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A Warming Gulf of Maine: Investigating Impacts on Predators and Prey

Provided by: Gulf of Maine Research Institute |Published on: October 30, 2024

Lesson Plans

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Synopsis

In this 6-lesson module, students will explore food webs in the Gulf of Maine and how ocean warming affects them, adding to a model in SageModeler to demonstrate these relationships.
Students will simulate a stomach-contents analysis, play a game to model the Gulf of Maine's food web, compare stomach-contents datasets in the fall and spring, analyze data to determine the impact of temperature on the habitat in the Gulf of Maine, adapt the game to model a food web in a warming Gulf of Maine, and write a claim, evidence, and reasoning statement to demonstrate their learning.

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Subjects: Biology, Earth and Space Sciences

Authors: Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Region: Maine - Coastal

Languages: English

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Teaching Materials

Positives

Though it requires additional materials and cleanup, the "messy" version of the stomach contents analysis activity will be engaging and memorable for students.
Students will learn to use SageModeler, which is a great tool for modeling relationships that can be used outside of this module.

Prerequisites

Before teaching this module, the resource recommends that students know about food webs, possibly through the module Models, Food Webs, and a Warming Gulf of Maine.
Students should also understand the greenhouse effect and that it is warming the oceans.
Teachers will need various materials for the labs, such as colored beads, envelopes, containers, spoons, and colored pencils.
The stomach content analysis video and image in the Lesson 1 slides do show a fish being dissected.

Differentiation & Implementation

To practice constructing graphs, students can turn their data collection table from the stomach contents analysis to make bar graphs or pie charts.
Advanced students can design other modeling games to demonstrate the relationship between the warming Gulf of Maine and the species of fish.
After this lesson, students can research how land-based ecosystems and food webs are impacted by climate change.

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

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