Exploring Primary Productivity

Catherine Hill, Arizona Western College

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

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Initial Publication Date: March 1, 2021 | Reviewed: March 12, 2023 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

Interacting with Data: Using interactive on-line graphs and datasets created by the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) from data collected from six oceanic arrays using hundreds of instruments, students can explore the relationships between chlorophyll production and multiple variables. They record their observations and extrapolate generalizations.

Ecosystems, Environmental Science | College Lower (13-14)

Expand for more detail and links to related resources

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Context

Audience

Introductory oceanography class for either non-majors or majors.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Ability to read graphs.
Basic understanding of Primary Productivity, specifically the role that chlorophyll plays.

How the activity is situated in the course

Culminating project. It could work as a lab following Primary Production as it is composed of 6 stand-alone modules.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Primary Productivity/Chlorophyll Production as it relates to:
Dissolved Organic Matter; Temperature; Season and Hemisphere; Proximity to Land; Proximity to the Poles, Tropics or Mid-Latitudes; and local Major Current and its Temperature.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Analysis of Data
Pattern Recognition
Extrapolating data to general patterns
Recognizing limitations of data

Other skills goals for this activity

Ability to manipulate the datasets and graphs presented by the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Description and Teaching Materials

The Students will follow the instructions on the lab worksheet manipulating datasets in graphic form to highlight different variables.

Student Handout (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 38kB Feb25 21)

The lab worksheet which will include a link to:
1. Six OOI datasets
https://datalab.marine.rutgers.edu/explorations/

2. A wikipedia commons map
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_indicating_tropics_and_subtropics.png
3. Five linked worksheets for the students to enter their observations
Internet Access is required.
Worksheet II (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 11kB Feb25 21)
Worksheet IV (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 12kB Feb25 21)
Worksheet V (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 12kB Feb25 21)
Worksheet VI (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 12kB Feb25 21)
Worksheet VII (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 32kB Feb25 21)

Teaching Notes and Tips

You will need to be lenient on the specific datapoints identified by students as Maximums and Minimums as well as certain seasonal dates. There is a lot of data in these graphs. Sometimes they spot points that I have overlooked!

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