e

biology, chemistry, social studies

BEST COPY AVAILABLE36

38

:. Introduce the topic of oilpollution and how it affects theglobal ocean. Make a pie chart toshow the actual small percentageof oil (5 percent) that enters theocean through oil spills. Thendiscuss oil spills with whichstudents may be familiar, such asthe spill off the coast of RhodeIsland in January 1996 and theone in Prince William Sound inAlaska in 1989. You may wish tocheck your library or onlinesources for magazine andnewspaper articles about actualoil spill events, perhaps anincident that occurred close toyour region to make the topicmore relevant to students.

2. Explain to students that crudeoil is taken directly from its rockysource below ground or underthe sea. It is often transported inhuge tankers across vast distancesto oil refineries. There the crudeis distilled and refined into manyfamiliar petroleum products.During the distillation process,petroleum is heated to extremelyhigh temperatures to separate itinto various components such asgasoline and kerosene. Studentsmay not know that petroleum is

used for waxes contained inpetroleum jelly, lipstick, and manypersonal care products. Each ofthese petroleum products hasdifferent chemical characteristics.In general, the molecules thatmake up oils and waxes adhereto one another and are less densethan water; thus, they float on thewater's surface without mixing.However, the currents and windout on the open ocean cause theoil in an oil spill to spread andtravel away from the spill site.

After an initial discussion,hand out Student Page A. Inthis page students can useproblem-solving skills to decidewhat strategies they would use ifthey were actually cleaning up anoil spill. They can work in smallgroups and brainstorm to comeup with answers cooperatively.

37 3 9

Possible answers,page 38:

1. Problems: Currents andwind may carry the oil overa huge area of the sea.

Strategies: Bring in equip-ment by air or boat to skimthe oil from the water'ssurface before it spreads.

Problems: Rocks will getcovered with oil; animalhabitats will be harmed.

Strategies: Have crewsscrub the rocks withbrushes and detergent.

Problems: The oil willwash up on shore, makingcleanup difficult andaffecting wildlife.

Strategies: Have crews takeaway or sift through oilysand and rescue wildlife.

2. These agencies haveinformation about winds,currents, tides, andweather patterns affectingthe area.

This agency hasinformation about whichspecies of fish and wildlife

need protection.

3. Water is denser, so oilfloats on it.

4. The oil will probablyspread out away from thespill, staying on top of thewater rather than sinking.

nil/a ti iu tet,0()

StUde72tSuppose you are in the business of cleaning up

oil spills in the ocean. Your team has just received word of a tanker leaking oil in

the Pacific Ocean. How will you use your resources to effectively clean up the oil and

prevent it from spreading? Brainstorm in a small group to predict what will happen

during the oil spill, then plan your cleanup strategies.

1. What special problems arise if an oil spill occurs in the open ocean, on a rocky coast, or near a sandy

beach? (Flint: You might think about things like currents, surface area, and habitat for wildlife.) List the

kinds of equipment and vehicles you might need to do the cleanup at each site in the data chart below.

Oil Spill Site Special Problems Possible Strategies for Cleanup

Open ocean

Rocky coast

Sandy beach

2. What kind of information would be important to find out from these government services?

Weather Service or Coast Guard

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

3. Which do you think is denser, oil or water?

4. What do you think will happen to the oil (or other petroleum product) as it spills out of a

tanker into the ocean?

40

38

4ollJZOn k) 0 luPlan Ste,

b..7-6.-'et- iv es

Make a model of an ocean oil spill.

Evaluate the efficiency of oil spill cleanup methods.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

For each group of four students, a shallow oblongpan, water, vegetable oil, cotton balls, teaspoon,medicine dropper, timer, plastic container for waste-water, and plastic bag for discarded cotton balls.

Student Page B

Optional: liquid detergent, brush, bird feather, wirewhisk, pebbles

S ifphysics, mathematics

39 4

p 0

1. Advise students of the activitythe day before so they can wearwashable clothing. Divide stu-dents into groups of four. Eachgroup can carry out the simulatedoil spill and cleanup cooperatively.Arrange to have all the materialsstudents need at each workstation.Guide students as they readthrough the directions on how tomake an oil spill and then clean itup. Advise them to use theirresources wisely, as they will be"charged" for each piece of equip-ment and the disposal of the oil.

2. In carrying out the activity,limit the "disaster" to a portion ofthe classroom or lab where sur-faces can be wiped dry. Use clearplastic bags to collect the oil-soaked cotton balls so that stu-dents can count them and becharged accordingly. Use quart-

sized, wide-mouthed plasticcontainers for the wastewater,which can then be carried to asink for disposal. Have papertowels on hand to clean up spilledwater and advise students ofslippery floors.

