Teacher Workshop: April 17, 2015
Seals on Cape Cod, Seals as Sentinels
Presenters
Dr. Rebecca Gast
http://www.whoi.edu/hpb/Site.do?id=585
Dr. Andrea Bogomolni
http://www.whoi.edu/profile/abogomolni/
Schedule:
8:45-9:15 Arrive, pick up parking passes, and park in School St. lot, walk to WHOI Exhibit Center
Breakfast: pastries, coffee, juice
9:30 – Quick introduction to WHOI, Sea Grant, and Exhibit Center
9:45 – 12:00: Presentations by
Dr. Rebecca Gast : “Seals on Cape Cod”
The rebounding seal population on Cape Cod—issues and concerns
Dr. Andrea Bogomolni: “Seals as Sentinels”:
Seals and their health as sentinels of the marine environment
12:15-1:00 LUNCH, collect your lunches in the Exhibit Center (to eat outside or in)
1:30-2:30 – Afternoon session -- Hands-on Activities
1) using data collected by state for monitoring bacteria on beaches, Becky Gast
2) identifying seal dietary items and linking diet to ecology, Andrea Bogomolni
Optional short trip to see a by-caught seal in the WHOI marine mammal necropsy facility.
Links to existing classroom activities
Lessons on Pinnipeds, seals, and animal population assessment
NOAA Fisheries Information on Marine Mammals – background information
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/
Classroom activity on identifying and tracking marine mammals including elephant seals
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/education/activities/3517_ocean911.html
Lesson on identification of Alaska’s different pinnipeds
https://www.afsc.noaa.gov/education/activities/PDFs/NFS_K-6_Sept2013_Act1.5_VennPinn.pdf
Downloadable lesson on Atlantic pinnipeds, from the National Park Service and Glacier Bay National Park – includes video link, vocabulary, and worksheets
http://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/education/classrooms/mss-seals-1.htm
Lesson plans from the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole: gr. 3-5 plan on marine mammals, including a link to slides to use in the lesson.
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/psb/NOEPS/NOEPSlessons.html#MMOB
Marine Mammals in our Backyard, gr. 3-5 Lesson:
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/psb/NOEPS/documents/MMOB_Lesson_3-5_NOEPS.pdf
slides for this lesson: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/psb/NOEPS/documents/MMOB_Slides_3-5_NOEPS.pdf
National Geographic Society educator activities on Seals and Sea Lions – activity for younger students on classifying animals. Links to videos.
http://events.nationalgeographic.com/media/files/CCamEducatorsFinal.pdf
Activities about tagging and monitoring pinnipeds, from the
Pinniped Ecology Applied Research Lab, at Oregon State University:
http://mmi.oregonstate.edu/pearl
The scientists have a research project using LHX (Life History Transmitter) Tags and telemetry to track pinnipeds: http://www.sealtag.org/index.html
The “Teacher Toolbox” page has links to curriculum for grades 6-8 and grades 9-12 – the “Engineering Solutions for Sea Lion Research” lessons teach about using remote monitoring and are linked to Oregon science standards.