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Overview:
This lesson is an extension to Volunteer Monitoring—Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. In that lesson, students explored the concept of monitoring and how it can improve our understanding of our relationship with the environment. To understand this concept, students were told to think of other types of monitoring, such as tools that doctors use to understand different aspects of people's health (e.g., blood pressure cuff, thermometer, scale, etc.). In this lesson, students will further explore this analogy by considering how tools can be used together to give a broader and fuller understanding of a person's (and an ecosystem's) health.
To accomplish this, students will explore information contained in a variety of monitoring project maps to see how data in context can provide more information than data in isolation. Finally, they will collect data on their state or local environmental conditions and create maps to demonstrate specific environmental needs in their local areas.
This lesson is one in a series exploring the history, biology, and ecology of the National Marine Sanctuaries. It was developed for National Geographic's Oceans for Life program, in collaboration with and with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, ecology, biology, language arts
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 8: "The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth's surface"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"
Ocean Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts (PDF, Adobe Reader required)
- Principle 2: The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth
- Principle 3: The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate
- Principle 4: The ocean makes Earth habitable
- Principle 5: The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems
- Principle 6: The ocean and humans are inextricably linked
National Science Education Standards:
- A: Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry: "Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data."
Time:
Two to three hours
Materials Required:
- Computer with Internet access
- Writing/drawing materials/chart paper
- Seating arrangement: whole-class instruction and small-group activities
- Maximum number of students: no limit
- Preparation: preview video clips and embedded Web sites, gather materials
Objectives:
Students will:
- explore ecosystem monitoring efforts;
- compare and compile data related to monitoring efforts;
- describe how monitoring efforts are interrelated; and
- demonstrate understanding of how data interpreted in isolation is not as valuable as data interpreted in context.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Explain to students, or remind them, that humans use monitoring tools to evaluate the health of people, animals, and the environment. Remind students of the example of the physician: doctors use a variety of monitoring tools to measure and evaluate a person's health. Have students recall from the previous lesson examples of monitoring tools that doctors use (blood pressure cuff, thermometer, x-ray machine, scales, etc.).
Divide students into five groups. Tell them that for this activity, they will be role-playing physicians. Explain that a patient has come in to see them because of an unusual ailment. Then, give each group of students an index card with the following piece of information:
Patient history: The patient is a 14-year old girl with no history of long-term health problems. She is visiting the doctor because of several symptoms. First, she has been having stomach aches. Also, she plays a variety of sports and has been feeling "under the weather" lately. She has noticed that when she plays sports, her "bones ache," so she's added some additional calcium to her diet to help. She has noticed that her energy level has been going down.
Ask the students what they think might be causing her ailment.
Then, give each group one additional card with one of the following pieces of information. Do not let the groups share their information.
- Blood pressure: The patient's blood pressure was elevated, but not dangerously so.
- Temperature: The patient's temperature was 98.6 (normal).
- X-ray: An X-ray of the patient showed no signs of bone disease.
- Scale: The patient has lost 3 lbs. since her last visit six months ago.
- Physical examination: There was no noted indication of appendicitis or other abdominal disorder.
- Patient interview: When questioned, the patient explained that her diet has changed a little and she has been drinking a lot of milk and eating yogurt.
Ask each group of students to describe in writing what they believe is the root of the patient's ailment and why. Collect all of the responses.
Then, ask the students if they found it easy or difficult to diagnose the ailment. Explain that doctors need to use a variety of monitoring tools to understand the full picture of a patient's health. Ask students what would have made it easier to diagnose the patient.
Then, "jigsaw" the groups so that at least one person from each group is represented in each of the new groups. Have students share their pieces of information and theories of what ailment is bothering the patient. Then, have the new groups share their responses.
Finally, explain to the students that the ailment the girl was afflicted with was "lactose intolerance." Explain that this is a treatable ailment in which the patient can't digest milk products very easily. Ask the students to explain how examining the data in context of other data makes diagnosing her condition easier.
Development:
Activity 1:
Tell students that scientists use the same approach with interpreting data in the environment. Ask them to recall any monitoring projects they explored in Volunteer Monitoring—Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Generate a list on the board of any types of data that were collected in the monitoring projects. Accept all reasonable answers.