3. Options: Before students begin,demonstrate that "oil and waterdon't mix" by pouring some oilinto a clear container of water.Have students observe how theoil forms a layer on top of thewater. Then use a wire whisk tostir up the oil and water. Studentswill see how oil can be made intosmaller and smaller droplets thatwill disperse in the open oceanwhere there is room to spreadout. This is similar to one of thetechniques used in cleanup opera-tions. If students use the whisk intheir pans, it will make skimmingthe oil much more difficult, butyou might challenge somestudents to do it anyway. Anotherinteresting demonstration is todip a bird feather in oily waterand have students try to clean thefeather using liquid detergent anda brush.You can also challengeone group to simulate an oil spillthat hits a rocky coast by usingpebbles at one end of the pan.

4042

Have students compare theamount of surface area for thatcleanup with an oil spill on theopen ocean.

4. After the groups have workedon their oil spills for twentyminutes, have them tally the costof their efforts and clean up theirspill sites. Students can thenanswer the discussion questionsand compare their results.

(c44)S / tS Ude

t pagIn this activity you will make your own ocean "

in a pan of water. You can simulate your own very limited environmental disaster

and then clean it up! Work with your group to set up the materials shown below.

Pollution Solution Cost Sheet

Equipment and Techniques

1. Use the shallow pan filledhalfway with water as yourmodel ocean. Add a teaspoonof vegetable oil to the middleof the pan to simulate aleaking oil tanker.

2. While one group memberreleases the oil in the center ofyour ocean, another begins timing.

3. After one minute has passed,observe what happens to the oil.See how the oil is affected asanother team member blows onthe oil, simulating the wind.

4. Begin the cleanup of the oilusing the available materials.You may take twenty minutes.

5. Try to do the cleanupefficiently because you will be"charged" for the use of eachpiece of equipment. No cleanupeffort is free! Keep track of thetime each technique is used.Use the chart below to calculatethe cost of your efforts.

Cost Minutes of Useor Number Used

Total Cost

Medicine dropper "skimmer" $100/minute

Cotton ball $20/piece

Waste disposal:

Discarded cotton ball $50/each

Container for wastewater $1,000/each

Labor $1,000/person/minute

Total cost

41

43

oliu tic) 72 t\(3S Zit/

Use the back of this page ortc,eit

a separate sheet to answer

these discussion questions.

(i

B

1. Did you clean up your oil spill within twenty minutes? Did everyone agree on how

clean the pan was?

2. Which technique seemed to work best?

3. Make a chart of your class results. Which group cleaned its ocean at the lowest price?

4. What importance does immediate response have in cleanup efforts?

5. Suppose class members used different kinds of oil. Would their results be the same?

Do you think all petroleum spills behave the way vegetable oil does? Why or why not?

42

44

(-)(\\'1011071S0111

°IIstep 3

C) bye) esIdentify the problems caused to the environmentand society by an oil spill and the subsequentcleanup operations.

List of fictitious characters (on page 44)

Optional: newspaper or magazine articles about

oil spills

SlLbyeesocial studies, language arts

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

e

To get a sense of the impact ofan oil spill, have a role-playingdiscussion. Ask students to playthe parts of some or all of thefictitious characters listed here.Have each character write somenotes that would be taken to apress conference held to find outwhat happened when a tankerwent aground and caused an oilspill along a coastline. Somemembers of the class can bereporters, directing questions toany of the participants. Othermembers of the class can recordthe discussion in writing orvideotape it.

Fictitious charactersCaptain Shipley: captain of thetanker that went aground

Ms. Petrol: spokesperson for theGiant Oil Corporation

Mr. Swab: head of cleanupoperations

Ms. Cirrus: spokesperson for theU.S. Weather Service

Mr. Marchand: president of thelocal merchants' association

Ms. Greene: spokesperson for anational conservation group

Mr. Hook: spokesperson for thelocal fishing community

Ms. Wright: president of theTown Council

Mr. Labb: scientist at InnovateCorp., a bioengineering firm

Ms. Ivory: salesperson forKleen-Up Supplies, Inc.

Mr. Byrd: conservationist fromthe U.S. Fish and WildlifeService office

Ms. Good ley: spokespersonfor volunteers

44

46

2. The reporters should askquestions about (a) the chain ofevents that led to the oil spill, (b)how each party helped with thecleanup operation, and (c) howthe spill affected their lives.Student responses will varywidely but should be consistentwith the attitude and professionalknowledge suggested by eachfictitious character's name andposition. Students should be ableto conclude that the responsibili-ties for cleanup must be sharedand that local people are affectedby the oil spill long after thecleanup crews have left.

