Water Quality
Students distinguish between causal and correlational relationships between human activity and the negative environmental impact of harmful algae blooms and use this data to monitor the human impact on water quality.
Overview
Students use harmful algal blooms (red tides) as a case study in how human activity affects water quality. After viewing video clips and discussing where blooms occur, students pose and sort their own questions, collect water samples and record pH, and research answers to the questions they raised. In the final phase each student selects one of seven NOAA-identified bloom regions and completes a bloom-forecasting activity. The lesson addresses common misconceptions, such as the ideas that all algae are harmful or toxic, and asks students to distinguish causal from correlational relationships between human activity and bloom-related harm.
Lesson Objectives
- Students distinguish between causal and correlational relationships between human activity and the negative environmental impact of harmful algae blooms and use this data to monitor the human impact on water quality.
Standards
NGSS · 3
- MS-ESS3-2Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
- MS-ESS3-3Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
- MS-LS2-4Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.