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- Students will know that storm drains generally take water to the nearest stream, river, or lake, and runoff from their homes is untreated.
- Students will be able to chart the path water takes from their school or home to the ocean.
- Students will be able to describe wind driven currents in the surface ocean and how they are responsible for transporting trash.
- Lessons: The lessons require a computer and a projector to display them.
- Activity 1: Notebook, pen/pencil. Optional: disposable gloves and trash bags.
- Activity 2: Computer access to Google Earth.
- Activity 3: The Activity 3 worksheet, and an earth science textbook (optional).
- Day 1: The first lesson is an introduction to waterborne pollution and how that pollution makes its way to the ocean.
- Day 2: The second lesson asks students to explore their local watersheds and discover how water moves from their neighborhoods to the ocean.
- Day 3: The third lesson explores the Pacific Garbage Patch, and ocean currents that transport plastic debris in the ocean.
- There is a short multiple-choice quiz included with this unit, and suggestions for rewarding good test taking techniques. There are two quizzes on each sheet of paper, and it's designed to be cut in half. The quiz was found to be most effective when administered on the fourth day, with the students informed that they would be assessed on the material. The quiz is short, and mostly designed to encourage the students to think about what they have learned.
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- The unit starts with an introduction to waterborne pollution and how that pollution makes its way to the ocean. Begin with the presentation in Lesson
1 (a version with teaching notes is named Lesson 1 for Teachers), which should take 20-30 minutes. Students often have a misconception that polluted water is brown or dirty looking, however polluted water can take many forms and does not necessarily look "dirty". In the first part of the lesson students should be encouraged to discuss their experiences or conceptions of what polluted water is, and how it became polluted. The
Activity
Instructions (30 minutes) has the students go outside and explore their campus to find storm drains and examine where runoff flows. During the activity the students are asked to collect trash samples that could potentially enter storm drains and catalog the types of trash they find. When students return to the classroom they are asked to compare what they found, evaluate the health of their campus, and make suggestions to reduce the amount of trash entering the environment.
- The second lesson asks students to explore their local watersheds and discover how water moves from their neighborhoods to the ocean. The lesson
2 (a version with teaching notes is named Lesson 2 for Teachers) begins with a brief (10 minutes) introduction to water flow over topography. The Activity
Instructions (40‐60 minutes) asks students to use Google Earth (Google Earth
Instructions) to find the path that water flows from their neighborhood to the ocean. Some students may have a hard time the finding the path water flows downhill, and may try to plot a course that goes over ridges towards a place where they think the water should go. Students are asked to find the distance water travels from their home to the ocean, and as an extension asked to identify the habitats and organisms that might be effected by pollution along the water's path..
- The third lesson explores the Pacific Garbage Patch, and ocean currents that transport plastic debris in the ocean.
Lesson 3 (a version with teaching notes is named Lesson 3 for Teachers) examines the make-up and location of the Pacific Garbage Patch
(this takes about 30 minutes). Students may have the misconception that the Garbage Patch is an island of trash, when it is actually a gigantic area where high concentrations plastic "confetti" are found. The fact that plastic trash has accumulated in a specific part of the ocean leads students to the question of "how did it get there?" The second part of the lesson describes wind driven surface currents in the ocean. Students often hold the misconception that tides are the major mechanism forcing currents in the ocean. While tidal currents may be strong at an inlet or the mouth of a bay, they are generally much smaller than wind driven circulation at the surface of the open ocean. The
Activity Instructions and the Activity Worksheet explores wind driven currents in the Northern Hemisphere. The Coriolis effect (sometimes called a force, but it is really an acceleration) causes a net water transport at 90 degrees clockwise from the wind direction (Northern Hemisphere). This process is called Ekman Transport, but is not specifically named in the lesson. The inclusion of Coriolis effect details and the term "Ekman Transport" are left to your discretion.
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Animals Caught in Trash
Garbage on the Beach
Fish Larvae growing on Plastic
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- Grade Level: 9
- Time Frame: 3 x 80 minute lessons
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Scripps Pier
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Design EarthRef.org
Sponsored by NSF and NSDL
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