SUBJECT - ECOLOGY
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Estuaries: Larvae Feeding - COSEE Coastal Trends 
Lesson PlanSummary
Students play the role of feeding fish to demonstrate how striped bass larvae feed on copepods, their zooplankton prey, and how larvae are preyed upon by bigger fish.
Coastal ocean systems provide important habitats for organisms.
Education Standards
Wetlands: Marsh Elevation - University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Lesson PlanSummary
In this field investigation, students visit a local wetland to explore plant zonation. Students construct a transect, use quadrats to count grass species, and graph their findings.
Coastal ocean systems provide important habitats for organisms.
Education Standards
Wetlands: The Fragile Fringe - USGS
Summary
Students explore wetlands through a series of lessons ranging from wetland identification to investigating the beneficial functions of wetlands and causes of wetland loss.
Coastal ocean systems provide important habitats for organisms.
Education Standards
Rocky intertidal: Monitoring the Intertidal with Life-Sized Photos - Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association
Summary
Students use photo quadrats of a real rocky shoreline to investigate the zonation of organisms in the rocky intertidal zone. Note: links to photo quadrats and organism ID guide are listed in the Materials section.
Coastal ocean systems provide important habitats for organisms.
Education Standards
The Benthic Drugstore - NOAA Ocean Explorer
Summary
Students identify and investigate the importance of pharmacologically active chemicals found in specific marine invertebrate species.
The ocean affects human life in many ways. The ocean provides many resources for humans.
Education Standards
Ocean Power - U.S. Department of Energy
Summary
Students investigate methods used to generate energy from physical ocean processes as well as design an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system.
The ocean affects human life in many ways. The ocean provides many resources for humans.
Education Standards
90+ minsTragedy of Commons Game - COSEE Coastal Trends
Summary
Students play the role of fishermen to demonstrate how overfishing can occur.
Humans affect the ocean and therefore must protect it.
Education Standards
Kure Waste Chase - Jean Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures, PBS
Summary
In this web-based game, students explore various habitats of the ocean, collect harmful marine debris and learn which organisms are affected by the debris.
Humans affect the ocean and therefore must protect it.
Education Standards
Dead Zone Model - COSEE Coastal Trends
Summary
Students add fertilizer to pond, river, or estuarine water and compare results to a control treatment with no added fertilizer to simulate how algal blooms and dead zones occur in coastal bodies of water due to nutrient pollution.
Coastal areas and humans are particularly interconnected.
Education Standards
What Affects Dead Zones? - COSEE Coastal Trends
Summary
Students explore scenarios in real datasets to investigate how physics and biology interact to produce Dead Zones of various sizes and durations.
Coastal areas and humans are particularly interconnected.
Education Standards
