Human Activities Help Sustain Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing World
developed by:
Julie Allender (OMSD), Colleen Duncan (Redlands USD), Dr. Vickie Harri (OMSD), Sara Yeh (OMSD)
Life Science Component:
Earth and Space Systems Component:
Physical Science Component:
Engineering, Technology, and Applications to Science Component:
- Changes to environment can affect probabilities of survival and reproduction of individual organisms, which can result in significant changes to populations and species.
Earth and Space Systems Component:
- Annual cycles in the amount of sunlight absorbed cause Earth's seasons.
- Increases in human population and per-captia consumption impact Earth's systems.
Physical Science Component:
- Waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
- Wave-based digital technologies provide very reliable ways to encode and transmit information.
Engineering, Technology, and Applications to Science Component:
- Design Criteria
- Evaluate Solutions
Main Learning Goal:
Focus Question: What is the best way to sustain a healthy kelp forest?
Learning Targets:
Cross Cutting Concept Ideas:
Pattern-
Cause and Effect-
Scale, Proportion, and Quantity-
Systems and Systems Models-
Energy and Matter-
Structure and function-
Stability and Change-
Key Science Ideas:
- Tides: Tides create currents and promote biodiversity.
- Waves: types of waves (mechanical and electromagnetic), characteristics of waves (amplitude, frequency, wavelength)
- Light is reflected, absorbed, transmitted and we can only see those rays that are not absorbed.
- Seasons and kelp growth: seasons are result of changes in light wave intensity; kelp growth is dependent on light intensity and the pull from the tides.
- Earthquakes (seismic waves) and tsunamis:
- Energy transfer from earthquakes to tsunamis, tsunamis waves vs regular waves
- Digitized are more reliable than analog signals
- Natural Selections and genetic diversity: how these concepts relate to Kelp forests
- Evaluate various designs for sustaining healthy kelp forests
Focus Question: What is the best way to sustain a healthy kelp forest?
Learning Targets:
- I can explain how gravitational force in space causes waves.
- I can define the parts of a wave.
- I can calculate the frequency of a wave.
- I can explain how a wave frequency change.
Cross Cutting Concept Ideas:
Pattern-
Cause and Effect-
Scale, Proportion, and Quantity-
Systems and Systems Models-
Energy and Matter-
Structure and function-
Stability and Change-
Key Science Ideas:
- Why is kelp a brown color?
- How far does light penetrate in water? or How does light frequency affect penetration depth?
- How do waves help survival rates of species?
- What is the difference between analog and digital waves?
- What causes tides?
- How does the amount of light determine how much a kelp forest will grow?.
- How are kelp forests affected by the energy released from earthquakes and tsunamis?
- How is the energy in a wave related to the amplitude of the wave?
- What is the difference between an analog and digital wave?
- Why are digital waves more reliable than analog waves?
Additional Resources:
Eggs to Dye For- Science Friday explores why we see different colors on dyed Easter Eggs.
Eggs to Dye For- Science Friday explores why we see different colors on dyed Easter Eggs.
Anchoring Phenomenon
- Play one of the live webcams of a kelp forest.
- Have students list what they see on chart paper (start fresh with each class you teach).
- Keep the webcam playing in the background as you teach on, and allow for students to continue to add to the list the created as they see more.
- Kelp Facts: Why kelp is important
Final Task: What is the best way to sustain a healthy kelp forest?
Teacher version below.