3. Optional: Have students usetheir library to access articlesabout recent oil spills. Encouragestudents to become aware of localor regional events that are similar,if not as large.

sources

Olatine7/,esouVisit

Ocean Planetonline athttp://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html

Using the Exhibition TopicOutline, go to Oil Pollutionunder Oceans in Peril for graphsshowing oil pollution data.Under Resource Room, go tothe Image Catalog to getphotographs and illustrationsof specific images suggested bythe topics in the activity.

e

Anderson, "aM. K. OilSpills. New

York: FranklinWatts, 1990.

eCarr, Terry. Spill! The Story of theExxon Valdez. New York: FranklinWatts, 1991.

vsourceforor teaco

Benchley, Peter. Ocean Planet:Writings and Images of the Sea.

Edited by Judith Gradwohl. NewYork: Harry Abrams, in associa-tion with the SmithsonianInstitution, 1995.

Bulloch, David K. The WastedOcean. New York: Lyons andBurford, 1989.

Earle, Sylvia A. Sea Change, AMessage of the Oceans. New York:

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995.

Keeble, John. Out of the Channel:The Exxon Valdez Spill in Prince

William Sound. New York:

HarperCollins, 1991.

"Rescuers Create a MASH Unitfor Hundreds of StrickenAnimals." New York Times,

4 April 1989.

4547

seacoast is the

dynamic border between two

worldsthe terrestrial and the marine. In

the realm of life science, we can observe

marine animals that inhabit the shoreline and

tidepools. In the realm of Earth science, we can

observe how the ocean's currents, waves, and winds

sculpt the shoreline, alternately carrying off and deposit-

ing sand. From the air, you can actually see the waves create a

perfectly scalloped beach on Nantucket Island. of only do these forces shape

the land, they affect the living populations. Sometimes animals that inhabit

deeper water are thrown off course. They come close to the shoreline and may

actually be found on the beach. They may be injured, sick, or disoriented and

soon become cold, hungry, or dehydrated. Such is the case for various species

of dolphin, porpoise, seal, whale, and turtle that become stranded along the

Atlantic coastline. But there is help for some animals. In many locations, when

beached animals are sighted, professionals and volun-

teers are on the scene. Sick, cold, or injured

animals are immediately placed in a reha-

bilitation program with the intent of

getting them well enough to bereturned to their natural habitat.

Often the animals are tagged

with a transmitter for future

tracking. ome of the large

marine animals that are

regularly tracked along

4846

the

Atlantic coast are

cetaceans, pinnipeds,

and sea turtles. Cetaceans

are marine mammals such as

whales, dolphins, and porpoises;

pinniped refers to seals and walruses. If an

individual from one of these populations is seen on shore, the observer

can call in the sighting to an agency that helps such creatures; if possible, a

rescue team is dispatched. Every acknowledged animal sighting is assigned a

number and becomes part of the database for that species. If the animal requires

treatment of an injury or disease, it may be given a temporary tank to live

in until it can recuperate and be returned to the wild. ea turtles make up

another group of marine animals that become stranded along the Atlantic coast.

Turtle species are of particular interest because they are either endangered or

threatened worldwide. (Endangered species are in danger of becoming extinct;

threatened species could easily become endangered if present trends continue.)

Sea turtles are reptiles that have existed virtually unchanged for eons; human

activity has decimated their populations. In the days of the great sailing ships,

these large reptiles often found their way into the cook's stewpot. Their heavy

shell or carapace was a treasured source of decorative shell. Even in recent

decades, their eggs have been plundered for food. uring their

long lives (fifty years or more), these reptiles may travel

great distances; tagging individuals is important for

4947

studying their behavior and monitoring their dwindling populations. Stranded

sea turtles are sometimes reported up and down the Atlantic coast as well as on

the Gulf Coast. The causes are many, including water pollution, disease, attack

by a predator, or entanglement in fishing gear. To prevent turtles from getting

caught and drowning in fishing nets, some Gulf shrimp trawlers use nets

equipped with a turtle exclusion device that has been effective in protecting

turtles. n the northeast Atlantic coast, animals are sometimes found close to

the beaches, especially in the winter months. They may be driven toward the

shore by the cold Labrador current in Cape Cod Bay, or the northwest winds

along Long Island's north shore may pin the turtles against the shore or trap

them in bays. These animals become "coldstunned"chilled to the point

where they are unresponsive and unable to eat to get their metabolic rate going.

Coldstunned turtles must be gradually warmed, given warm fluids intra-

venously, and then force-fed to give them the nutrition they need.

When their body temperatures have increased, they are

placed in tanks and fed and cared for until they are

sufficiently recovered to be released. he data

in the activity reflect actual turtle strandings

during the winter months of 1995 report-

ed by the Okeanos Foundation on

Long Island and the New England

Aquarium in Boston, agencies

that are authorized to rescue and

rehabilitate marine animals.

504R

fed Along°°' Co a s t

P

Ol ?jec-r`iv CS

stranding sites onto a map using latitudeand longitude as well as compass directions withrespect to coastal features.

Identify several species of marine animals thatmight become stranded; distinguish theircharacteristics and habitats.

