Plankton Lab

Introductory Oceanography course (undergraduate).

Basics of Marine Organisms classification (can bepart of a prelab assignment)

Start of the marine ecology/biology section.

Marine taxonomy, feeding methods

Identify planktonic organisms; evaluate similarities and differences among different locations; sketch and provide scale to observations.

Student handout(copy of the relevant pages from lab manual)

Instructor's Key -- educator-only file

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Student instructions:

LAB PART 1 -- PREREADING:

1. Find prereading in your lab manual and complete it in pencil.
2. **NOTE: If you are currently enrolled in the lecture, you are likely not yet to the biological chapers. So you will need to put more time in now in lab to get yourself up to speed on these topics. However, that will mean less work later in lecture when you study this content.
   Video tutorials from lecture to review/assist:

Nekton, Benthos, and Plankton (1.5-min, 19 MB) Video | Video w/CC | Script

Feeding Methods (4-min, 19 MB) Video | Video w/CC | Script

Kingdoms, Phyla, and More: (21 min, 66 MB) Video | Video w/CC | Script

Productivity and Plankton (21-min, 42 MB) Video | Video w/CC | Script

List of Local Marine Organisms Phyla Reference Links for the organisms you need to research and draw for prereading

1. By the assignment deadline, upload completed prereading IN CANVAS.
   **Note: you can submit your prereading early in pieces with a request for feedback -- an excellent way to learn the material and build on that learning.
2. Review instructor feedback and answer key; make corrections; and seek help if needed.

LAB -- PART 2 -- MAIN SECTION:

1. Find lab in your lab manual and complete it in pencil.
   **For online students, click on link below for at-home samples.
2. By the assignment deadline, upload completed lab IN CANVAS.
   **Note: you can submit your lab early in pieces with a request for feedback -- an excellent way to learn the material and build on that learning.
3. Review instructor feedback and answer key; make corrections; and seek help if needed.

REVIEW, REFLECTION, AND ASSESSMENT:

1. Try to complete original lab again on own without looking up tables or resources.
2. For this quiz, you will need to be able to ID the organisms you learned about in this lab and describe particular characteristics (just like lab), but you will be limited in your time. The intention is that you will have learned all these organisms already and be able to ID them by sight BEFORE you start the quiz and without any aids. So be sure you practice them all enough before you start.
3. Complete lab quiz in CANVAS.

ONLINE MATERIALS:

At-Home Samples: Start Here

Complete this Plankton Lab using your lab manual, as though you were IN class and using a microscope. In lieu of face-to-face exhibits, you will click on the various links below to access video footage. Note: replacing live samples seen through a microscope with a video/image is not the best learning experience. But it is the best we can do in an online format. Remember to include scales in your drawings! You can also zoom in. Do your best!

Start by reviewing the two videos below:

• Gathering samples: Plankton Tow -- Video
• Get oriented on plankton: sample from Fort Point with labels on most of the organisms (when we first see them). -- Video

For each of the sample locations below:

1. Complete the sample location/details table.Note: For salinity, leave blank because I was unable to measure salinity on the days of the tows.
2. Watch the main Plankton tow video fully.
3. Click through the additional videos and photo albums.
4. Choose the organisms you want to draw (see list in lab manual), sketch them as big as you can in the lab manual in the appropriate boxes, and be sure to include scale (photos showing full eyepiece circle have scale in i = information).

• Most of the videos are from Pacific Plankton (thanks to Janai Southworth) and were filmed on a single concave slide. The microscope cover glass is 22mm x 22mm.
• Videos and images with (*) were produced by K. Wiese (identified with *) on a single slide with no cover glass.

At-Home Samples: Princeton Harbor Marina -- Pacific Coast

Be sure to find, identify, and sketch at least 1 dinoflagellate, 1 diatom, 1 copepod, and 1 larval organism. After that, fill your pages with drawings of the other creatures you see. Spend no more than 45 minutes on this sample.

