In this article, students will learn that the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) makes long-term predictions about salt marshes, SLAMM data can help communities form climate adaptation strategies, and the CT ECO website is a useful tool for learning about Connecticut's salt marshes.
The article includes a slideshow of images, including some of the East River Marsh and a marsh in Mamacoke Island, and another showing the SLAMM sea level rise scenario for Hammonasset Beach State Park.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article helps Connecticut students understand how climate change impacts their local ecosystems.
The article also touches on how SLAMM data will aid municipalities in New York State.
Additional Prerequisites
The "UConn CLEAR website" link does not work.
It may be helpful if students understand the connection between sea level rise and climate change.
Students should know the terms used to describe the habitats in the map legend.
Differentiation
This article can fit within a larger unit on climate change adaptation or land management.
Students can use this article for a research project on wetland ecosystems in the United States.
This article can support a lesson on the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities.
This article can enhance a classroom activity where students analyze a SLAMM viewer and draw scientific conclusions.
Students can use this article to learn about climate projections and their significance.
Scientist Notes
This resource from Long Island Sound Study is an introduction to the SLAMM (Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model) tool that models how salt marshes will migrate in this century due to sea level rise resulting from global climate change. The resource links several GIS web tools that allow students to interact with model data, and there is an excellent PDF format manual for each of the three map viewers. These maps are all based on a model that is widely used and incorporates both high- and low-end projections of sea level rise. This resource includes links to all technical documentation and lists all research partners. An excellent glossary is linked on the right side of the main page, and all text is neatly organized and unambiguous. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
CCC.Patterns: Observed patterns in nature guide organization and classification and prompt questions about relationships and causes underlying them.
HS-CCC-Patterns.5. Empirical evidence is needed to identify patterns.
CCC.Stability and Change: For both designed and natural systems, conditions that affect stability and factors that control rates of change are critical elements to consider and understand.
HS-CCC-Stability and Change.2. Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods of time. Some system changes are irreversible.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-3 Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the 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.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 11-12 texts and topics.
