Adaptable content for Grades K-8 and Grades 9-12

Population ecologists ask . . .

a.) How many individuals of the species are there?b.) How fast is the population growing or declining and why?c.) Where are the individuals located?

BACKGROUND & SUMMARY About the Fish & Invertebrate Ecology Lab at SERC

The Fish and Invertebrate Ecology Lab address the broad problems of population and community ecology using long-term quantitative sampling and innovative experiments at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Our studies analyze human impacts and natural change in estuarine and marine systems. The lab has built 25-year data sets on the population dynamics and variation in species composition of infaunal and epibenthic invertebrates and fish of the Rhode River, a model sub-estuary of Chesapeake Bay. Much of our work focuses on blue crabs as dominant predators regulating benthic community structure, as a valuable fishery, and as a model estuarine species with a complex migratory life cycle. The lab works to determine the factors regulating habitat use of near-shore fish and invertebrates. Activities collaborate closely with the SERC Invasions Biology Program to analyze ecological patterns and impacts of introduced marine species of North America. We conduct comparative studies within Chesapeake Bay and along a latitudinal gradient of North American sites using the Smithsonian Marine Science Network, as well as other study sites around the world. About the ScientistsTuck Hines - Senior ScientistFor the past 30 years, Hines has served as a marine ecologist and principal investigator of SERC’s Fish and Invertebrate Ecology Laboratory, as well as concurrently serving as the assistant director for 17 years and director for the past five years. He is a co-principal investigator in the SERC Invasions Biology Program, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive research program on invasive species in marine ecosystems. Hines has advanced SERC’s land conservation program and innovative master plan for the Rhode River site, which encompasses nearly 2,650 acres of the watershed and 16 miles of Chesapeake Bay shoreline.His studies include: effects of thermal discharges of coastal power plants; sea otters and kelp-forest ecology; long-term ecological change in the Chesapeake Bay; marine food-web dynamics; blue crab ecology; impacts of fisheries, aquaculture and fishery restoration; biological invasions of coastal ecosystems . He has published more than 140 articles in technical journals and books and is the recipient of more than 100 research grant and contract awards.

Midge Kramer, Head Biological Science Technician About the Learning Package “Top Predator in Peril” works to operationalize expert content by providing a motivating hands-on simulation, an engineering curiosity challenge for students and teachers, and all teaching requirements necessary for cross disciplinary teaching.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide A Teaching Guide with Dr. Anson Hines – Bobber a Crab

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LS1: Growth and Development of OrganismsLS2 D: Social Interactions and Group BehaviorLS4 B: Natural Selection

* Asking questions (for scientific) and defining problems* Planning and Carrying Out an Investigation* Analyzing and Interpreting Data* Using mathematics and computational thinking

* Patterns and Similarities* Scale, Proportion and Quantity*Structure and Function*Stability and Change

Mini-plastic crabs; buckets of water; food coloring or soil to cloud water; fish line; small bobbers

$6.00/dozen for mini-novelty crabs and bobbers; Fish line; buckets TOTAL - $40.00

Directly teach vocabulary through short time segments: Teach vocabulary directly through listening, speaking, reading, and writing each used in short blocks of time.

Explicit timing: timing seatwork in 30-minute trials that are used to help students become more automatic in utilizing math skills and more proficient in sharing results.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Next Generation of Science Standards & Bobber a Crab

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Analyze a particular sentence, or segment of a text and determine how it fits into the overall structure of the text and contributes to the development of the text.

Interpret words and phrases as they are used in text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

*Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text.

*Draw evidence from literary or informational text to demonstrate analysis, reflection, and understanding

*Demonstrate understanding of word relationships, nuances in world meanings through the acquisition and accurate use of domain-specific words and phrases; gather knowledge when considering a word or a phrase important to comprehension.

Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems.

1. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

2. Model with mathematics.

Verbal/Linguistic Ability to use words and language such as exhibited by poet, journalist, writer.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide The Common Core & Bobber a Crab

Intrapersonal Ability to self-reflect and

be aware such as exhibited by a scientist, philosopher.

