Have students look at the
2000 Population Distribution in the United States map. Explain that the white areas of the map represent places where many people live, and the dark areas are places where there aren't many people.
Help students locate the place where they live on this map. Is it in an area that's heavily or lightly populated?
Ask students to compare this map with a United States or world map in the classroom or in a book. Make sure they can identify the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico on the Internet map. Also make it clear that Alaska and Hawaii aren't in their correct locations on the map.
Ask students to describe the pattern of settlement in the United States, based on what they see on the Internet map. Do more people live near the East or West coasts or away from them? Students should recognize that many more people live near the coasts than inland, although the Great Lakes and a few pockets in the interior (e.g., Atlanta) are densely populated.
Have students, either as a class or in small groups, brainstorm the reasons why people might choose to live near the coasts rather than in the country's interior. They should think about what the coastal areas have to offer (e.g., more transportation routes and comfortable weather) and what aspects of the interior have historically made it difficult for people to live in (give them a hint about this latter point by pointing out the desert regions of the West and describing the climate there).
If students have brainstormed in small groups, discuss their ideas as a class.
Ask students how they think the high level of coastal settlement might affect the oceans' animals and plants. Discuss their ideas, and list them on the board.
Below are several examples of ways that human settlement in coastal areas negatively impacts marine life. Have students look at the pictures on the Web sites as you describe the things they are seeing, using the guidelines below.
Runoff from the streets into storm drains:
Stormwater Program: City of Los Angeles
The first photograph shows a storm drain. Have students ever seen these drains (or similar ones) in the curbs of their local streets? They can be found even in communities that are far away from the ocean, as the water will drain to rivers or lakes. Anything that goes into one of these storm drains eventually ends up in a lake or the ocean.
The last three pictures show polluted storm drains. This is what happens when people throw cups, fast food packaging, and other materials onto the street. When it rains, everything gets washed off the street into the storm drains. In Los Angeles and many other cities, as water flows through the storm drains, it washes this pollution all the way to the beach and the ocean. Ask students how they think the ocean animals like all this junk in their habitat.
Light pollution:
National Geographic: Turtles in Trouble
National Geographic News: Saving Sea Turtles With a Lights-Out Policy in Florida
Have students look at these pictures as you tell them about sea turtles and light pollution.
Sea turtles swim around the world's warm oceans and nest on the beach. They face many dangers, including light pollution from cities and towns along the coast. When baby sea turtles hatch, they instinctively move toward light—the stars on the horizon and the sea. If artificial lights are present, they often head toward those lights instead and fail to reach the sea. They can die from dehydration, predators, or automobiles.
For more on threats to sea turtles, see Dangers Turtles Face. Very young students may be disturbed by these images (they are actually disturbing for adults), so preview them and decide if they are appropriate for your students.
Boat propellers:
National Geographic: Creature Feature—West Indian Manatees
Have students look at this picture as you tell them about manatees.
Manatees live in the waters of the southeastern United States, the Caribbean, eastern Mexico and Central America, and northeastern South America. They are gentle animals and swim very slowly. Motorboats are a big problem for them—manatees are often injured or killed by boats' propellers because they can't swim out of the way fast enough.
Review the concepts students have learned in this lesson. Ask them to describe things that people who live near or visit the ocean can do to keep the beach and water clean and to protect the animals that live there. If students live in a coastal community, discuss the specific issues that affect the ocean and marine life in their area.
Help students conduct research to find out whether they have storm drains in their community and, if so, where the runoff goes. If there aren't storm drains in your town, try to find out where water and waste go when it rains. Also investigate whether there are any programs to educate the public about how to keep the local waterways clean. Once you've gathered this information, students can help devise an education program in the form of a presentation, brochure, poster, or other resource to inform other kids or adults about how to protect their local waters.
This lesson is made possible by a generous grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration National Marine Sanctuary Program.
Check out:
