POSITION.

We all have places that we call home. These "positions" on the Earth's surface are connected by the constant flow of water across the landscape.

Ocean Positions

Interactive 1. Ocean Positions
Geography and Earth Systems


Overview:
Water is all around us, constantly moving with changing conditions.
Scientists are pursuing big questions about water on Earth.


Media slide presentation: A slide show illustrates the scale and diversity of five oceans from polar to tropical regions.

Water World

Modeling Activity A: Water World
Students use cutout shapes of the Earth’s oceans and an inflatable globe to create a detailed and accurate model of Earth.
• Examine, arrange and explore the cut out shapes of five oceans (tactile)
• Compare size, shape and relationship to continents illustrated on the globe. (spatial)
• Attach ocean shapes to the ball/ globe working together to fit the shapes in accurately.
• Identify and label oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern/Antarctic, Arctic)
​

Key takeaway:  (MS-ESS2-3)
In assembling the globe, students created a model of the Earth just as scientists do to test their theories.


Class Discussion: Scientific Facts about the World’s Oceans:

• Over 70% of the earth’s surface area is covered by the ocean’s salty water
• The world’s five oceans are connected and all flow into each other.
• Ocean currents greatly affect the Earth's climate by transferring heat from the tropics to the polar regions.
• Abiotic and Biotic factors affect things on a global level on down to a habitat level.
• Temperature and salinity are key characteristics that define aquatic ecosystems
• Water is saltier in different regions and at different depths.

1. coral reef = tropical region higher salinity = hot temperature
2. ice shelf = cold polar region, lower salinity = cold temperature

• The availability of fresh water is a global issue. Most water is locked up in the form of ice. Less than 3% of world’s water is free flowing and fresh and approximately 1% is safe to drink)
• Oceans are the habitat of 230,000 known species. Much of the oceans depths remain unexplored, and over two million marine species are estimated to exist.

Key takeaway: (MS-ESS2-6)
Scientists study the world’s oceans to make predictions about the future conditions on Earth.
​

Earth's Oceans

Modeling Activity B: 
​Online media:
Earth’s Oceans:
An online visualization of global weather conditions forecast by supercomputers updated regularly:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/
orthographic=-60.00,0.00,3000/loc=-54.689,7.350
Perpetual Ocean:
NASA outreach
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010841/index.html

Key takeaway: (MS-ESS2-6)
Scientists create complex models of Earth’s systems and test them to better understand how the world works and predict how it is changing.


Class Discussion:
Teachers introduce the theme of our “position” or niche on the planet as they transition to real world scenarios of ocean and fresh water issues that dramatically impact people’s lives: (e.g., Water supply and quality issues in the Carolinas, California and the Middle East and climate change and sea level rise impacts in North America, South Asia and Europe)

Watershed Views

Online media 

Watershed Fly Through

Bay Watershed

Mapping the Bay

Making Predictions

Interactive 2. Watershed Positions
Overview: We all have a place or position that we occupy on the earth. Our positions are in the Chesapeake Bay watershed connect us to many others through the constant movement of water.


Media slide presentation: Our Place in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Zoom in from outer space to images of the Western Hemisphere, North America, Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay watershed




Activity B: Bay Hydrology and Water Quality
Selected students pour “water beads” onto the topographical map and slowly push these
”water droplets” downhill across the landscape from the Appalachian Mountains to the Bay.
Teacher’s question: What happens to the rain water when it falls on the ground?
Teacher’s question: What paths does the water follow?
Teacher’s question: How is water quality impacted along the way?


Class Discussion: Scientific Facts about water moving through the Chesapeake Bay watershed:

• Some rain water forms puddles and later evaporates.
• Some Rain water sinks into the ground and flows below your feet. (subsurface water)
• A lot of rain water is pulled by gravity across the land surface through ditches, streams, ponds, lakes and rivers draining into the Chesapeake Bay and eventually out to the Atlantic Ocean.
• Wetlands throughout the watershed filter and store water while supporting diverse wildlife
• Along its path to the Bay, much of this water is collected, used and impacted by people and industry.
• As water moves through the landscape it picks up stuff that often impacts the health of wildlife and ecosystems throughout the watershed.

Key takeaway:  (MS-ESS3-3) (MS-ESS3-4)
With periodic rains, water constantly flows downhill on and below the ground surface. As it moves it picks up stuff that has significant impacts on water quality.


Teacher’s question: Where does the path of this water interact with human activity?
Students identify a sample of the Bay’s “watershed positions” represented on the topographical map that negatively impact water quality:
• Cities and homes (lawns and sewage)
• Farms (nutrients)
• Factories (toxic chemicals)
• Roads and parking lots (cars and petrochemicals)


Media slide show: Water Positions and Connections
Image montage of multiple human impacts on water quality.