Explain that at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the scientists are currently conducting many research projects which monitor the heath of the central California coastal environment and the plants and animals living there. Tell the students the project, called the Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network or SIMoN, currently has over forty institutions and organizations which monitor different aspects of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Show the students the SIMoN Says video. Then, explain current monitoring projects include those related to:
- Rocky shores
- Kelp forests
- Beaches
- Sandy floor
- Estuaries
- Seamounts
- Submarine canyons
- Deep sea
- Open ocean
- Geology
- Oceanography
- Water quality
- Fisheries
- Seabirds and shorebirds
- Marine mammals
Have students look at some of the types of data listed on the board and work with a partner to describe ways in which data from one project might inform the data from another project. Have students complete a short journaling activity to write down their ideas.
Share the following example with the students. Have the students read through the information on the SIMoN Web site for these two monitoring projects:
Nutritional Constraints on Sea Otters in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Persistence and Recovery of Abalone Populations in Central California
Have the students describe how these two projects can help to inform each other [13% of the sea otter's diet comes from abalone. The abalone project is monitoring the growth and decline of abalone in central California.]. Ask the students the following:
- What information was missing when you looked at the data from each project in isolation?
- What did you learn by examining each in the context of additional data available from the other?
Have students explore the SIMoN Web site to find specific examples of how the data collected from the monitoring projects can be reviewed within the context of another monitoring project to more fully understand the implications of those data. Have them report their findings to the class.
Activity 2:
Explain to students that the SIMoN Web site provides so much information that it is important to find a way to compile and share that information and data in an easy-to-use way. With the class, brainstorm a list of ways in which these data can be compiled and conveyed to students, teachers, scientists, and other interested people.
Explain that the SIMoN Program scientists have decided to use maps to convey the compiled data. Show the students the three interactive maps on the SIMoN Web site. Divide students into small groups and assign each group one of the three maps to study. Have students explore the maps, noting the following:
- What type of information did your map display?
- How did this map help you to understand the data?
- How did this map supply the data?
- How did the interactive tools help you to use the data?
- Be ready to explain how two data sets presented on your map are interrelated and how they can be used together to increase understanding.
After students have worked in their small groups, have them "jigsaw" into new groups to share their answers.
Following group discussion, bring students back together to discuss the answers to the questions based on the different maps. Remind students of the examples of data from different monitoring projects that they found in the previous activity and how the collected data lists complemented each other.
Closing:
Explain to students that other regions around the country can learn from the SIMoN model of monitoring and collaboration. With the whole class, brainstorm a list of specific local monitoring candidates such as the weather, animal behaviors, plant growth, water quality, etc. Ask the students to describe which pieces of data are related and might make good candidates to include on a single map. For example, possible "data pairs" might include: air quality and asthma rates; invasive species and local plant decline; water quality and fish populations.
Then, have students work in groups to create local maps, which show at least two types of monitoring data on one map. For example, a group of students can include both water quality and the decline of a particular fish population on one map. Students can use the EPA sites Surf Your Watershed and In Your Neighborhood as well as the Environmental Defense's Pollution in Your Community site to find information about conditions in your state.
This lesson plan was prepared by the National Geographic Society under award #NA04NOS4290216 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Department of Commerce.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Have students share their maps with the class. Evaluate the maps based on the following:
- use of data;
- demonstrated understanding of the connectedness of the data;
- effective pictorial representations of the data; and
- oral skills in presenting the maps.
Extending the Lesson:
Students can explore how scientists have used satellite images of lights at night to map the spread of urban areas and monitor its impact on ecosystems by checking out NASA's Lighting Up the Ecosphere feature. In addition to reading an article and viewing maps, students can listen to an audio version of the article.
Have students find out what sources of pollution exist in your community by generating a scorecard at Environmental Defense's Pollution in Your Community site. Also, students can read about types of pollution and the hazards they pose, find out which places have the most pollution, and compare different communities based on environmental factors.
Have students read about the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education's Global Water Sampling Project (or other similar project), in which students compare water quality of local water streams, lakes, etc. with other fresh water sources around the world.
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