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 26
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: Alwin and Anna
Name of this Activity: _Interdependency of Organisms_________________________
Synopsis of the Activity (Please provide 2-3 sentences that summarizes your Activity.)
[5 points]
Jenga blocks representing diversity of an estuary are color-coded. Fate cards are pulled,
impacting certain colors of “organisms,” and the color of the block is removed from
Jenga. This illustrates the interconnectivity underlying biodiversity: organisms are linked
and interdependent to sustain the whole ecosystem. Next, a large poster of an estuary
becomes a “collage” throughout the day. Audience members (particularly really young
ones) color in organisms and put them on the poster. Throughout the day, our estuary
becomes more and more diverse!
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]
The objective of our activity would be to engage all audiences. The Jenga game will
entice people of all ages, but will probably be most illustrative for ages 8+ or so. The
estuary collage aims for very young audiences, but will hopefully engage all ages as well.
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]
● Illustrate interdependency of organisms and how this relates to biodiversity.
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● Understand how human and natural phenomenons impact the delicate balance of
biodiverse ecosystems through hands-on activities (drawing fate cards and seeing
physical impact illustrated with Jenga blocks)..
● Estuaries are used as an example of a sensitive diverse ecosystem; develop an
appreciation for this example.
What concepts or misconceptions are you addressing with the activity? [10 points]
Concepts:
● Interconnection between species
● Biodiversity
● Estuarine diversity
Misconceptions:
● Unlimited abundance of organisms in ocean, so one in particular does not matter
● Organisms are independent and not interconnected, particularly across types of
organisms (e.g. horseshoe crabs and birds).
● The ocean is huge and vast and has limitless capacity for the dilution of pollution.
“Dilution is the solution to pollution.”
Ocean Literacy Principles (Which Ocean Literacy Principles connect to this Activity?)
[5 points]
Ocean Literacy Essential Principle 5: The ocean supports a great
diversity of life and ecosystems.
f Ocean habitats are defined by environmental factors. Due to interactions of
abiotic factors such as salinity, temperature, oxygen, pH, light, nutrients, pressure,
substrate and
circulation, ocean life is not evenly distributed temporally or spatially, i.e., it is “patchy”.
d Ocean biology provides many unique examples of life cycles, adaptations and
important relationships among organisms (symbiosis, predator-prey dynamics and energy
transfer) that do not occur on land.
i Estuaries provide important and productive nursery areas for many marine and
aquatic species.
Ocean Literacy Essential Principle 6: The ocean and humans are inextricably
interconnected.
d Much of the world’s population lives in coastal areas.
e Humans affect the ocean in a variety of ways. Laws, regulations and resource
management affect what is taken out and put into the ocean. Human development and
activity leads to pollution (point source, non-point source, and noise pollution) and
physical modifications (changes to beaches, shores and rivers). In addition, humans have
removed most of the large vertebrates from the ocean.
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f Coastal regions are susceptible to natural hazards (tsunamis, hurricanes,
cyclones, sea level change, and storm surges).
g Everyone is responsible for caring for the ocean. The ocean sustains life on
Earth and humans must live in ways that sustain the ocean. Individual and collective
actions are needed to effectively manage ocean resources for all.
Vocabulary (Key terms that will be defined and used in the activity.) [5 points]
biodiversity: variety in plant and animal species within an environment
interdependency: dependence between two or more organisms which sustains
biodiversity
food web: a series of organisms related by predator-prey and consumer-resource
interactions
estuary: area where the mouth of a river connects with the sea/ocean
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]
Questions to check prior knowledge:
Do you guys know what biodiversity is?
How about interdependency?
What do you think a food web is?
How does it work?
Questions to engage the activity:
What do you you think this fate card will do?
What kind of effects will it have on the food web?
How can you relate these effects to the Jenga tower?
Questions to encourage discussion and check for understanding:
Why is biodiversity important?
Where else do you think events like this can take place?
What do you think you can do to help keep diversity?
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]
In the “Invitation” part of the Learning Cycle, the Jenga game will be introduced. We
expect the audience to have some intuition or prior knowledge of the game, and so during
this part we will be drawing the analogy to species diversity represented by the different
blocks, and interconnectivity through the “tower.” The Fate Card box will be introduced,
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and hopefully curiosity will be piqued at the connection between the “black box” of Fate
cards and the Jenga blocks.