Activity C: Making Predictions
Students break up into nine groups (3-4 players per team). Each team selects one “map detail card” (24”x 36”, from a composition of nine laid over the topographical map) that illustrates a geographical region of the watershed map in detail. (e.g., mountains, piedmont, urban, coastal)
As we zoom in on the map detail card’s three illustrated “watershed positions”, each student also collects one “water impact card” (3”x 4”). They consider the facts printed on it, confer with teammates and then make a prediction about water quality in the area by matching their card to one of the three “watershed position” sites.
Example:
• Mountain Region (24” x 36” map detail card)
• Watershed Position card A: Mountain top: Strip mining project
• Water Impact card A: Toxic metals exposed by the mine are released into streams and rivers damaging aquatic ecosystems
• Watershed Position card B: Upland swamp:
• Water impact card B: Naturally stores and filters water and habitat for wildlife
• Watershed Position card C: Forest: Clear cutting timber project
• Water impact card C: Silting of loose, exposed soil into streams and rivers clouds the water and blocks sunlight needed by species in aquatic ecosystems.
Students then choose a colored bead to document their prediction of water quality on each site (clear/ blue is clean, grey is dirty. yellow is toxic etc.). To finish, the bead is securely attached to the map graphic.

Activity A: Bay Topography and Geography
Key takeaway: (MS-ESS2-4)
Chesapeake Bay watershed is like a sink basin where water drains from mountain regions to the Bay and then flows out to the Atlantic Ocean.


Thirty students utilize a fabric watershed map graphic (9’ x 6’) of the Chesapeake Bay watershed to create a topographical map. Using dimensional objects they sculpt the fabric into mountain ranges and river basins, identify borders and label six states, five big cities and eight major tributaries that flow into the Bay.
- Once assembled, the class discusses the history, scale and complexity of the watershed and all of its dynamic processes
.
Class Discussion: Scientific Facts about the Chesapeake Bay:

• The bay is an estuary, an area where a river meets an ocean.
• 35 Million years ago a rare bolide (a comet- or asteroid-like object) hits what is now the lower tip of the Delmarva Peninsula, creating a 55-mile-wide crater. This crater influences the shape of the region’s rivers and determines the eventual location of the Chesapeake Bay.
• The Bay is 200 miles long and, at its widest, 30 miles across and on average about 21 feet deep, but a deep channel runs through the middle — the trace of a prehistoric Susquehanna River.
• The Chesapeake Bay is North America's largest estuary and the world's 3rd largest
• The Chesapeake Bay watershed or drainage basin covers and area of 64,299 square miles and is home to more than 17 million people. More than 100,000 streams, creeks and rivers (also called “tributaries”) thread through this region.
• 150 rivers from six states and Washington, D.C., drain into the Bay that holds 15 trillion gallons of water.
• The Chesapeake Bay is connected to the Atlantic Ocean and is influenced by ocean tides and salinity.

Key takeaway: (MS-ESS2-2)
Scientists study the Chesapeake Bay to make predictions about the future conditions that will impact our communities.


Media slide show: Water on the Move
Earth’s water cycle constantly delivers rain, ice and snow to our landscapes. Once precipitation has fallen on the ground it either evaporates, gets stored or keeps moving downhill.


Key takeaway:  (MS-ESS2-2)
The water cycle and natural landscape determine how water moves.
​

Activity C Prediction Peer Review
2-3 students travel to other watershed “map detail” stations in the classroom.
1-2 stay at their game board and host students arriving from other stations.
Students review the water quality predictions of the three sites represented on the “map detail” graphic and discuss the predictions and debate how to solve the water quality problems.
Teacher question: How is your area and its water quality issues affecting the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay?
Teacher question: How will water quality solutions impact the people living there for better and worse?
While solutions are imagined, students observe the different vantage points of stakeholders in the watershed.


Media presentation: Stakeholders (Farmer, factory worker, home owner, motorist, waterman etc.)


Activity Conclusion
Each of the teams now position their map detail graphic back on top of the fabric watershed map graphic (9’x6’) as pieces in a puzzle that present an analysis of water quality conditions in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The trail of colored beads imbedded in the map illustrates how human interventions and natural ecosystems impact water quality flowing through the watershed.
Teacher Statement: This document is similar to how scientists use map based graphics to communicate their data and findings.


Media presentation: Scientist Profile, Dr. James Pierson
Dr. James Pierson’s graphic of oxygen depleted waters in Chesapeake Bay leads us into his process and research story at HPL.


Key takeaway:  (MS-ESS3-3) (MS-ESS3-4)
The aquatic ecosystems around us are filled with life, home to thousands of plant and animal species that depend on clean water for survival. Scientists are focused on water quality issues to help us make smart decisions in how we impact the natural world around us.


Class Debrief and Final Discussion:
- Students read a recent news article on water quality and respond to a question:
Example Teacher question:
Do you believe the Chesapeake Bay ecology is recovering or declining?
Example Student response:
Claim: “I agree that the health of Chesapeake Bay ecosystems is improving.”
Evidence: “I back up this claim by citing facts from the article’s scientific research
(e.g., X, Y…)
Reasoning: “If scientific findings X and Y are true and fisheries are yielding more fish, crabs and oysters this year than their ecosystems overall health must be improving…”
Example Teacher question:
Does everyone in the class agree with this claim and supporting argument?