Table of Contents – Ancillary Activities
(Online Learning Center)
Discovering the Living Oceans
Discovering the Living Oceans
Proposed Table of Contents for Ancillary Activities
(Online Learning Center Website)
PART ONE: Fundamentals of Marine Science
1. Introduction to Marine Science
2.
3.
Activity 1-A.
Who Wants to Be a Marine-ionaire? (game modeled after the TV
game show; based on marine vocabulary, plus serves as an introductory
survey of marine life and ecosystems)
Activity 1-B.
Oases Amidst the Desert (film: The Blue Planet, Ocean World, with
written assignment on nutrient/sunlight convergence as key to pelagic
productivity)
Activity 1-C.
The Art of Science (data exercise: graphing by hand and in MS Excel,
including “best fit” curves)
The Seafloor (“From Big Bang to Big Basins”)
Activity 2-A.
The Restless Seafloor (data and critical thinking exercise: on magnetic
stripes, plate migration, geological hot spots, seafloor cores, etc.)
Activity 2-B.
Other activities to be developed
Chemical and Physical Behavior of H2O (“The Weird, Wild, Wonderful,
Wacky World of Water”)
Activity 3-A.
Don’t Be So Dense! (data exercise: density profile of water)
Activity 3-B.
The Ends of the Earth (film: The Blue Planet, Frozen Seas, with
written assignment)
(Classroom Demos: Magic Sand, Above the Brim, Floating Razor, Runaway Pepper,
Capillarity, Sparklers, Alcohol Chill, Boil-proof Ice)
4. Seawater and Sediments
Activity 4-A.
Ups and Downs (data exercise: stable and radioactive isotopes in sea
level research …applied nuclear chemistry)
Activity 4-B.
Don’t Blow Your Concentration! (problem set: algebraic salinity
problems)
Activity 4-C.
A Salt with a Deadly Weapon? (critical thinking: osmotic balance)
5. Basics of Biology
Activity 5-A.
Speed Limit Enforced (“data detective” activity on limiting nutrients in
saltmarshes; students figure out what sort of experiment a marine
scientist has conducted simply by studying one of his graphs)
Activity 5-B.
Critters of Tomorrow (creativity: students project future evolution of
contemporary animals)
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Table of Contents – Ancillary Activities
(Online Learning Center)
Discovering the Living Oceans
Activity 5-C.
Caught in the Crossfire (“data detective” activity on sexual selection
and fitness tradeoffs in wild guppies)
Activity 5-D.
Risks and Rewards (film: The Trials of Life, Courting, with essay
assignment on sexual selection and fitness tradeoffs)
Activity 5-E.
To Bend or Not to Bend (data exercise: phenotypic plasticity in
barnacles)
Activity 5-F.
A Bill That Fits Really Fits the Bill (data exercise: microevolution in
Darwin’s finches)
Activity 5-G.
What Goes Around Comes Around (data exercise: Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium)
(Classroom Demos: Recipe for a Human, Candle Chemistry, Peanut Combustion)
PART TWO: The Organisms of the Sea (Natural History Survey)
6. Taxonomy & Phylogeny
Activity 6-A.
Spin the Taxa! (game in which students learn and memorize major
phyla and classes)
Activity 6-B.
Roots & Branches (critical thinking: interpretation of phylogenetic tree
of marine life, plus a visit to the Tree of Life website)
Activity 6-C.
Happy New Year! -or- Football Field Phylogeny (critical thinking:
translation of geologic time scale into a single calendar year or the
dimensions of a football field; either on a calendar or a real field,
students mark major events in natural history, revealing the abruptness
of the human revolution and the advent of the “6th great extinction”)
7. The Microbial World
Activity 7-A.
Activities to be developed
8. Seaweeds and Marine Plants
Activity 8-A.
Activities to be developed
9. Marine Invertebrates
Activity 9-A.
The Birds and the Bees (data exercise: a challenging graphing
exercise on theories to explain the evolution of sexual reproduction)
Activity 9-B.
Gamete Games (film: The Trials of Life, Continuing the Line, with essay
assignment on mating adaptations as a consequence of anisogamy and
sperm competition)
Activity 9-C.
Tortoises and Hares (data exercise: logistic growth, r-selection vs. Kselection, and breeding strategies)
Activity 9-D.
A Breed Apart (film: The Trials of Life, Arriving, with written
assignment on breeding strategies)
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Table of Contents – Ancillary Activities
(Online Learning Center)
Discovering the Living Oceans
Activity 9-E.
Films: PBS’s The Shape of Life, Episodes 1-7, with written assignments
to be developed
(Classroom Demos: Live Planarians, Live Gastropods, Water Balloon Walking, Jet
Propelled Balloon)
10. Marine Fishes
Activity 10-A.
Fishy Silhouettes (critical thinking: body form and function in fishes)
Activity 10-B.
Other activities to be developed
11. Marine Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals (Tetrapods)
Activity 11-A.
Activities to be developed
PART THREE: Ecology of Marine Communities
12. Estuaries and Wetlands (“Life Along the Margins”)
Activity 12-A.
Making the Gradient (data exercise: students plot isohalines in
Chesapeake Bay)
Activity 12-B.
Spring Break in the Florida Keys (problem set: density, pressure,
and buoyancy)
Activity 12-C.
Carpe Diem? Carpe DIET! (Film: The Life of Mammals, The
Opportunists, with essay assignment)
Activity 12-D.
Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave (Film: NGS’s Creatures of the
Mangrove, with food web assignment)
Activity 12-E.
Diatom Soup (“data detective” activity on eutrophication and
phytoplankton blooms; students figure out what sort of experiment a
marine scientist has conducted simply by studying one of his graphs)
Activity 12-F.
Hold Your Breath! (data exercise: data mining and graphing on
dissolved oxygen and benthic hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico)
(Classroom Demos: Salinity Stratification, Two-way Circulation, Brownian Motion, Antigravity Jar Lid, Holey Cup, Cartesian Diver, Buoyant Egg, Floating Clay)
13. Beaches and Barrier Islands (“Life on the Edge”)
Activity 13-A.
Surf’s Up! (problem set: waves and wave mechanics)
Activity 13-B.
The Amazing Swash Riders (data exercise: kite diagrams of swashriding coquina clam distributions before and after a storm)
Activity 13-C.
Niche Wishes (creativity and critical thinking: adaptations for 3 harsh
habitats, side-by-side: sub-, inter-, and supratidal zones)
(Classroom Demos: Wave Cheer, Slinky Waves)
14. Rocky Shores and Kelp Forests (“Life on the Rocks”)
Activity 14-A.
Tide Tied (film: The Blue Planet, Tidal Seas, with written assignment)
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Table of Contents – Ancillary Activities
(Online Learning Center)
Discovering the Living Oceans
Activity 14-B.
Moonstruck (critical thinking: lunar phases and the tidal cycle; students
piece together the spring/neap cycle)
Activity 14-C.
A Fun Day at the Amusement Park (problem set: curvilinear motion)
Activity 14-D.
The Woodless Forest (film: IMAX Into the Deep, with written
assignment on seaweeds versus terrestrial plants)
Activity 14-E.
It’s Not Whether You Win or Lose, It’s How You Prey the Game
(data exercise: keystone predators in kelp forests and on rocky shores)
Activity 14-F.
The Will to Succeed (film: The Private Lives of Plants, Plant Politics,
with written assignment on ecological succession)
(Classroom Demos: Partner Merry-go-round, Inertial Coins, Pen in the Bottle, Artificial
Gravity Coat Hanger)
15. Coral Reefs (“Life in the Concrete Jungle”)
Activity 15-A.
Friends and Foes (Film: The Blue Planet, Coral Seas, with written
assignment on inter- and intraspecific competition and cooperation)
Activity 15-B.
Where’s a Flea to Flee? (data exercise: the competitive exclusion
principle)
Activity 15-C.
Hey You! Get out of my Niche! (data exercise: resource partitioning
and character displacement)
(Classroom Demos: Candy Contest; $100 Auction)
16. Coastal Seas (“Life in the Ocean’s Oases”)
Activity 16-A.
Well, Well, Well… (data exercise: plotting isotherms before and after
an upwelling event on the mid-Atlantic coast)
Activity 16-B.
Do You Catch My Drift? (critical thinking: Coriolis and Ekman)
Activity 16-C.
The 600 Pound Tuna Fish Sandwich (critical thinking: ecological
efficiency and the biomass/energy pyramid)
Activity 16-D.
Hometown Survivor (problem set: ecological efficiency)
(Classroom Demos: Random Walk)
17. Pelagic Ecology I: Plankton and Nekton (“Life in Liquid Space”)
Activity 17-A.
Liquid Space (film: The Blue Planet, Open Ocean, with essay
assignment)
Activity 17-B.
An Elephant in Drag? (critical thinking: morphological optimization in a
fluid environment)
Activity 17-C.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions (data exercise: “data detective” on
optimal foraging research)
(Classroom Demos: Live Zooplankton, Slow Roller, Anti-entropy Device, Galileo
Vindicated, Levitating Paper, Indestructible Bridge, Magic Spool, Anti-gravity Ping-pong
Ball, Water-loving Ping-pong Ball, Countershaded Paper)
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Table of Contents – Ancillary Activities
(Online Learning Center)
Discovering the Living Oceans
18. Pelagic Ecology II: Seasonal Cycles and Global Circulation (“Life on
the High Seas”)
Activity 18-A.
Blooms and Booms (film: The Blue Planet, Seasonal Seas, with written
assignment)
Activity 18-B.
Do You See the Light? (critical thinking: light in the pelagic zone)
Activity 18-C.
Do You Have a Latitude Problem? (critical thinking: seasonal
productivity as a function of latitude)
Activity 18-D.
The Case of the Slippery Eel (data exercise: catadromous eel
migrations and the North Atlantic gyre)
(Classroom Demos: Thermohaline Circulation)
19.
The Ocean Depths (“Life in the Eternal Night”)
Activity 19-A.
The Dark Side (film: The Blue Planet, The Deep, with written
assignment)
Activity 19-B.
Other activities to be developed
PART FOUR: Humans and the Sea
20.
Resources from the Sea
Activity 20-A.
Optimizing Yield per Recruit in Venezuelan Junkfish (data
exercise: optimal yield)
Activity 20-B.
Activity to be developed – film: Empty Oceans, Empty Nets, with essay
assignment
Activity 20-C.
Activity to be developed – data exercise: analysis of fish migrations to
identify unit stocks
21. Conservation of Marine Ecosystems
Activity 21-A.
Activities to be developed
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