Is the Environment in Deep Water?
Exploring Natural and Human Threats on Fresh Water and Marine Ecosystems

 

Overview of Lesson Plan: Students closely examine, in small groups, various fresh water and marine ecosystems, researching the aquatic life they support, threats from nature and humans, and preservation efforts. Each group then creates a model of their researched water ecosystem that demonstrates both physical form and the natural and human threats to this system.

 

Objectives:
Students closely examine, in small groups, various fresh water and marine ecosystems, researching the aquatic life they support, threats from nature and humans, and preservation efforts. Each group then creates a model of their researched water ecosystem that demonstrates both physical form and the natural and human threats to this system.

 

1. WARM-UP: On a word document, respond to the following questions: What is an ecosystem? What are the names of some of the types of water ecosystems that exist, and how do they differ? What natural and human threats to the Earth's water ecosystems exist?

 

2. As a class, read and discuss "After the Storm, an Ecological Bomb," focusing on the following questions:
a. Read the first paragraph of the featured article. How might the flood have damaged North Carolina's water ecosystem?
b. What is an estuary?
c. Why is this situation in North Carolina described as "a striking example of what can happen when a first-order natural disturbance is combined with a first-order disturbance of the natural world by humans"?
d. What caused this problem, as described in the article?
e. What could happen as a result, and what effects will these results have on the ecosystem?
f. What is a "dead zone"? How does it form, and what happens to the area of water affected?
g. How are satellites being used to aid the study of this environmental problem?
h. What "widespread ecological disturbances caused by humans" impact the effects of the flood in North Carolina?
i. If the organic matter flowing into the estuary contains nutrients, how can this be harmful to the ecosystem?
j. How are fish being affected by this drastic change in their ecosystem, both in positive and negative ways?
k. What are scientists expecting to happen depending on the weather next summer?

 

RESEARCH

3. Work in pairs, select one of the fresh water or marine ecosystems listed: (Fresh water ecosystems: streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands; marine ecosystems: open ocean, littoral [shallow water], benthic [bottom], rocky shores, sandy shores, estuaries, tidal marshes). Then, using the internet, each pair researches the answers to the following questions about their selected ecosystem:
--Where does this ecosystem exist globaally? (Indicate on a copy of a world map)
--What aquatic life exists in this ecossystem? What is the structure of this ecosystem's food chain?
--What threats from nature exist in thiis ecosystem?
--What threats from man exist in this eecosystem?
--What efforts to preserve this ecosysttem are currently underway?

--What is the difference between an ecosystem and a biome?
--What do you believe are the most impoortant factors in keeping an ecosystem working?
--What kinds of habitats encourage biodiversity-- that is, what conditions contribute to building an ecosystem that has many different kinds of plants and animals?
--What natural disasters are related to water, and how can these disasters affect both humans and water ecosystems?
--Why do people engage in practices that deplete the environment?
--When do you feel it is okay for peoplle to take things from the environment (animals, plants, trees, non-organic natural resources)?
--What can someone your age do to help combat environmental problems caused by the depletion of water ecosystems?
--Why should humans care about protecting the earth?
--What role has technology played in both damaging and protecting our environment?
--Why is it difficult to point blame or find the causes of environmental contamination?

 Record your research on a word document to hand in. Create a movie with Windows Movie Maker to present your findings.

Vocabulary: Use the following terms in your research
putrescent, decomposing, ecological, estuary, incubators, organic, containment, runoff, algae, phytoplankton, moderated, magnitude, erosion, pesticides, ecosystems, fertilization, wetlands, salinity, susceptible, pathogens, immobile, sediments, microbes, replenish, stratify, en masse

 

Evaluation

Warm-up	Short response	5 Points
Questions	Complete sentences a-k	15 Points
Vocabulary	Selection of sentence in article, appropriate definition	20 Points
Research	Answer questions on a word document	40 Points
Movie	Pictures include titles and voice over (see rubric)	40 Points