Why Teach About Blue Crabs?

September 6th, 2010 by Lindsay

Blue crabs make great subjects to investigate in your classroom.

There isn’t anything more Chesapeake than the Bay’s signature crustacean, the blue crab. Blue crab’s scientific name Callinectes (meaning beautiful swimmer) sapidus (meaning savory) pretty much gives away its importance to the region.

Why should YOU teach about blue crabs?
These feisty crustaceans make a great topic to study in your classroom because they are a keystone species in the Chesapeake Bay. Blue crabs serve as both a predator and prey in the Chesapeake food web.

They are prey for large fish, birds and even other blue crabs. Yet they are also the chief consumers of the benthos or bottom dwelling organisms like small fish, worms and plants.

Along with being a vital part of the ecosystem, blue crabs are the base of a large commercial and recreational fishery in Maryland and Virginia.  It is estimated that more than one-third of the nation’s blue crab catch comes from the Chesapeake Bay, bringing in more than $50 million per year to the region.

So how do YOU teach about blue crabs?
There are already tons of teaching resources about blue crabs. You can use blue crabs to teach about predator/prey dynamics, food webs, habitats, migration, economics and the impacts of pollution on a species. To help you get started take a look through the resources below:

Filed under: Teaching Resources
Tags: , ,
Lindsay Eney is the Communications Staffer at the Chesapeake Bay Program.

Amazing Oysters Pop-Up Reef Lesson

July 23rd, 2010 by Krissy

Using their artistic and creative skills your students can make a 3-D oyster reef just like this one.

Amazing Oysters will show elementary students how to build a 3-D pop-up oyster reef.

Oysters are truly amazing creatures.  One mature oyster can filter up to 60 gallons of water a day and oyster reefs provide vital habitat for hundreds of bay critters.

For the same amount of space, oyster reefs can have 50 times the surface area of a flat bottom. These reefs build up, just like coral reefs, to provide nooks and crannies for worms, snails, sea squirts, sponges, small crabs, fish and even baby oysters to live in.

So the oyster reef ecosystem makes the perfect local subject to teach your students about topics like biodiversity, food webs, adaptations and predator-prey relationships.

A great starting point to study oyster reefs is to use the Amazing Oysters educational activity.  In this lesson, your students will construct their very own miniature ecosystem reef.

They will learn about the critters that make the reef their home and why reefs are such a vital habitat.  Students will also discover the threats to oyster reefs including disease (MSX and Dermo), pollution and over harvesting (waterman used to call oysters Chesapeake Gold).

To complete this activity you will need the following materials:
- Copies of the reef diagram
- Construction paper
- Scissors
- Pencils or pens
- Glue
- Crayons, markers or colored pencils
- Rulers

Get started teaching about the Amazing Oyster by downloading a copy of Amazing Oysters (pdf) or for hard copy call (804) 698-4320 or e-mail Virginia.Witmer@deq.virginia.gov.

Once you complete this activity with your class let us know how it went or how you would improve the lesson by leaving a comment below.

Additional Resources
Oyster Teaching Resources – Bay Backpack
Oyster Field Studies – Bay Backpack

Filed under: Teaching Resources
Tags: , ,
Krissy Hopkins is a former Chesapeake Bay Program Staffer and is currently pursuing her PhD in geology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Why Teach About Sea Nettles?

July 12th, 2010 by Krissy
Sea nettles can be a pesky nuisance to swimmers in the summer months when their numbers soar.

Sea nettles can be a pesky nuisance to swimmers in the summer months when their numbers soar.

NOAA's sea nettle map shows the probably you will encounter jellies based on environmental conditions.

NOAA's sea nettle map shows the probably you will encounter jellies based on environmental conditions.

Sea nettles (Chrysaora quinquecirrha) are the most abundant jellyfish living in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. These stinging jellies have a smooth, milky white bell that usually grows to about four inches in diameter, with 24 stinging tentacles that hang from the inside of the bell.

