This lesson details an experiment used to determine if oyster cages provide habitat for fish and presents a personal story about oyster farmers in the Chesapeake Bay.
Students will learn about oyster farming, the scientific process, how scientists conduct experiments to answer questions, and the results of this particular experiment.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This lesson includes engaging videos, a glossary, teacher's guide, article, and great graphics.
Students will enjoy seeing how scientists pose a question and work towards answering it.
Additional Prerequisites
In order to access the Teacher's Guide, you will need to input your name, school, and email address.
Differentiation
Cross-curricular connections can be made in social studies classes discussing the unintended benefits of economic decisions, or in health classes thinking about farming and foods.
Before getting started on this resource, pose the question "How do you think oyster farms can create homes for fish?" and have students answer in their notebooks or on a post-it. As students work through the resource, have them add their learning to their original answer.
As an extension, students can research if other farming practices, such as seaweed farming, have unintended benefits similar to those of oyster farms.
Scientist Notes
This resource evaluates how setting up oyster cages and natural protected areas in the ocean could create a sustainable and healthy habitat for fish populations to thrive. The method for the research is suitable but the authors would have also considered seasonality, which is an important factor to determine fish behavior and migration patterns. However, this resource is illustrative, insightful, and recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
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-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.7 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.10 By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