Identify several coastal features and importantcurrents.

Form hypotheses and make analyses based

on the data.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Student Pages A and B

Optional: geological survey map of your area, compass

S u bjec.j,social studies, biology, oceanography, mathematics

. 51

p 7- 0 C-Cc/zz7" e

1. Start a preliminary discussionby asking students if any of themhas ever considered swimming agreat distancelike across thethirty-mile English Channel, forexample. Swimming the Channelbetween England and France isconsidered a great human feat,but for some of the championswimmers of the animal world,thirty miles would be a drop inthe bucket. Whales migrate overthousands of miles of ocean injust one season. Dolphins andseals play over hundreds of milesof coastal waters of the Atlanticand Pacific. But the real champsare sea turtles: because of theirlong life spans, they log hundredsof thousands of miles. It's notuncommon for a sea turtle fromMexico or South America to befound off the northeast Atlanticcoast in summer. Green sea tur-tles swim thousands of miles tolay eggs on the same tiny island

where their mothers laid theireggs. Their powers of navigationhold a fascination for us. Butsometimes, for many differentreasons, their journey is inter-rupted and the animals becomelost or stranded. "Stranded" origi-nally meant "beached." A beachwas (and in England, still is)called a "strand." Sometimes astranded turtle is found washedup on a beach. Other times, theanimal is stranded inside a bodyof water and cannot get out intothe open ocean. Tell students thatthey will be plotting real data forthe locations of some sea turtlesthat were sighted during the lattermonths of 1995.

2. If you have a topographic mapof your area, or other maps withwhich students are familiar, youmight want to use them to reviewlatitude and longitude. Theaccompanying map shows degreesof latitude and longitude dividedinto thirty-minute intervals; stu-dents will have to approximatebetween these intervals to plotsome of their points. If you have acompass or any navigational aids,bring them in to discuss their use.

3. Hand out both student pages.To use the map, students mayneed to know the terms used todescribe bodies of water andcoastal features. Have them findthe state names to get oriented tothe map and perhaps show wherethis region is on a U.S. map. Askthem to read the names of thebodies of water and find an ocean,a gulf, a sound, and a bay. Theyshould be able to distinguishamong them and put them in sizeorder. Tell them that bays aregenerally sheltered on three sides.

5052

4. Discuss some of the terms usedto describe coastal features. Theseinclude barrier beaches such asFire Island. They are created bywaves hitting the shore of themainland, then dragging sand outand depositing it until it forms asandbar. Eventually, the sandbargrows large enough to be anisland, a buffer zone that protectsthe mainland from further erosionby water. On a U.S. map, havestudents find the barrier beachesalong the coasts of Texas andNorth Carolina.

Waves also deposit sandbars thatextend the shoreline into theocean, creating a "point" such asRace Point in Cape Cod orMontauk Point on Long Island.The currents around the sandbarmay flow at such an angle thatthey create a hook, for example,the "arm" extending northwardfrom the "elbow" of Cape Cod.

The entire region of Long Island,Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard,Nantucket, and Block Island wasformed by glacial moraine andthen modified by the ocean'swaves. You might also tellstudents that many of the baysshown on the map contain saltmarshes and estuaries (whererivers empty into salt water).Marshes, estuaries, and barrierbeaches are all important wetlandhabitats that require managementand preservation rather thandestruction or development.

5. Have students begin plottingthe points of the turtle sightings.They will find that these turtleswere sighted in four areas: along

the south shore of Long Islandnear the barrier beach, along thenorth shore of Long Island, inGardiner's Bay, and farther northin Cape Cod Bay. Give studentssome of the background on eachof the following four turtlespecies. This will help them fillout their data tables and hypothe-size about what caused eachstranding.

-ucemp 'sze2,1

se1(z1r tie(Lepidochelys

kempi)endangered.*

This is an extremely endangeredspecies globally. Ridleys havegone from a population of fourhundred thousand nesting femalesin the 1940s and 1950s to onlyabout four hundred today. Withinthe region of the accompanyingmap, they live in certain areas ofLong Island Sound, Block IslandSound, and portions of thePeconic Estuary. Some also livein Great South Bay. Generally,juveniles from two to five yearsold live in these areas. Theyeat primarily spider crabs andgreen crabs.

hre

( Carretta carretta) athreatened.**

may be found along the southshore of Long Island and up toabout forty miles offshore. Theirdiet consists of spider, horseshoe,green, and portunid crabs.

Green sea titi(Chelonia mydas)threatened(endangered in Florida).

Long Island Sound and its baysare home to juvenile, or nonre-productive, loggerheads. Adults

Green sea turtles are less abun-dant in this region than the othersea turtles, and their diet andhabitat are not as well document-ed. They are usually found inshallow bays where there is moreaquatic vegetation for food.Several age classes have beenobserved in this region.