Verbal/Linguistic Ability to use words and language such as exhibited

by poet, journalist, writer.

Logical/MathematicalAbility to use reason, logic, and numbers such as a researcher, mathematician.

InterpersonalAbility to use relate &

understand others.

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Female blue crabs have to make two journeys in their lives: once as juveniles to their spawning grounds, and once after mating to the saltier nurseries. But the way is fraught with peril. Tuck Hines and the crab lab are tracking the population to see how many make it each year-and what stands in their way. How do you do this when you can’t see the crab walking around due to high turbidity in the Chesapeake Bay? To study such a question you must be innovative and creative. How would you do it? What would you design?

This very question once faced Senior Scientist Tuck Hines. His inventiveness began with a simple solution and in time turned to a greater and greater more complex in order to determine a solution based on greater and greater evidence. He started with fish line, glue a ping pong ball, a crab and a pair of binoculars. In time, a lightweight ultrasonic telemetry tag attached across the top shell of an Atlantic blue crab enabled this inventor environmental biologist to track the crab’s movements after it was released into the Rhode River, a sub-estuary of the Chesapeake Bay.

BLIND FOLD YOUR STUDENTS, PLACE THEM IN FRONT OF A FISH TANK STOCKED WITH GOLDFISH OR SOME OTHER SIMPLE ANIMAL. AND ASK THEM HOW THEY WOULD TRACK THE POPULATION OF ANIMALS IN THE TANK.

CHALLENGE STUDENTS TO “INVENT” A CRAB CATCHING DEVICE THAT WOULD ALLOW A SCIENTIST TO CAPTURE A CRAB FOR STUDY, BUT ALSO FOR A HEALTHY RELEASE. SKETCH THE CHALLENGE FOR THEIR PEERS AS THEY FOLLOW THE PARAMETERS SET BY THE TEACHER.

After the Challenge, read to students the Companion Book ”Creativity for Understanding” true story of Dr. Hines inventing ways to track a blue crab in the murky Chesapeake Bay.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Engineering and Bobber a Crab

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Photo Gallery Blog Your Experience

The Motivator Simulation for “Top Predator in Peril” requires a reusable investment in bobbers, at least two deep buckets, fish line and small sinking plastic crabs. The activity can be an exciting “Stop the Video” activity using t the Video “Top Predator in Peril” during the 2:03 – 3:14 segment. At this point in the video, scientist Midge Kramer demonstrates how research is done to see how adult crabs may prey upon juvenile crabs. STEP #1 – Prior to this activity gather all materials, prepare the “Bay buckets”. STEP# 2 - Prior to the simulation activity cut off specific numbers of limbs on the crabs for data analysis.NOTE FOR STUDENTS WAY TO LABEL MISSING LIMBS – L 1 = Left 1 limb R 2 = Right 2 limb etc.STEP #3 – Prepare the number of buckets with murky water according to how many groups you will run or conduct simply as a demonstration.STEP #4 – Tie the fish line to the mini-crabs and attach the fish line to the bobber. Place in the buckets. Be sure again that the buckets are turbid and the crabs cannot be seenSTEP #5 – Show the video and if desired stop the video at the 2:03 point and tell the students, that you would like to try that type of investigation, so you have prepared crabs.STEP# 6 – Divide the class into groups depending on the materials (number of crabs and buckets) at hand. NOTE: This activity could also be done as a demonstration. STEP #7 Have students review or prepare a data sheet for recording findings. How many crabs and which species of crabs have lost limbs.STEP#6 – Develop visual or create a fraction to demonstrate what happened for each crab species.STEP#7 – Analyze the results with students. Accept answers to your questions if they are supported by data findings.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Motivator Simulation Activity: – Bobber a Crab

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Crab Species

Crab 1 Crab 2 Crab 3 Crab 4 Crab 5

Species #1

Species #2

Species #3

Species #4

Species #5

Species #6

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Simulation Data Sheet – Bobber a Crab

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Simulation Data Sheet – Bobber a Crab

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NOTE: These are pictures of purchased mini-crabs. The pictures are helpful to younger students to organize and visualize their thinking. For older students, images of which mini-crab is which species unifies data collection across teams and greatly increases class efficiency.

