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Exploring Estuary and Wetland Functions

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1 + Exploring estuary and wetland functions Summary: As the St. Louis River flows into Lake Superior, it creates a fresh water estuary. This dynamic area has components from both Grade Level: 3-12 bodies of water. The river contributes sediment and nutrients, as well as warmer water to the mix, but can also deliver pollutants from the Activity Duration: 60 min watershed further upstream. The lake can push and churn water back into the estuary during strong winds. An estuary can provide several Overview: important aquatic habitats; open water, sediment on the bottom and I. Building a wetland wetlands along the shoreline. Wetlands are very important in the health II. How a wetland of aquatic systems. Students will observe the characteristics of wetlands and estuaries by using a model. functions III. Human impacts on Topicsservation: Wetlands, estuary, ecology, human impact, nutrient wetlands and pollution filtering IV. Restoring wetlands Theme: Wetlands act as giant sponges. They filter nutrients into V. Managing your surrounding habitats and filter out pollution. By protecting wetlands, we estuary are protecting surrounding habitats as well. An estuary is an important wetland that affects the health and quality of the water for plants, aquatic organisms, animals and humans who live in and around the water. Goals: Students will understand the functions of a wetland, and explore some management issues for preserving those freshwater estuaries. Objectives: Students will: 1. Use a wetland model to demonstrate the filtering functions of a wetland and to understand that a wetland system functions much like a sponge. 2. Be able to explain how the river and larger body of water interact. 3. Be able to debate the importance of wetlands/estuaries. 4. Understand that human impacts have an effect on aquatic organisms in a wetland, using fish as a model. 5. Practice management and lifestyle decisions and the consequences on wetlands and estuaries. Great Lakes Aquarium – Dive in Deeper Class Last updated 12/15 Last updated 1/2011 2 Suggested MN Science Standards: Grade 3: 3.1.1.2.1 – Generate questions that can be answered when scientific knowledge is combined with knowledge gained from one‟s own observations or investigations. For example: Investigate the sounds produced by striking various objects. 3.1.1.2.3 – Maintain a record of observations, procedures and explanations, being careful to distinguish between actual observations and ideas about what was observed. For example: Make a chart comparing observations about the structures of plants and animals. 3.1.1.2.4 – Construct reasonable explanations based on evidence collected from observations or experiments. Grade 4: 4.2.4.1.1 – Describe how the methods people utilize to obtain and use water in their homes and communities can affect water supply and quality. Grade 5: 5.1.1.1.4 – Understand that different models can be used to represent natural phenomena and these models have limitations about what they can explain. For example: Different kinds of maps of a region provide different information about the land surface. 5.3.4.1.3 – Compare the impact of individual decisions on natural systems. For example: Choosing paper or plastic bags impacts landfills as well as ocean life cycles. 5.4.2.1.2 – Explain what would happen to a system such as a wetland, prairie or garden if one of its parts were changed. For example: Investigate how road salt runoff affects plants, insects and other parts of an ecosystem. Another example: Investigate how an invasive species changes an ecosystem. 5.4.4.1.1 – Give examples of beneficial and harmful human interaction with natural systems. For example: Recreation, pollution, wildlife management. Grade 6: 6.1.3.1.1 – Describe a system in terms of its subsystems and parts, as well as its inputs, processes and outputs. Grade 7: 7.4.2.1.1 – Identify a variety of populations and communities in an ecosystem and describe the relationships among the populations and communities in a stable ecosystem. Grade 8: 8.3.4.1.2 – Recognize that land and water use practices affect natural processes and that natural processes interfere and interact with human systems. For example: Levees change the natural flooding process of a river. Another example: Agriculture runoff influences natural systems far from the source. Great Lakes Aquarium – Dive in Deeper Class Last updated 12/15 Last updated 1/2011 3 Grade 9-12: 9.1.3.1.1 – Describe a system, including specifications of boundaries and subsystems, relationships to other systems, and identification of inputs and expected outputs. For example: A power plant or ecosystem. 9.4.4.1.2 – Describe the social, economic and ecological risks and benefits of changing a natural ecosystem as a result of human activity. Environmental Scope and Sequence: Benchmarks Addressed: Social and natural systems are made of parts. (preK-2) Social systems and natural systems may not continue to function if some of their parts are missing. (preK-2) When the parts of a social system and natural systems are put together, they can do things they couldn‟t do by themselves. (preK-2) In social and natural systems that consist of many parts, the parts usually influence one another. (3-5) Social and natural systems are connected to each other and to other larger or smaller systems. (6-8) It is not always possible to predict accurately the result of changing some part or connection between social and natural systems. (9-12) Great Lakes Literacy Principles: Water makes Earth habitable; fresh water sustains life on land. The Great Lakes support a broad diversity of life and ecosystems. The Great Lakes and humans in their watersheds are inextricably interconnected. The Great Lakes are socially, economically, and environmentally significant to the region, the nation and the planet. For more information about the Great Lakes Literacy Principles, visit: http://greatlakesliteracy.net/ Next Generation Science Standard 3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. 3-LS4-4 Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change. 4-ESS2-1 Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. 4-ESS2-2 Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth‟s features. 5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth‟s resources and environment. Great Lakes Aquarium – Dive in Deeper Class Last updated 12/15 Last updated 1/2011 4 3-5-ETS1-1 Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost. 3-5-ETS1-2 Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem. MS-LS2-3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and non-living parts of an ecosystem. MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations. MS-LS2-5 Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. HS-LS2-1 Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems as different scales. HS-LS2-6 Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem. HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity. HS-LS4-6 Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity. Great Lakes Aquarium – Dive in Deeper Class Last updated 12/15 Last updated 1/2011 5 Materials: 1 kit box 1 lesson plan 8 wetland models o Removable sponge pieces o Removable carpet strip Food coloring 4 Cups per group GIS map of local wetlands/estuary and its watershed Environmental action cards (Suggested for grades 3-5) Environmental decision cards (Suggested for grades 6-12) Not Included: Water Syrup, molasses or vegetable oil Unsweetened cocoa Leafy dried spice, such as rosemary or parsley 20 Goldfish crackers per group/person Background: An estuary is where a river meets a much larger body of water like an ocean, sea, or very large lake. The habitat created in an estuary is unique because it has different salinity (salt content) and chemical and physical (e.g. water temperature) characteristics of the water than a river or lake alone; it is the mixture of these two that makes it special. Lake Superior near Duluth creates an estuary with the St. Louis River; because Lake Superior is a freshwater lake, it creates a freshwater estuary. The St. Louis River estuary is the largest freshwater estuary in North America at 12,000 acres. The river flowing into the larger water body adds sediment and nutrients it receives from the land. This also means that it adds pollutants that wash into it from the land like fertilizer nutrients, industrial chemicals and litter.
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