`7th e rb aci\Lc.'

(z.J

(Dermochelys coriacea)--

endangered.

Although they are endangered,leatherbacks are one of the mostabundant species of sea turtles inthe region. They are found on thesouth shore of Long Island and inLong Island Sound but rarely inthe bays. The population of olderjuveniles and adults eats mainlyjellyfish. Tagged animals areknown to have come all the wayfrom French Guiana in SouthAmerica. In parts of the Atlantic,leatherbacks have been known toreach over eleven feet and fourthousand pounds.

*Likely to become endangered.

**Likely to become extinct in theforeseeable future.

51 53

6. After students have plottedtheir points, ask them what theythink might have caused thestrandings in each area. (Actualdata are used in this exercisebecause scientists were able todetermine the probable cause ofeach stranding.) Tell them thatthe Labrador Current is a coldcurrent that comes from thenorth. They may infer from themap that the turtles spotted inCape Cod Bay may have beentrapped there by this cold current.On Long Island, cold northwestwinds trap the turtles against theshoreline.

7. The leatherbacks on the southshore of Long Island were bothfound dead along the barrierbeach; one had ingested plastic,the other was entangled in a fish-ing line. Ask students why thismight occur at this location.(Proximity to New York City andpopulated areas. Also,leatherbacks eat jellyfish and mayhave mistaken plastic for food.)Discuss how important barrierbeaches are both as habitat and asprotection for the mainland fromocean storms.

The ridleys and loggerhead foundalong the north shore of LongIsland were coldstunned. Explainwhat this means and describe howthe turtles are slowly warmed,given warm liquids intravenously,and then force-fed until theyrevive. They are kept in tanksuntil they are healthy again, thenthey are released, usually with a

tag that enables scientists tomonitor their movement bysatellite. These turtles wereprobably driven to shore by theprevailing northwest wind. Theother Kemp's ridley and the greensea turtle found in Gardiner'sBay were also coldstunned.

The three coldstunned turtlesfound in Cape Cod Bay wereprobably swept into the cold bayand trapped there by theLabrador Current.

Ask students to look atMontauk Point, at the easternend of Long Island. Tell themthat the original lighthouse wassurveyed and planned by GeorgeWashington; it has been moveda few times and just underwentanother renovation to protect it.Ask students what the lighthouseneeds protection from. They mayguess that the erosion around thepoint has caused a change inthe coastline and endangeredthe site of the lighthouse. Tellthem that people who live inProvincetown (the communityat the northernmost tip of CapeCod) periodically "lose" theirwater wells. Ask for a hypothesisabout this phenomenon. There isconstant erosion and depositionin this area, which causes thelocation of groundwater to shiftwith the shifting sand dunes.

. . 1 0 I

Number Species Body of water in

which found

Diet Probable cause

of stranding

1 Leatherback Atlantic Ocean near barrier beach jellyfish Plastic ingestion

Leatherback Atlantic Ocean near barrier beach jellyfish Entanglement in line

Ridley Long Island Sound crabs Wind; coldstunned

4 Ridley Long Island Sound crabs Wind; coldstunned

5 Loggerhead Long Island Sound crabs Wind; coldstunned

6 Ridley East side of Cape Cod Bay crabs Current; coldstunned

7 Loggerhead East side of Cape Cod Bay crabs Current; coldstunned

8 Ridley East side of Cape Cod Bay crabs Current; coldstunned

9 Green Gardiner's Bay, Long Island vegetation Wind; coldstunned

10 Ridley Gardiner's Bay, Long Island crabs Wind; coldstunned

BEST COPY AVM LE54

d Flo

I D.*

.

1 Leatherback 40°30' 73°30'

2 Leatherback 40°10' 73 °00'

3 Ridley 41 °10' 72 °20'

4 Ridley 41°00' 72 °30'

5 Loggerhead 41"00' 73'00'

6 Ridley 42"00' 70°30'

7 Loggerhead 41'45' 70'00'

8 Ridley 41 °45' 70 °15'

9 Green 4140' 72"00'

10 Ridley 41"00' 72°15'

NEW YORK

PrevailingWinds

S tzie/°e 2( Page

oast

CONNECTICUT

Long slandoun

NEWHAMPSHIRE

MAINE GulfofMaine

Cape Ann

RHODEISLAND

LabradorCurrent(cold)

Race Point

NausetBeach

a

ode IslanSound

-....er-Block IslandSound

Gardiners Bay

Peconic Bay

Great South BayFire Island

Nantucket

Martha'sVineyard

NEWJERSEY

ATLANTICOCEAN

WestLongitude

GULFSTREAM(warm)

73°30' 73 °00' 72°30' 72°00' 71°30' 71°00' 70°30' 70000' 69°30'

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 53 55

NorthLatitude

43°30'

43°00'

42°30'

42°00'

41°30'

41°00'

40°30'

40°00'

39°30'

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

stz,, stranded1( Page

Imagine that you are a volunteer at a rescue and release program

for stranded marine animals. You get a call that an ocean-dwelling

animal has been sighted along a beach. What should you do? Call in the

professionals. Experienced scientists who understand the physiology and

behavior of marine animals should be the only ones to move or care for a

stranded or sick animal. As a volunteer, you would need to know how to give

someone the location of the sighting.