During the “Exploration” phase, audience members will draw cards, be asked to read the
cards aloud, and then asked to make a prediction of what will happen to the Jenga blocks
when their “fate” is executed. Fate cards will introduce concepts such as overfishing,
pollution, climate change, and human land uses, and these concepts will be discussed
based on the audience’s inquiry (the “Invention” phase).
In the “Application” phase, the fate cards will be executed by having audience members
pull out the Jenga blocks that have the color coordinating with the fate card. Whether the
tower collapses or is retained in a less stable state, audience members will develop an
understanding how each organisms depends on the others. Next, audience members are
able to artistically create their own estuarine organism from one of the trophic levels
represented by the Jenga blocks, which are then pasted to a large posterboard of an
estuary. Throughout the day we will build a diverse and healthy Estuary collage!
Discussing local estuaries can facilitate further understanding.
Through the visual and mechanistic representation of biodiversity of estuaries through
Jenga blocks will lead to a deeper understanding of the interconnectivity of organisms,
why diversity is important, and also why protecting and caring for diverse environments
is important. Estuaries as an example will provide an example “close to home” so that
children and parents can discuss the concepts about their own backyards.
Materials [5 points]
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collage poster
demonstration poster
Jenga blocks (two sets, color coded to represent estuarine trophic levels)
box of Fate cards
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]
Jenga blocks are colored to represent different organisms in an ecosystem. For example,
green blocks are “phytoplankton,” brown blocks are horseshoe crabs, etc. The number of
blocks colored for an organism represents the relative abundance of the organism (more
or less). A box with a hole in the top has “Fate” cards in it, which are drawn by audience
members and applied to the Jenga set. Two sets of blocks are set up, one as a backup. The
familiarity with Jenga blocks as a game, and the tempting unknown of the Fate box will
draw interest.
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The large Estuary poster will be colorful and will expand as the day goes on. This will
provide a visually appealing draw to the activity.
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]
- Our table will be set up with a large collage poster that people can draw on during the
day to illustrate diversity with Jenga towers and fate cards on the table. We can stand
infront and try to draw people in by asking one or more of the following: 1) Have you
played Jenga before? 2) Would you like to try our Jenga tower? 3) Would you like to
learn about diversity of the local estuary?
- We can introduce the activity by asking some of the questions to find out prior
knowledge. 1) Do you guys know what biodiversity is? 2) How about interdependency?
3) What do you think a food web is? 4) How does it work?
- After gauging how much they know, define the vocabulary. Ask them what concepts
they have of diversity and the ocean. Address the misconceptions.
- Explain the Jenga tower and what they represent. Redefine biodiversity and the
importance of interdependency again. Let them draw a fate card and ask questions to
engage them into the activity. 1) What do you you think this fate card will do? 2) What
kind of effects will it have on the food web? 3) How can you relate these effects to the
Jenga tower? Proceed with Jenga activity until it is over.
- Summarize and ask questions to check for understanding and encourage discussion. 1)
Why is biodiversity important? 2) Where else do you think events like this can take
place? 3) What do you think you can do to help keep diversity?
- To address the issue of people dropping in midway through the demonstration, we can
give a brief overview of what the demonstration is about. We are working on an activity
to illustrate how importance of biodiversity and interdependency is. These blocks
represent a different organism and we are now drawing fate cards to see what happens to
them. Come join us.
- We need to be in control of the Jenga tower for most of the day. We feel that it will be
the largest distraction that kids will try to use for another purpose. We can pick users
from the crowd to draw fate cards and do the demonstration instead of having the entire
crowd go at once. For the collage, we can limit the space for each drawing a person has
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to draw. This will reduce the amount of chaos on the collage since some people draw
much larger and smaller and keep things in proportion.
Animals:
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microbial (bacteria, phtyo/zooplankton, larva) GREEN
plants (moss, kelp, grass, mangroves) DARK GREEN
crustaceans (crabs, shrimp, lobster) RED
shelled organisms (mussels,oysters, clams) GREY
smaller fish (herring) LIGHT BLUE
larger fish (trout, flounders) DARK BLUE
birds YELLOW
horseshoe crabs BROWN
person PURPLE
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 have prior knowledge before presenting on:
● the vocabulary (described above)
● Estuarine diversity, ecosystems, and the effects of natural or human impacts on
estuaries: http://www.delawareestuary.org/index.asp
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