Salmon Resources
In Middle and High School, information within each of the Disciplinary Core Ideas is becoming more specific as the different domains of science are each taught in their own classroom. Students begin to develop an understanding of how things work at the cellular, atomic, and genetic levels. There are still opportunities for field- and community-based science, however. Here are some resources for middle and high school teachers on the topic of salmon:
Growth and Development
- Both Making a Redd and Teaching Kids About Fish Migration provide opportunities for students to engage in the engineering design process while learning about some of the behaviors adult salmon engage in to reproduce.
- Salmon Spotting is another resource for teaching about reproductive behavior while giving students the opportunity to practice and hone their observation and analysis skills.
Food Webs
- The unit, How Many Salmon Are Enough?, explores the concept of escapement, and provides data for students to analyze in determining if the salmon populations in the research area are at sustainable levels.
- The Freeing the Elwha Curriculum includes units in science and social studies. For a close-up look at the role of salmon in the terrestrial food webs, check out the materials for lessons 12 and 13, and educational video #1:
- For another resource on the cycle of nutrients facilitated by migrating salmon, check out Natural Inquirer’s article and lesson plan, Food for the Soil: Soil and the Amount of Salmon-Derived Nutrients in Southeast Alaska.
- Hungry Orcas, Declining Salmon engages students in predator-prey relationships and species decline by looking at the relationship between Chinook salmon and the Southern Resident orcas of the Puget Sound.
Habitat
- In Fry Will Survive, students design a salmon rearing tank to produce the highest possible survival rate of Chinook salmon eggs.
- Another engineering design approach to habitat can be found in Teaching Kids About Fish Migration. In this lesson, students learn about salmon migration and how to design fish-friendly culverts.
- Two lessons in the Freeing the Elwha Curriculum touch on habitat, though researching the actual habitat requirements is left to the students:
- Natural Inquirer’s article and lesson plan, Timed Travel: Measuring the Relationship Between Stream Temperatures and the Development of Salmon, explores research about the effects of water temperature on developing salmon.
- The How Clear is the Water? lesson is a turbidity lab that gets students thinking about the quality of the freshwater near them.
Student-facing resources:
Growth and Development
- Spawning Behavior (video)
- I Am Salmon (video)
Food Webs
- Pacific Salmon Survival Pyramid (poster)
- Stream Macroinvertebrates, A Love Story (video)
- Forage Fish: Feeding the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (scientific report that includes profiles of different forage species)
- Dead Drift: Adding Salmon Carcasses to Streams (article)
Habitat
- Dead Wood and Migrating Salmon (article)
- Through Salmon Eyes (video)
- NOAA Salmon Project: Habitat (video)
- EPA: Chinook Salmon (website)
- Chasing a Memory (news article)
Shellfish Resources
In middle and high school, information within each of the Disciplinary Core Ideas is becoming more specific as the different domains of science are each taught in their own classroom. Students begin to develop an understanding of how things work at the cellular, atomic, and genetic levels. There are still opportunities for field- and community-based science, however. Some resources for middle and high school teachers on the topic of shellfish include the following, organized by Next Generation Science Standards – Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI):
Structure and Function/ Adaptation
- Education on the Half shell - Understanding a Dichotomous Key Students learn how to use a dichotomous key using a variety of seashells.
- Shape of Life: Shell Shocked Students study the elaborately whorled, sculpted, and ornamented shells of gastropods not as objects of beauty, but as artifacts born of an evolutionary tradeoff: They are costly to build and carry around, yet essential for survival in a dangerous ocean. The high school version introduces the concept of an evolutionary arms race (coevolution) and reinforces the Darwinian principle of “form follows function.” The middle school version emphasizes the concepts of animal adaptation and predator avoidance. In both versions, there is a hands-on activity with shells, and written analysis interpreting the fossil record.
- Shape of Life: The Blue Mussel: A Not So Typical Mollusk Lab dissection of a representative of Class Bivalvia. Supported by several shape of life segments, students interpret bivalve adaptations as a radical case of divergent evolution: A simple ancestral snail with a mobile lifestyle, single dome[1]shaped shell, bilateral symmetry, and a head (“cephalization”) transformed into a headless, double[1]shelled, sedentary filter-feeder whose bilateral form is obscure.
- Oyster Reef in the Classroom – A Hands-On Laboratory Approach A hands-on lesson that requires pre-planning. The content focuses on Chesapeake Bay but can easily be modified for Washington estuaries. Students could be enlisted to create a new dichotomous key for our region.
- Education on the Half shell - Creating a Dichotomous Key Students create a dichotomous key to identify fossil oyster shells.
- Education on the Half shell - Writing a Descriptive Essay Students write a descriptive essay about a seashell.
- Eastern Oyster Education This group of lessons focuses on structure and function of oysters, so it can be easily adapted to our local varieties.
