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NOAA
The College of Exploration

Ocean Sciences Teaching Videos 2 - Teacher's Guide

Lesson Title: All that Glitters...
(NOAA OE Learning Ocean Science Through Ocean Exploration Lesson 13)

Grade Level portrayed in the video: Middle School

Location: Santa Monica Alternative School House, Santa Monica, CA

Teacher: Mr. Kurt Holland

Overview: As stated in the curriculum, the focus questions for this lesson are: What happens to the light in the ocean? How do deep-sea creatures compensate for lack of light?

Teaching Time: 45 minutes

Teaching Video Length 36 minutes

Transcripts: Transcripts of video

Here is a packet of information that will guide you through the video lesson. These resources are meant to provide background information and supplementary materials to enhance your professional development experience of using the video.

1. Gain an overview of the project on the web and background research about using video in the classroom.
You may want to learn more about the rationale and background research for this project. This project addresses the purpose of helping teachers learn more about teaching science through oceans and ocean exploration. It aims to use the medium of video related web resources to support teachers in their learning and teaching of ocean sciences.

2. Learn more about the NOAA OE curriculum

3. Read the lesson plan from the Learning Ocean Science Through Ocean Exploration Curriculum (printable version of this lesson in PDF format. This requires a free plug-in, Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be obtained at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)

4. Standards

National Science Education Standards:

Content Standard A-Science as Inquiry

  • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
  • Understandings about scientific inquiry

Content Standard C- Life Science

  • Structure and function of living systems
  • Populations and ecosystems

Content Standard D- Earth and Space Science

  • Structure of the Earth system

5. Read the questions for discussion that can be used for your own individual reflection or for guiding dialogue in group professional development or academic course settings.

 

Guiding Questions for Use in Professional Development

  1. Which parts of the lesson were most engaging for the students?
  2. What did you perceive to be the greatest challenge in presenting this lesson to the class?
  3. What do you think were the most difficult concepts for students to grasp? Why?
  4. What could have been done to enhance students' style deeper understanding of the ocean science concepts being presented?
  5. In what ways and to what extent did the hands-on activities reinforce the ocean science concepts?
  6. Describe the role of the teacher in presenting this lesson. Do you have any observations about the teacher's style of presentation? Would you teach in this teaching style? Why or why not?
  7. Identify different teaching behaviors you observed during this lesson. What might you do differently and why? What are possible consequences of different teaching behaviors?
  8. In what ways did this lesson promote students' inquiry based learning and critical thinking? Give specific examples of how inquiry was promoted.
  9. What background skills or information would you suggest for preparing the class?
  10. Did this teaching adequately incorporate the standards?
  11. How did this lesson compare with how you learned ocean science content?
  12. How did the social structure and atmosphere of the class reinforce the learning?
  13. What means of student assessment would you employ to check on the development of content knowledge?
  14. What were your impressions of the interaction between the teacher and students?

6. Links to Related Resources

The All that Glitters lesson plan (Lesson 13) includes a list of resources.

Here are some additional resources.

Bioluminescence - Sea Fireflies

Bioluminescence - Sea Fireflies video at the bottom of this section. Sea fireflies can be used in the classroom to illustrate bioluminescence. This is a brief video clip of the bioluminescence of sea fireflies. They are placed on a white sheet of paper and then a few drops of water are placed on them. They are then gently squashed with the back of a spoon. The sea fireflies were purchased from Carolina Biological Supply Company, 2700 York Road, Burlington, NC 27215.

This information and instructions were provided by Carolina Biological Supply Company.

Cypridina hilgendorfii is a bioluminescent ostracod crustacean native to the Sea of Japan. Known to the Japanese as umi botaru (sea fireflies), these small crustaceans live on the sea bottom during the day and venture out to feed at night. Measuring only 0.5 to 5 mm in length, the body of the sea firefly is enclosed within hinged bivalve shells. It has two pairs of legs on its abdomen and moves via two pairs of antennae on its head.

Cypridina presents a simple model for studying an enzyme system. The presence of the required components (luciferin and luciferase) is easily demonstrated, and the product (light) is readily observed and measured. This model is used in research to study the effects of drugs, temperature, pressure, and other variables on enzymatic systems.

PROCEDURE USED
To demonstrate bioluminescence simply grind Cypridina into powder, place the powder on a watch glass and add enough water to moisten it. Observe in a darkened room or box. The light will glow a blue color for a brief period, dim, and disappear.

NOTE: To find the blue plastic materials suitable for use in making the Deep Sea Dive Goggles needed for All That Glitters, go to

StageLight Louisiana LLC, a New Orleans based company
(504) 818-1880  
http://stagelight.com/

They carry 24 in. x 20 in. color filter gel sheets of plastic. Three brands are possibilities for the Ocean Exploration activities: Roscolux #80 primary blue, Lee #079 just blue, or Gam #850. Cut into 8.5 in. x 3 in. strips. Six sheets should produce 31 4-layer goggles.


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