Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences
Spring 2011 Activity Write-up Form
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Turn in one Activity Write-up Form with both partner’s names on it.
Target length is 4-5 pages (typed, dbl-spaced, 12 pt font, 1 inch margins)
Due March 22
100 points possible
This form is to be used when submitting activities for the Communicating Ocean Sciences
to Informal Audiences course. Fill in the sections using narrative, bulleted or list format
when appropriate. Be sure to include enough information to allow for a review of your
activity by the instructors. (Points for each section are listed below.)
List both partner’s names: Rebecca Noah and Evangelina Pena
Name of this Activity: “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish…Overfish, No Fish”
Synopsis of the Activity (Please provide 2-3 sentences that summarizes your Activity.)
[5 points]
Students will be introduced to the commercial fishing industry, more specifically geared
towards the east coast. We will begin by showing images of the different ways fish our
caught from wild stocks. Next part of the activity will involve demonstrating to the
students the affects of each type of fishing. Through the activity we are going to
demonstrate the harmful affects overfishing can have on marine ecosystems and food
webs.
Audience (Who is the main target audience of this activity? e.g., The general public?
Learners under 10 years old? Adult audiences? Please explain.) [5 points]
Fourth grade and up, directed more towards fourth to sixth graders.
Activity (Learning) Goals (Please describe your goals for this Activity. These might
include things like "Opportunity to interact with animals", "Investigate using hands-on
inquiry", "Promote a deeper appreciation for _________ ") [10 points]
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The learning goals of our activity are to get the students thinking and to make them more
aware of where their seafood comes from and what affect it has on the marine ecosystem.
Another learning goal is to demonstrate how the different types of fishing affect marine
ecosystems, and to demonstrate the need for sustainable fisheries. Lastly, to demonstrate
how overfishing and ecosystem destruction have devastating affects on marine
environments.
What concepts or misconceptions are you addressing with the activity? [10 points]
With this activity we hope to address the common misconception that the ocean is a
limitless in its resources. In addition, we also aim to convey the concept of sustainability
and the need for marine fishery regulation and protections.
Ocean Literacy Principles (Which Ocean Literacy Principles connect to this Activity?)
[5 points]
One of the main goals of our activity is to demonstrate the ocean’s influence on us and
our influence on the ocean, through our resource consumption. In addition we are trying
to engrain environmental responsibility in the students through widening their awareness
regarding marine ecosystems. We are also attempting to communicate how fragile
marine ecosystems are and therefore also the importance of maintaining diversity, which
strengthens the stability of marine ecosystem.
Vocabulary (Key terms that will be defined and used in the activity.) [5 points]
The key terms that we are attempting to define:
 Bycatch: unintentional, additional fish and animals caught in addition to the fish
that are supposed to be caught. Bycatch results in devastation of species and
biodiversity.
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Sustainability: the ability for ecosystem to continue to regenerate and endure;
creating stability in an environment and ecosystems. Maintaining diversity.
Resources: any natural thing that is used for human consumption.
Commercial (industrial) fishing: catching seafood and fish for commercial
purposes. Large quantities of fish are usually fished from wild fisheries for
seafood that will be sold and consumed on a very large scale.
Biodiversity: having many different species in an ecosystem or biome. A way of
measuring the health or stability of an ecosystem. The more diverse the
biological life, the healthier.
Trawling: method of fishing that involves pulling a very large net behind one or
more boats. Trawling usually is used at the bottom of the seafloor, resulting in
destruction of the ocean bottom.
Ecosystem: a biological environment that includes all organisms living in it as
well as the nonliving components of the area.
Guiding Questions (e.g. What are some questions that will help guide the visitors to a
deeper understanding of the topic and associated concepts? Please note which questions
you plan to ask learners to check for prior knowledge, engage them in the activity,
encourage discussion and to check for understanding? [15 points]
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Where do you think fish come from?
How do you think fishermen catch them?
Which type of fishing do you think is better?
Which type of fishing do you think we get the most fish from?
Why do you think we use commercial fishing most?
What do you think each type of fishing does?
What do you happens when you catch them in nets, trawls, lines?
How do you think fishing affects the other animals?
Do you think only catch one type of fish in the net?
What do you think will happen when you fish too many of one type of fish?
Do you think that the ocean has a unlimited amount of fish?
What do you think happens to the bottom of the ocean when it is trawled?
What do you think that ocean is healthier with more fish, plants, animals in it or
less?