(r°

Use the Stranding Data table to plot the location of sea turtles that actually were

sighted and, when possible, rescued. You will need to approximate the latitude and

longitude in some cases. Assume that each turtle was found close to the nearest

shoreline. Draw a small turtle icon to represent each in the correct location and write

its number on its shell.

After your class discussion, place additional data about the turtles in this table:

Number Species Body of water in Diet Probable causewhich found of stranding

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

54

5-6

0 72 6-e

Visit t°Ocean -rourc esPlanet online athttp://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html

Use the Exhibition Topic Outlineto find Fishing Issues and GlobalChange (under Oceans in Peril).Look under Heroes to learnabout some of the people whohave worked to protect andpreserve the oceans. Click on"Resource Room" to link to otherrelated sites on the Internet suchas Turtle Trax, a page dedicatedto marine turtles. Also underResource Room, the ImageCatalog offers photographs andillustrations of specific imagessuggested by the activities inthis section.

s

-9%esourcesfo 7-

Tesar, Jenny.

Threatened Oceans. New York:Facts on File, 1991.

den

esourcfor teacbAmerica's Seashore

Wonderlands.

Washington, D.C.: NationalGeographic Society, 1985.

Stone, Roger D. The Voyage of theSanderling: Exploring the Ecology of

the Atlantic Coast from Maine to

Rio. New York: Knopf, 1990.

55 57

inding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood by to hand the

fore-sail; but making foul weather, we looked the guns were all fast, and handed the

mizzen. The boat lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the

sea, than trying or hulling. We reefed the fore-sail and set him, we hauled aft the

fore-sheet; the helm was hard a weather. The boat wore bravely. We belayed the

fore-down haul; but the sail was split, and we hauled down the yard, and got the sail

into the boat, and unbound all the things clear of it. It was a very fierce storm; the

sea broke strange and dangerous.

Gulliver's TravelsJonathan Swift, 1726.

58

56

f you're reading Gulliver's Travels or Moby Dick, you could be at a loss as to what

the narrators are describing if you don't know basic sailing terminology. Our

language is peppered (or rather, salted) with expressions derived from life at sea.

Thinking of the sea, you may picture whaling boats off Nantucket or Hawaii,

warships during the Civil War, or merchant vessels carrying fertilized soil from the

tropics to enrich the gardens of wealthy English farmers. However, much of the

sailors' jargon that has entered and endured in our language came from the British

navy. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, British naval and merchant ships

dominated the oceans, developing their own culture with its own customs, prac-

tices, and language. n these centuries of global exploration and commerce, boys

and men, many of them illiterate, went off to sea and spent years away from home

under dangerous conditions. Order and discipline were important in minimizing

risk as was communication aboard ship, which had to be crystal clear. For example,

different pitches of the boatswain's whistle meant different things: a call for atten-

tion, dismissal, or "piping" someone aboard. Shouted instructions often did not

carry well against the noise of wind and waves, but voice commands to change the

direction of sails had to be carried out immediately, whether to avoid

collision with other ships in naval battles, to sail through a

typhoon, or to stay on course. Also important to the order-

ly life of a ship was proper naming, accounting for,

stowing of, and using gear. any terms remain in

our language as a colorful legacy of the great

sailing eras of history. Weekend sailors on

the Chesapeake Bay and competitors in the

heat of an America's Cup race use the

same terms. And what teacher has not

tried to get a classroom "shipshape"

or commanded, "Pipe down?"

5157

do S on the SO

e s

Identify some basic terms associated with boats,ships, and sailing.

Use expressions derived from nautical sayings incontext.

s

Student Page

Optional: cassette or CD player for music

S 7.1

language arts, social studies, literature, music

58 GUBEST COPY AVAILABLE

7/

1. Read the selection fromGulliver's Travels aloud to stu-

dents. Ask for student impressionsof this almost-foreign language.Help them along by explainingsome basic terminology. Themain frame of a boat is its hull.The bow is the forward part of theboat from where the planks beginto curve inward. The stern is thewider rear end of the boat. Ifsomething is located aft it istoward the stern; if it is fore it istoward the bow. The deck is theplanked floor that runs the lengthof the boat. A hatch is a rectangu-lar opening in the deck. You cango below into the lower part of theboat, which includes the hold,where cargo is stored. The gang-way is the main entrance to a boatfrom the side. The masts are thetall timbers that carry the sail.The mast closest to the bow is theforemast, followed by the mainmast. If there are three masts, thethird is the mizzenmast.(Traditionally, a sailing boat witha bowsprita large, tapered poleextending from the front of thevesseland three masts wasknown as a ship. Later, a ship was

defined as a boat powered by sailor steam.) Mounted across themasts are large timbers calledyards that support the sails, orsheets. The outer part of a yard iscalled the yardarm. The support-ing timber of the foresail or the jibis the boom. The sails are held inplace by lines called rigging. Thekeel is the structure that runs thelength of the boat, supporting anduniting the boat. Most of the keelis below the waterline.