Crab Species and Number

Alive, or Missing

Condition of the Crab (I= intact or which legs are missing)

Generate for students or have students generate a potential list of questions that can be answered by studying the data. NOTE: You can purposefully eliminated limbs to better manage mathematical application questions.

EXAMPLES:

**What percentages of all crabs lost their R1 limb? Why do you think this might be true? (Example answer: Many crabs fight with their larger claw, usually the R 1 Limb. This leads to the more often loss of this limb to the attacker.

**What fractional comparisons can you set up between total loss of limbs and different species of crabs? NOTE: Reduce fractions if they are too large.

**What decimals…….choose questions that require the manipulation of data to demonstrate how math is an interconnected system.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Common Core Mathematics Learning – Bobber a Crab

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Tables and graphs are both ways to organize and arrange data as they are used in many important areas of research to help visualize decision making opportunities.

Tables have key vocabulary in common. They include Title, Data, Columns, Rows and a Grid. What is each key component?

A row is a series of cells going horizontally across the table. A column is a series of cells going vertically or up and down the table. A grid is a whole table with crossed lines to form the rows and columns.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Common Core Reading – Bobber a Crab

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Title: Effects of Shallow Water Refuge on Behavior and Density-Dependent Mortality of Blue Crabs in Chesapeake Bay

Bulletin of Marine Science Volume 57, No. 3, Pages 902 - 916, 1995Written by Ana I. Dittel, Anson Hines, Gregory Ruiz and K. Keith Ruffin

Article Abstract:

(1.) This study experimentally tested aspects of behavior and density-dependent mortality of juvenile blue crabs utilizing near-shore shallow water as a refuge from cannibalism by large blue crabs. In a large laboratory tank with a depth gradient, individual juvenile blue crabs shifted their depth utilization from deep and medium depths to shallow water in the presence of a large crab, but not in the absence of another crab or in the presence of another small crab. (2.) Survival of juvenile crabs preyed upon by large crabs was significantly higher in laboratory tanks with depth gradients providing a shallow refuge than in lab tanks without depth gradients. (3.) In the laboratory, proportional mortality of juvenile crabs was inversely density-dependent, indicating a type II functional response of large crabs irrespective of the presence or absence of a shallow water refuge. In a non-vegetated sub-estuary of Chesapeake Bay, survival of tethered juveniles was significantly higher in shallow (30 cm) than deep (70cm) water of a near-shore zone, where cannibalistic large blue crabs were their major source of mortality. (4.) Proportional mortality in the field was also inversely density-dependent in both shallow and deep water. (5.) The persistence of a type II functional response of predators in our laboratory and field experiments indicates that shallow water provides a significant but partially effective refuge to juvenile blue crabs, although such inversely density-dependent mortality patterns indicate a potentially unstable predator-prey interaction. (6.) Under intense predation pressure from cannibalistic large crabs, this partially effective refuge in the near-shore shallows potentially grants juvenile crabs a crucial reduction in mortality during their first year of life until they grow to a size large enough to obtain an absolute refuge from predation.

A functional response in ecology is the intake rate of a consumer as a function of food density.

Proportional - corresponding in size.

Density Dependent - A factor whose effects on the size or growth of population.

Gradient - a part sloping upward or downward.

DIRECTIONS: Read aloud the above abstract. Check for student knowledge, but and share the meanings of some of the key words. Ask students to consider the meaning of these key words and phrases that are in this scientific article abstract written about the Motivator Activity completed. Have students choose a numbered sentence and explain or write their understanding of its meaning.

SERC LITERACY LEARNING GUIDE Common Core Reading/Writing – Bobber a Crab

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Blue crabs, the icon of Chesapeake Bay, reached a tipping point in 2008. After 16 years of almost nonstop decline, populations had plummeted to little more than a third what they were before. Officials declared the fishery a federal disaster. Now populations are slowly climbing back. But it’s a fragile recovery. A slight upset in the wrong direction could send them back downward—and with them, the livelihoods of watermen who rely on the Bay for their daily bread.

