JUNIOR MARINE EXPLORATION WEEK: LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Topics: blue crabs, hermit crabs, ghost crabs, clams, mud snails, periwinkle snails, sea-shells/mollusks, loggerhead
sea turtles, plants, fish, salt marsh/wetlands, tides, birds....gulls, ibis, herons, egrets
Station 1. Crabbing with a bridge net.
Crabbing demonstration and student management will be discussed. The blue crab life cycle will be taught as well
as the structures and functions of the crab. Students will learn what makes the crab successful in its habitat.
Station 2. Marsh station.
Students will observe the plants and learn about the energy exchange system. The food web will be discussed.
Students will learn why a marsh is important to animals that live in the ocean. The students will collect and
interpret the data found among the plants and marsh mud.
Station 3. Beach station.
A seine net will be used by students. Animals found will be placed in a specimen jar and observed. Data collected
will be interpreted. Seashells/mollusks will be introduced at this station. Students will learn how sea shells are
made. They will learn the mollusks that make the shells have life processes like humans do.
Science Process Goals:
1. Demonstrate the ability to observe. Emphasize the use of five senses to make multiple observations
while standing at the beach or in the marsh.
2. Demonstrate the ability to classify. Classify birds, waters, habitats, shells, plants, fishes, fisheries by
having students compare and contrast similarities and differences.
3. Demonstrate ability to use numbers to quantify and measure. Create opportunities at the beach and
marsh areas to estimate populations of plants and animals given in an area. Ask questions which require
students to approximate length, width, height, area and volume.
4. Demonstrate the ability to infer. Ask questions on beach area and marsh which requires students to
make inferences. When examining plants and animals, have students speculate what a particular body
part might reveal about the organisms living habitats. Use objectives in various habitats around the area
to stimulate students to infer what part they play in the interactions of a particular community.
5. Demonstrate the ability to predict. Lead students to predict influences of environmental forces which are
present. Have students predict what would happen if foreign substances are introduced into to bay or ask
them to speculate what might happen if a particular plant or animal would be removed from a food chain
or web.
6. Demonstrate the ability to collect and interpret data. Create opportunities to do "minute" data collecting
at various stations around the beach area in the park. Data could relate to the size of female and male
crabs caught, or kind of animals and size of animals found in the seine net.
7. Demonstrate the ability to hypothesize and experiment. Point out to students how experimentation with
testing and research on plant and animal behavior has led to better understanding of ecosystems. Allow
students to describe simple experiments they might use to answer questions they have about plant and
animal behavior as it relates to conditions such as temperature, salinity, tides, and substrates.
8. Demonstrate the ability to communicate. Gear presentations at each station toward audience
participation. At stations, provide mini sessions for "Show and tell" about animals found, shells discovered
or sights seen. Use open-ended questions which promote higher level thinking and educated guessing.
Sustain feedback with a student or group of students by providing hints.
TEKS Alignment
Section 112.5
(a)(3) Districts are encouraged to facilitate classroom and outdoor investigations for at least 50% of instructional
time.
(a)(4) Within the living environment, students know and understand that living organisms within an ecosystem
interact with one another and with their environment…that plants and animals have basic needs, and they are met
through a flow of energy known as food webs. Students will explore how all living organisms go through a life-cycle
and that adaptations enable organisms to survive in their ecosystem.
(b)(1) b. Make informed choices in the use and conservation of natural resources and reusing and recycling of
materials such as paper, aluminum, glass, cans, and plastic.
(b)(4) a. Collect, record, and analyze information using tools, including…hand lenses, metric rulers, thermometers,
mirrors, collecting nets…to support observation of habitats of organisms…
(b)(5) c. compare and contrast a variety of mixtures and solutions such as rocks in sand, sand in water, or sugar in
water
(b)(7) c. Identify and classify Earth’s renewable resources, including air, plants, water, and animals; and
nonrenewable resources, including coal, oil, and natural gas; and the importance of conservation
(b)(8) b. Describe and illustrate the continuous movement of water above and on the surface of Earth through the
water cycle and explain the role of the Sun as a major source of energy in this process
(b)(8) c. Collect and analyze data to identify sequences and predict patterns of change in shadows, tides, seasons,
and the observable appearance of the Moon over time.
(b)(9) a. Investigate that most producers need sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food, while
consumers are dependent on other organisms for food, AND
b. Describe the flow of energy through food webs, beginning with the Sun, and predict how changes in the
ecosystem affect the food web such as a fire in a forest.
(b)(10) a. Explore how adaptations enable organisms to survive in their environment such as comparing birds’
beaks and leaves on plants;
b. Demonstrate that some likenesses between parents and offspring are inherited…other likenesses are learned.
c. Explore, illustrate, and compare life cycles in living organisms