Lessons From the Sea Page Grade 5 Unit 4
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- Instructional Objectives
- Assessment Tools Benchmark Rubric
- Materials Needed
- Per Student
- Student Vocabulary Words bathymetry
| Lesson Duration
Two 45-minute periods Essential Question(s) How do we learn about something we cannot see, such as the seafloor? Key Concepts In the past, in order to measure the depth and shape of the seafloor, scientists used weighted ropes or wires, which can be modeled to understand the challenges of this method of measurement. Instructional Objectives I can create a model to simulate how scientists map the seafloor. (SC.5.2.1) 
Assessment Tools Benchmark Rubric:
Materials Needed
Per Group An assortment of wooden blocks (optional: blocks of Styrofoam, e.g., from packing material, or cotton balls) (optional: small, lightweight toy fish) (optional: thread or dental floss) (optional: tape) 1 bamboo skewer 1 metric ruler Graph paper Pencil
Per Student Student Worksheet: Seafloor Profiling Activity Instructional Resources Teacher Background: Seafloor Profiling Student Worksheet: Seafloor Profiling Activity Student Vocabulary Words bathymetry: the underwater topography of the ocean floor with features such as seamounts, guyots, and submarine canyons cartography: map making. The study and practice of making representations of the Earth on a flat surface T  eaching Suggestions
Teacher Preparation Read the Science Background provided in the Unit’s Overview, and preview the Teacher Background Seafloor Profiling. Make copies of the Student Worksheet: Seafloor Profiling Activity. Write out Instructional Objective I can statement for this lesson and post. Creating the Seafloor Begin the activity by organizing students into pairs; distribute the Student Worksheet: Seafloor Profiling Data Table to each group. The groups will be working together outside of school to build their sea floor. Introduce the lesson by telling the students they are going to build their own seafloor. Tell students that the shoebox represents an ocean. The bottom of the box represents the bottom of the ocean; the sides represent where the seafloor rises to the sea surface to join a continent; the shoebox lid/cover represents the sea surface. Therefore, the volume of an ocean is like the volume of the shoebox. Ask students to brainstorm with you and describe the types of features that might be on the ocean floor. Introduce the materials that you have brought as elements to model the seafloor, and ask students how they could use them, what they could represent. In addition to using mostly wooden blocks to represent a hard seafloor, encourage students to use a Styrofoam block (or cotton balls) to represent a seafloor location composed of soft material. When the students get to the steps where they are using the skewer to measure the seafloor depth, the Styrofoam/cotton balls will give, resulting in different measurements, depending on how firmly the skewer is pushed. This will incorporate uncertainty into the lesson, which is a mimic to the real world of bathymetric mapping. To introduce another form of uncertainty, perhaps give a small, lightweight toy fish to one student group. Tell the students in the selected student group to hang, using tape, the toy fish with thin string or dental floss from the lid of their shoebox. In real bathymetric mapping, cartographers sometime mistake an echo from a school of fish to be the seafloor. As a homework task, ask students to work in pairs to create the seafloor in the shoebox. II. Mapping the Seafloor Distribute Student Worksheet: Seafloor Profiling Activity. Have students exchange shoeboxes with another group and map the seafloor model. When they are done, students should compare their map to the actual seafloor model to see what they identified correctly. You may elect to give students some leeway in identifying the geological features shown on their seafloor profile. As they work, assure students that you require their best effort, but that you realize the profiles may not be as clear-cut as a textbook diagram. If time allows, ask students to exchange shoeboxes again with another group. Students should practice refining their technique in this second round. In a whole class discussion, ask students to describe the difficulties they encountered with this sort of mapping. Students should describe that it is difficult to know whether you have hit bottom, particularly when the surface is soft. They may also describe how time consuming and tedious the process is. Tell students that in the next lesson, they will learn a more accurate and faster way to map the seafloor. Extended Activities Ask students to represent with clay one of the Hawaiian islands in a shoebox. Have other students try to figure out which Hawaiian island it is by using the techniques described in this lesson. Lesson 3 Seafloor Profiling 
In this lesson, students explore one of the early methods to measure the depth of the ocean by using a scientific model. The British ship H.M.S. Challenger was the first ship to carry a scientific expedition to map the depths of the ocean. By using weighted wires lowered over the side of the ship, scientists were able to collect measurements of depth at 361 sites. They also collected samples of water as well as biological and sediment samples. There are a number of problems with using weighted wires as students will discover in this lesson. First and foremost, it is often difficult to know when the weighted wire has hit the bottom of the ocean, particularly when the surface is soft. Second, this method is time consuming and tedious and can often overlook small changes between sites where measurements have been taken. In this next lesson, students will explore how multibeam mapping gives more precise and accurate measurements. For Sounding Box Activity details, refer to http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/seafloor-mapping/sounding_box1.html
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