As the wind fills the sails, the partof the boat facing the wind is thewindward side and the part shel-tered from the wind is the leewardside. As you look forward on theboat, the lefthand side of the boatis the port side and the righthandside is the starboard side.

Some other common termsinclude the following:

fastsecure or fixed

foulbecome entangled

listtilt of a boat

trimarrangement of sails to getthe most wind

limeyDuring the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries, Britishseamen were called limeysbecause of the limes issued tosailors to prevent scurvy.

tacka boat's direction withrespect to the wind

59 61

2. Work with your school librari-an or music teacher to get a CDor cassette for students to listento while doing this activity. Youmight play classical music such asWagner's Flying Dutchman orDebussy's La Mer. You might findrecordings of traditional seachanteyssongs sung by sailorsin rhythm with their work. Themusic and lyrics to "Blow theMan Down" and "Sailing,Sailing" can be found in AnIllustrated Treasury of Songs. You

might also find contemporarymusic that will appeal to students.

3. Hand out the student page.As students work on section Aindependently, circulate amongthem to offer help with themeaning of unfamiliar expres-sions. The Pequod's hull wasstained by the typhoons of thePacific and the calms of theAtlantic, Pacific, Indian, andArctic oceans. "[D]arkened likea French grenadier" refers tosoldiers in Napoleon's eighteenth-century campaigns in Egypt andSiberia who threw grenades inbattle and became darkened withsoot. The bowthe front of theboatmay have appeared beardedbecause of seaweed or a protectivecovering. The masts are thetall timbers that carry the sails,

and the reference is probably tothe spires of the cathedral inCologne, Germany, the mostfamous example of Romanesquearchitecture. The wooden deckswere probably wrinkled fromexposure to seawater.

In section B, students may haveanswers similar to these:

1. I like the cut of his jib. I likethe way he lookshis clothes, hiswalk. The jib is the triangular sailfore of the foresail.

2. It's time to swab the deck. It'stime to clean up. This was theorder to clean the boat's deckwith a rope mop that sometimeshad a wooden handle.

3. Please stand by. This is anexpression derived from thecommand for sailors to be ready.

4. All hands on deck. Thisexpression derived from thecaptain's command to summonthe entire crew.

5. I was really taken aback bywhat he said. This means tomomentarily stop short or literal-ly move back. When the windsuddenly shifts and comes intothe sails from the front, the boatis said to be taken aback.

6. It was touch and go therefor a while. This expressionmeans you were unsure what theoutcome would be. It is used todescribe a boat that runs agroundand then immediately recoversand floats again.

7. Now everything is on an evenkeel. Everything is going alongsmoothly. A boat is on an evenkeel when the keel is horizontal inthe water.

8. Thar she blows. There it is.This was the cry of the spotteraboard a whaling boat uponseeing a whale.

9. In class today, Ms. Smith reallylowered the boom. She gave somebad news or got angry. The boomis the timber that holds the jib sailnear the bow of a boat. A suddenwind shift can quickly blow itaround to knock down anyonestanding in the way.

10. It's like flogging a dead horse.This commonly means belaboringa point that has already beenmade clear. A dead horse is whatseamen called a month's work onboard, for which they were paidin advance. On the last eveningof the month the crew wouldflog a straw-stuffed horse andthrow it overboard.

60 62

In section C, encourage studentsto be creative in writing a scene.For further reading, they mighttry some of the sea stories fromthe online Ocean Planet exhibit.They might try reading MobyDick by Herman Melville or TwoYears Before the Mast by Richard

Dana. The latter contains ahelpful glossary of nautical terms.Some students might enjoy anonfiction adventure by anoceanographer/innovator such asJacques Cousteau or Bob Ballardor an adventurer like ThorHeyerdahl.

4. Tell students that sailors cancommunicate between boats bysemaphore, a system of visual

signaling with flags. Have thestudents do library research tofind out the flag symbols for theletters of the alphabet. Eachstudent can draw and color apage-sized flag to represent adifferent letter of the alphabet.Place the flags around theclassroom for a week or so withthe letters labeled. Students canbecome familiar with theirmeaning. Then take the flagsdown and ask students to writeout their own names in flagletters. They might create theirown flag words and challengeone another to decode them.