What do you think could be done to prevent overfishing?
What do you think could be done to protect the animals?
What do you think an ecosystem is?
For every answer we will also have the students give evidence for why they
answered the way they did
Additional Teaching Strategies (e.g. What part(s) of the learning cycle are you
addressing? In what ways is your activity inquiry-based?) [10 points]
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First we are inviting the students by asking them broad questions about the ocean and
doing activities they can relate to such as fishing. The exploration part of our activity is
letting them play with the tank and exploring the different types of fishing in a smaller
scale. Through the exploration they are going to be able to understand the concepts of
bycatch, sustainability, biodiversity, overfishing, and environmental responsibility. The
students will be able to understand how the concepts apply to the real world, regarding
how fisheries function and their affects on the environment. We hope that through our
examples, activity, and demonstrations that the students will reflect on what they have
experienced and think about their impact on the ocean. We hope that their reflection will
generation a new awareness regarding where their seafood comes from, and how
important all organisms are to the ecosystem.
Materials [5 points]
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Tank
Water
Sand
Seashells
Toy “fish”
representation of fishing equipment
Posters/animal cut outs
Pictures
Set-up Procedure (How do you set up your activity on the floor? How have you
designed your activity to catch the interest of visitors passing by?) [5 points]
Our activity set will have a poster with pictures and bright, colorful facts. We will also
have the tank set up to visually attract visitors. We will also have different pictures and
other visual examples on the table.
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Activity Description (Please summarize your activity by providing a narrative
description of how you do your activity including how you handle visitors dropping in
and out at different times and how you handle visitors that want to use the materials in
ways that are different from what you intended.) [20 points]
We will attract the visitors to our table by asking them if they want to go to fishing. We
will begin to probe them with questions to find out how much they understand about
marine environments. We will ask them question about the different types of fishing and
see how much understand about the fishing industry. We will show them different
pictures of the different types of fishing and different types of fishing equipment and see
if they can match equipment to they type of fishing. While we are showing them the
pictures and asking them question we will try to convey the affects each type has on the
environment. Then we will have them attempt to fish in a style similar to each type of
fishing, but on a smaller scale in the tank provided. The tank set up would simulate a
marine ecosystem. We will have the students “catch” the fish several different ways to
demonstrate the harmful effects of the commercial fishing industry. To demonstrate
bycatch we will have the students use a net to try and catch only one type of fish, but they
will have to tow it as if it is behind a boat. Inevitably, the “catch” will result in more than
just that type of fish. To demonstrate overfishing, we will let each student have a turn to
catch as many fish as they want, the result will be that the tank will have significantly
fewer creatures in it than it started with. Lastly, to demonstrate trawling we will have to
create something that can replicate the affects of a trawl and ask the students to try to
catch fish using the trawl, which will result in devastation of the bottom sand, plants, and
shells. After, we have finished the core of the activity in the tank we will redirect the
student’s attention to reflect on what they observed when “fishing.” We will encourage
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the students to express their thoughts on the concepts demonstrated and ask them what
their ideas are on improving the fishing industry. Throughout the entire activity our goal
is to use this activity to demonstrate how industrial fishing can devastate biodiversity.
We will do this by encouraging the students to think about how the “marine
environment” we have created looks afterwards and how their fishing has dramatically
changed it. We will ask them questions regarding the trophic system when we
demonstrate bycatch and overfishing in the activity. We can then relate it to the effects
that commercial fishing has on humans and on our food industry as well as on the
population of organisms in the ocean. The major of goals of this presentation and activity
is to demonstrate how human beings have an affect on the ocean and the ocean also has
an affect on us, and to show the importance of biodiversity. We also want to disprove the
misconception that the ocean is limitless. Through addressing these points throughout
the activity we hope to encourage new thought in the students regarding the importance
of maintaining biodiversity in marine environments
Background and Additional Resources
(Is there particular science content the presenter needs to know? If so, please provide
some of that background scientific knowledge here and any good resources you found.)
[5 points]
The presenter needs to know basic background on the fishing industries and how they
affect the overall marine ecosystems. The presenter should also have a basic
understanding of biodiversity and its importance in maintain sustainability and stable
ecosystems. In addition, it would be useful to understand the nature of trophic levels in
marine ecosystems. We have also researched the different fisheries along the east coast
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and New Jersey to be able to better inform our students and to provide a real life example
of collapse fisheries.
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