Collection information: 2:00 pm, 3/28/2020 -- HIGH Tide (level: 3.8 Feet)

Plankton Tour(~15 minutes) Photo Album* --Video

• Amphipod* -- *width of image ~2 mm -- Video
   
• Obelia (hydroid larvae)* -- a free floating cnidarian medusa form (like a jellyfish)-- *width of image ~2 mm -- Video
• Very young polychaete larvae (trochophore) -- *width of image ~2 mm --Video
• Crab Zoea-- *width of image ~5 mm and clip speed reduced to 25% -- Video
   
• Caligus Copepod -- *width of lens 5 mm --Video
   

At-Home Samples: Fort Point -- San Francisco Bay

Be sure to find, identify, and sketch at least 1 dinoflagellate, 1 diatom, 1 copepod, and 1 larval organism. After that, fill your pages with drawings of the other creatures you see. Spend no more than 45 minutes on this sample.

Collection information: 8:34 am, 3/20/2020 -- Tide: flooding (level: 5.08 Feet)

Plankton Tour  (~15 minutes) --Photo Album* --Video

• Diatom Chaetoceros socialis -- Video
• Diatom: Bacillaria Paxillifer -- Video
• Diatom Strew -- *width of image ~2 mm -- Video
• CHAIN DIATOM Photo 1* (close up)
• Tintinnid -- Video
   
• Tintinnid Photo* (close up from above video)
• Nocticula* -- *width of image ~2 mm --Video
• Nocticula Photo 1* -- *width of image ~2 mm
• Nocticula Photo 2* -- *Close up of Photo 1
• Polychate Larvae Photo*

At-Home Samples: Oyster Point -- San Francisco Bay

Be sure to find, identify, and sketch at least 1 diatom, 1 copepod, and 1 larval organism (*no dinoflagellates in this sample*). After that, fill your pages with drawings of the other creatures you see. Spend no more than 45 minutes on this sample.

Collection information: 4:20 pm, 3/26/2020 -- Tide: ebbing (level: 4 feet)

Plankton Tour (~15 minutes) --Photo Album* --Video

• Diatoms and Tunicate egg Photo* -- *width of lens ~2 mm
• Tunicate eggs Photo
• Tunicate larvae Photo
• Polychate larvae and nauplii (copepod larvae) Photo* -- *width of lens ~2 mm
• Polychaete larvae and gastropod (snail) larvae Photo* -- *width of lens ~2 mm
• Copepod adult and larvae Photo -- *width of lens ~5 mm
• Grammatophora Diatom close up Photo*
• Nauplii and Pleurosigma diatom -- *width of lens ~2 mm -- Video
• Polychaete larvae and copepods --*width of lens ~2 mm --Video

At-Home Samples: Extra Extra from SF Bay plankton tows over past year

• Bivalve: larvae (pediveliger) -- Larval bivalve in the plankton. This is a pediveliger soon it will settle out of the plankton and find a surface it can attach to. -- Video
• Crab Zoea  -- Zoea from the plankton tow collected January 8 2020 from near Fort Point. -- Video

See tips section and extra resources (all kept up to date for current students) on class website.

I have students check answers against a key once they've turned in the lab. They are expected to make corrections and then study and practice before taking and end-of-week 20-minute quiz.

Here's how I handle the keys -- I release them to students AFTER the assignment deadlines -- so students can fully grade and review their own assignments. I grade the assignment they turned in for completion, thoroughness, and thoughtfulness, but not necessarily correctness. Turns out that if students aren't getting it, I can tell very easily by their answers, and I don't give them credit for answers that don't make sense, that don't fully address the question, etc. But if it's wrong, but they have a logical thoughtful effort applied, then okay. Students COULD technically get keys from previous semesters, other classes, or past semesters and use them, but if their answers are identical to any other students or to my key, they don't get credit. So in the end it doesn't help them. And most of their points come from weekly quizzes I have where I make them apply their understanding to new examples. The stakes are low on lab assignments because the answers don't need to be correct, just thoughtful and complete. I want to encourage students to use them to learn. Then I check that understanding on quizzes.

Plankton Lab Activity Key -- educator-only file

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See tips section and extra resources (all kept up to date for current students) on class website.