- Why Does the Green Crab Love Climate Change? This is an exploration of the impacts of climate change on green crab populations. The video example compares impacts on lobster, but Dungeness crab could be used as a comparison instead.
- Shape of Life: The Oyster: A Not So Typical Mollusc Lab dissection of a representative of Class Bivalvia. Supported by several shape of life segments, students interpret bivalve adaptations as a radical case of divergent evolution: A simple ancestral snail with a mobile lifestyle, single dome-shaped shell, bilateral symmetry, and a head (“cephalization”) transformed into a headless, double-shelled, sedentary filter-feeder whose bilateral form is obscure.
- 13 Moons: First Foods and Resources Curriculum This is a full-year curriculum created by the Swinomish Tribal Community that focuses on food sovereignty and health. There are three lessons that address food webs: the Moon When the Frog Talks, the Moon of Salmonberry, and the Moon of the Elk Mating Cry.
Structure of Matter
- Ocean Acidification Experiment: Impacts of carbonated seawater on mussel and oyster shells Students will run experiments exposing shells with seawater at different levels of acidity representing current and potential future ocean conditions.
Ecosystem Dynamics
- 13 Moons: First Foods and Resources Curriculum There are three lessons that address ecosystem dynamics: Moon When the Frog Talks, Moon of Salmonberry, and Moon of the Salal Berry.
- Middle School Oyster Unit The lesson sequence will engage middle school students in a local environmental issue by showing them the historical context of how the eastern oyster populations and the Chesapeake Bay watershed have changed since the time of Captain John Smith. Students learn about water quality parameters and have opportunities to investigate the effect of land use on water quality and ultimately the oyster populations and the reef ecosystems. Finally, students are asked to learn about the effect of management practices on water quality and asked to suggest ways that these can be used to increase the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and its water supply through healthy oyster reef systems.
- High School Oyster Unit This series of high school lessons build on in-depth issue analysis skills as students investigate a local environmental issue that they are concerned about and want to investigate. These lessons are location-specific but some of the issues are similar to those in our region and learning activities from these modules could be adapted to our context.
- The Great Oyster Mystery In this activity, students read oyster abundance graphs to describe how young oyster abundance in Aransas and Copano Bays responded to short-term environmental changes. Students then access and print monthly average salinity and rainfall data for a two-year period during which oyster abundance in Aransas and Copano Bays declined and then rebounded. Finally, students describe and interpret the relationship between several abiotic and biotic conditions in the estuary, including salinity, rainfall, oyster abundance, and the abundance of parasites and predators that attack oysters.
List out student resources organized by DCI:
Structure and Function / Adaptation
- Oyster Facts for Kids
- Fun Facts About Oysters for Kids
- Sound Toxins Manual
- Gathering Safe Shellfish in Washington
- Sound Toxins Manual: Puget Sound Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring Program
- Crab (Wikipedia)
- How Does a Crustacean Become a Crab?
- Arthropods: Blue Crab Molting
- How to Sketch a Crab
Growth & Development
- How oysters allow us to taste the many flavors of the sea
- Day 12 oyster larvae
- Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB)-Associated Illness: Causes and Ecosystem Impacts
- Are all algal blooms harmful?
- Algae, Phytoplankton and Chlorophyll
Structure of Matter
Ecosystem Dynamics
- Tabs on Harmful Algal Blooms video series
- Burrowing shrimp control (Imidacloprid)
- Ocean Acidification in the Pacific Northwest
- Ocean Acidification in Washington State
- Ocean Acidification
- Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB)-Associated Illness: Causes and Ecosystem Impacts
- Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB)-Associated Illness: Illness and Symptoms: Marine (Saltwater) Algal Blooms
- Aquatic Invasive Species
- Crab Team Monitor Toolbox
- Back to the drawing board for control of oyster-killing shrimp
- Willapa Desert: Key oyster bed abandoned as inedible shrimp take over
- Neurotoxins from Marine Dinoflagellates: A Brief Review
- Toxic Algal Bloom off Washington
- Shellfish and Biotoxins
- Interactions between seagrasses and burrowing ghost shrimps and their influence on infaunal assemblages
Human Impacts on Earth Systems
- Shellfish Aquaculture in Washington State (Final Report)
- Ecology and Economics of Shellfish Aquaculture in Washington State (Interim Report)
- Small Scale Oyster Farming for Pleasure and Profit in Washington
- Small Scale Clam Farming for Pleasure and Profit in Washington
- Reestablishing Olympia Oyster Populations in Puget Sound, Washington
- Clams, Mussels & Oysters
- Ocean Acidification Monitoring: Helping shellfish growers and hatchery managers adapt to changing ocean conditions
- Seafood Eat Food: A Spin on Seafood
- Mechanical and Ecological control of Burrowing Ghost Shrimp
- Residents say NO to Pesticide-Poisoned Bays …and Shellfish
- Agreement Protects Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor From Spraying
- Oysters and Ecosystems