Why should YOU teach about sea nettles?
Sea nettles have very particular habitat requirements making them a great critter to investigate in your classroom. Your students can become scientists by examining environmental conditions to predict when and where sea nettles will be present in the Chesapeake Bay.

Sea nettles prefer water temperatures ranging from 78.8 – 86 degrees Fahrenheit and a salinity of 10-16 PSU (practical salinity units). So when conditions in the bay are within these temperature and salinity ranges you will likely encounter sea nettles.

How do YOU teach about sea nettles?
You can use real salinity and water temperature data to have your students predict if these stinging jellies will be present at a certain location. NOAA’s CBIBs Buoys provide a database of salinity and water temperature readings at eight locations throughout the Chesapeake Bay.  Have your  students go online and write down the salinity and temperate at each of these locations.  Than have them see if the environmental conditions at each location are within the range that sea nettles prefer, 78.8 – 86 degrees Fahrenheit and a salinity of 10-16 PSU.

As an extension you can also use NOAA’s sea nettle presence probability map to compare your students’ results with a real scientific model.  Have students find the locations of their data points on NOAA’s probability map and determine if results suggest the same conclusions about the presence of sea nettles.  If differences exist, have students suggest some reasons for these differing results.

Additional Resources
The Stinging Sea Lesson Plan (Grades 9-12) – NOAA Ocean Service

Filed under: Teaching Resources
Tags: , ,
Krissy Hopkins is a former Chesapeake Bay Program Staffer and is currently pursuing her PhD in geology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Mentoring Transforms Students into Scientists

April 23rd, 2010 by LeeAnn
To record monthly mortality and growth, students retrieve one of their experimental oyster cages at the Cooperative Oxford Lab pier.

To record monthly mortality and growth, students retrieve one of their experimental oyster cages at the Cooperative Oxford Lab pier.

The Partnership of Scientists and Students for the Environment (POSSE) is a program which matches scientist mentors to high school students, and promotes and supports community partnerships. Mentorships range from interviews, emails, and phone calls to active engagement in research, whereby students work side by side with their respective scientist mentors.

Working alongside their mentor, students are learning how the experts assess the bats and how to record data accurately. They are also learning that bats contribute crucially to the food web, including their beneficial consumption of mosquitoes, and thus stability and health of an ecosystem.

Working alongside their mentor, students are learning how the experts assess the bats and how to record data accurately. They are also learning that bats contribute crucially to the food web, including their beneficial consumption of mosquitoes, and thus stability and health of an ecosystem.

Initiated in Fall 2008, POSSE began with 31 students and 9 scientist mentors. It has grown to include 62 students and 35 scientists on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Projects include research on oyster growth and mortality, where students and a mentor scientist with the Department of Natural Resources, collected data their senior year in high school up through their freshman year in college. Their work is expected to be published in a professional journal.

Stranded…
Mentoring another student project with a hands-on approach, a DNR veterinarian and marine mammal stranding team biologist expose students to issues facing seals, sea turtles and cetaceans (whales and dolphins), and the role scientists play in strandings. A recent student team researched the effects of sound and blast trauma on the hearing of cetaceans, while another team is interested in the overall causes of strandings. Mentees have participated in the stranding volunteer training, observed necropsies of affected animals, and assisted in data collection.

Gone Batty…
DNR mentors are also assisting students with investigation of White-nose Syndrome in bats, a condition associated with the deaths of over 100,000 hibernating bats in the NE United States. Students participate in the data collection, learn proper protocol during necropsy, and use USGS distribution maps to follow the spread of this disease.

Other projects include an oyster documentary, a study of mycobacteriosis, an amphibian and reptile study, harmful algal blooms, aquaculture techniques, and horseshoe crab biomedical uses.

This year’s POSSE students will present the annual Environmental Issues: A Science Symposium at Horn Point Laboratory on Thursday May 20, 2010. The event is free and open to the public. For details, contact LeeAnn Hutchison at lhutchison@msde.state.md.us.

Filed under: Field Studies,Training
Tags: , ,
LeeAnn Hutchison is an Environmental Education Specialist at the Maryland State Department of Education.