0 s On the se(;'page

critiWhat would you be doing if you

were on a whaling boat for months at a time? Would you sing a sea chantey or

dance the hornpipe? Or would it take you some time to get your sea legs? Perhaps

you would write a letter home or create a carving out of a whale's tooth. In this activity,

you might get a little closer to what the sailing experience is like.

A. Read this selection from Moby Dick by Herman Melville. It is from chapter 16,

"The Ship," in which the narrator describes the whaling ship Pequod.

She was a boat of the old school, rather small if anything. . . . Long, seasoned and

weather-stained in the typhoons and calms of all four oceans, her old hull's com-

plexion was darkened like a French grenadier's, who has alike fought in Egypt and

Siberia. Her venerable bow looked bearded. Her mastscut somewhere on thecoast of Japan, where her original ones were lost overboard in a galeher masts

stood stiffly up like the spines of the three old kings of Cologne. Her ancient decks

were worn and wrinkled.

In this selection, Melville describes four parts of the ship. How does he help you picture

them in your own mind?

Part of ship Description in your own words

1.

2.

3.

4.

61

so

B. We use nautical

y expressions in everyday life. Write a sentence to explain what each of the

following expressions means in your own words.

/

s:he Sea

?age

1. I like the cut of his jib.

2. It's time to swab the deck.

3. Please stand by.

4. All hands on deck.

5. I was really taken aback by what he said.

6. It was touch and go there for a while.

7. Now everything is on an even keel.

8. Thar she blows!

9. In class today, Ms. Smith really lowered the boom.

10. It's like flogging a dead horse.

C. You may have been listening to some music inspired by the sea. Perhaps you enjoy

the ring of nautical expressions. Working cooperatively with a small group, use some of

these terms and expressions to write dialogue for a scene of your own creation. Or use

them to write some song lyrics to perform for your class.

6462

C

vs

6563

Visit On/6Ocean Planet eonline athttp://

t-i° 11 C eseawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html

Using the Exhibition TopicOutline, under EducationalMaterials go to Sea PeopleLesson Plan: Words from theOcean; Ocean Planet NauticalSayings; Ocean Planet Legendsand Customs of the Sea; BaruBay, Australia; and Ocean Planet:Writings and Images of the Sea.Click on "Sea People" for storiesabout those who live on and nearthe oceans. Under the ResourcePage, use the Image Catalog toget photographs and illustrationsof specific images suggested inthe activities in this section.

VSOUrCeS

forDana, studen

fo

Richard. Two

Years Before the Mast. New York:

Viking, 1981.

L

National Gallery

r t C t2 C of Art. An IllustratedTreasury of Songs. New

York: Rizzoli, 1991.

Payne, Roger. Among Whales.New York: Charles Scribner'sSons, 1995.

The Visual Encyclopedia of Nautical

Terms Under Sail. New York:

Crown, 1978.

Za5' The Office of Elementaryand Secondary Education

thanks the following individualsfor reviewing this booklet:

Judith GradwohlBeth NalkerSmithsonian Institution

Environmental Awareness Program

Laura McKieCarolyn SadlerOffice of Education, National

Museum of Natural History

Gene FeldmanNational Aeronautics and Space

Administration

Alison MerowCenter for Marine Conservation

For activity field testing:Margaret ConoverShreham-Wading RiverScience Museum

For turtle stranding data:Sam Sadove

g Institution Office ofElementary and Secondary

Education (OESE) produced thisbooklet with generous fundingfrom Brother InternationalCorporation. The office wishesto thank Dorothy Fischer ofBrother for her steadfastsupport of our work.

TheSmithsonian

As the central education officefor the Smithsonian Institution,the Office of Elementary andSecondary Education (OESE)serves teachers and students,grades pre-K through twelve.For this audience, OESE inter-prets the collective knowledgeof the Smithsonian and teachesmethods for learning frommuseums. OESE providesprofessional development forteachers, publishes informationaland curricular materials forschools, fosters mutuallybeneficial relationships betweenschools and museums, anddisseminates information aboutthe Institution's educationalprogramming and materials.

SMITHSONIANOffice of Elementary and Secondary

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646

WriterBarbara Branca

Designer/IllustratorKarlic Design Associates, LLCBaltimore, Maryland

PrinterCarter PrintingRichmond, Virginia

Publications Director

Michelle Knovic Smith

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Research and improvement (OERI)

Educational Resources information Center (ERIC)

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IERICI

This document is covered by a signed "Reproduction Release(Blanket)" form (on file within the ERIC system), encompassing allor classes of documents from its source organization and, therefore,does not require a "Specific Document" Release form.

This document is Federally-funded, or carries its own permission toreproduce, or is otherwise in the public domain and, therefore, maybe reproduced by ERIC without a signed Reproduction Releaseform (either "Specific Document" or "Blanket").