The crabs’ survival depends on the annual journeys they make up and down the Bay. Marine biologist Tuck Hines has been tracking these journeys for more than 30 years.

Every year, female blue crabs migrate to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to hatch their eggs. It is a journey fraught with peril. On the way, they must survive freezing winter waters (usually by burrowing into the mud) and avoid the nets and traps of fishermen. If they don’t make the journey to saltier waters, the millions of eggs they carry under their abdomens will fail to hatch or die.

At the same time, many juvenile crabs migrate upstream. They face dangers of their own—not from nets, but from their own kind. Cannibalism isn’t uncommon in the animal world. The biggest threat to young blue crabs comes from adult blue crabs looking for a quick meal. Most will not survive past the juvenile stage. The ones that do will look for mates in the Bay’s fresher tributaries and begin the cycle again. Ideally, enough will survive to replenish the fishery for the crabbers who make their living on the water, and the seafood packers and restaurant owners ashore.

Migrations of adult female crabs (downward) and juvenile crabs (upward) in Chesapeake Bay. Biologists are still figuring out the exact timing and route.

But finding the right balance can be difficult. It takes more than knowing how many crabs are in the Chesapeake. For Hines, it comes down to knowing where they are, where they feed and molt, and when they begin their migrations.

His team has come up with several creative ways to track them. They’ve tagged adult crabs and enlisted watermen to report where they’re caught. A more high-tech experiment released hatchery-bred juveniles with micro-wire tags into the Bay. They’ve even taken apart crab shells to see if different parts of the Bay leave their own chemical fingerprints. Beyond that, they have spent three decades doing regular trawl surveys on boats and setting up fish weirs in Chesapeake rivers to monitor the creatures that pass through.

The crab population crash that began in the early 1990s offers a stark picture of a fishery out of balance. By 2000, the number of mature females in the lower Bay had fallen 84 percent. Meanwhile prices skyrocketed above $300 a bushel and the Chesapeake resorted to importing crabs from other states, and even crab meat from species in southeast Asia. Then, in 2008, Maryland and Virginia both took steps to protect adult females. Two years later the population rebounded.

Biologists, watermen and policymakers now face the task of keeping the recovery going. No one wants to see the traditional life of the Chesapeake crabber fall away. How much shielding blue crabs need, and for how long, are questions only good data can answer.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Common Core English Language Arts-Cornell Notes –Bobber a Crab

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Summary: What did you learn in this article? What are these notes needed for? What connections do these notes help you understand? (2-3 sentences)_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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“Top Predator in Peril” Learning GuideCornell Notes Writing Challenge – Top Predator in Peril

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Grading Rubric – Cornell Notes

Cornell Notes Grading Rubric

Key Elements 4 Points 3 Points 2 Points 1 PointsHeading All sections of

the heading are legible and complete.

All but one section of the heading is complete and legible.

More than one section of the headings are incomplete

Several headings are missing

Notes Section Notes are detailed; addresses all areas read or discussed

Notes include some details; addresses most areas read or discussed

Notes are missing key ideas from discussion or reading

Has notes that lack clarity

Questioning Levels

Questions check for understanding; Use of higher level thinking words to clarify information

Questions check for understanding; Use of some higher level thinking words

Has questions; May not include higher level thinking words

Questions are non-existent

Summary Thoroughly reflects on key points

Summary is complete but may be missing a key point

Summary is too general and non-specific; may be missing a summary

Incomplete; Missing more than one summary

Layout Use of correct Cornell format; Writing is legible and symbols are clear and easily interpreted

Use of correct Cornell format; Writing and symbols are mostly legible

Cornell notes format is not precisely followed; may be missing an essential key element

Notes are written but not in Cornell notes format

Writing Task: Write a Process Diagram Summary

DIRECTIONS: Write two excellent sentences to summarize the life cycle of a blue crab.

HINT:

- First, say and name how many stages there are in the whole process.

- Next, say how/where the process begins and ends.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Common Core Language Arts/Writing – Bobber a Crab

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Grading Rubric – Cornell Notes

Cornell Notes Grading Rubric

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Assessment of Understanding – Video - “Top Predator in Peril”

Cornell Notes Writing Challenge

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Key Elements 4 Points 3 Points 2 Points 1 PointsHeading All sections of

the heading are legible and complete.

All but one section of the heading is complete and legible.

More than one section of the headings are incomplete

Several headings are missing

Notes Section Notes are detailed; addresses all areas read or discussed

Notes include some details; addresses most areas read or discussed

Notes are missing key ideas from discussion or reading

Has notes that lack clarity

Questioning Levels

Questions check for understanding; Use of higher level thinking words to clarify information

Questions check for understanding; Use of some higher level thinking words

Has questions; May not include higher level thinking words

Questions are non-existent

Summary Thoroughly reflects on key points

Summary is complete but may be missing a key point

Summary is too general and non-specific; may be missing a summary

Incomplete; Missing more than one summary

Layout Use of correct Cornell format; Writing is legible and symbols are clear and easily interpreted

Use of correct Cornell format; Writing and symbols are mostly legible

Cornell notes format is not precisely followed; may be missing an essential key element

Notes are written but not in Cornell notes format

1.) Have students visit the SERC Blog : sercblog.si.edu .This searchable database features *Recent Posts*Popular Posts*17 Popular Categories of Posts*”Blogroll Connections of Rich Content

2.) Edmodo is a free secure social network for teachers and students that specialize in designed teacher/student interaction with an emphasis on dialogue, polling, interactions in the public discussion spaces and assignment sharing. Ideas for using Edmodo. . .

1. Allow students to critique the articles online.2. Connect with other teachers, students or perhaps the scientist online.3. Form groups to study common material.4. Post additional Chesapeake Bay Articles from the Chesapeake Bay Journal for further

study.5. Create connections to other coastal communities with similar nutrient problems.

3.) A second way to share online with technology that is here to stay is through the use of Google docs.

You can create, edit, upload and share work between classmates quickly. You can import your existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations, or create new ones from scratch. You can access and edit from anywhere and share those changes in real time. Perhaps teaming to write a high-quality analytic essay or conducting peer editing using Google Docs could help integrate technology.

“Top Predator in Peril” Learning Guide Technology Motivation Activity: Online Anytime

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Work as a Team Before the Videoconference

Divide students into groups of three or four. Utilize all that you have learned from the articles, the posters and the simulation exercise. What were questions that arose throughout the different components of the Educator Map? Did your teacher record any pressing questions that were challenging to answer.

Think FuturisticStudy a map of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. How might the snakehead population impact, fish, animals

or plants?

Set the Rules for Classroom Brainstorming Have students first understand the challenge of videoconferencing as described in the SUMMARY. Next

determine your brainstorming "rules" of engagement.

Brainstorming to Questioning Explain to students that the quality of a videoconferencing experience is directly related to the quality of the questions they ask and the discussion their questions generate. Explain that their questions should expand what is found in what they have learned so far, but does not repeat what has already been covered. Offer students some starting phrases to use and to avoid?

Prepare for the Videoconference STEP# 1 - Seek all permissions and test hardware and software to be used. STEP #2 –Plan the learning environment. Example - If you are planning on a presentation to your entire class, have you tested your setup with a projector? STEP #3 Have paper and pencil available for brainstorming their thoughts in drawing form. Arrange the room for student collaborative groups.STEP #4 – Set “ground rules” for the discussion and talk about how the students will be expected to extend their learning through high quality learning and questioning. STEP #5 – Role play question generation and a range conversation scenarios including disagreements and inaccurate statements.STEP #6– Remind students that a highly interactive session like a videoconference is dependent knowing their information, being a team player and an opportunity to demonstrate their pre-knowledge "professional" polite

interaction.

Verbal/Linguistic Ability to use words and

language such as exhibited by poet, journalist, writer.

NaturalistAbility to understand, feel,

react positively to the world such as a naturalist.

ecologist

InterpersonalAbility to use relate &

understand others such as a counselor, salesperson.

SERC Videoconference – Top Predator in Peril Page 14