Teacher Resources - Video Lesson September 2009
Welcome to SBERPs First Video-Enhanced Lesson!
This exercise is designed to introduce students to the Shark Bay seagrass ecosystem and how scientists collect information to help them understand the relationships of some its important species. The lesson starts with an exploration of the seagrass beds themselves and builds to include the larger animals and the role they play in the ecosystem. Some of the key concepts in this lesson are interdependence, the flow of energy in ecosystems, the important role of predators, and the practice of science (hypothesis generation, data collection, hypothesis-testing). The lesson can be taught at a variety of grade levels and we would love your feedback on how we can improve any of these materials or make them more specific to particular grade levels. Please send any comments or ideas for other lessons/concepts to Mike Heithaus.
The videos below are streaming videos. If you would like to get copies of the files for use in offline computers, please email us.
Downloadable Materials:
Click here to request a copy of the Teacher Instructions. These instructions contain learning outcomes of all activities, suggested answers, and additional activities for students.
Videos:
Video 1 – Introduction to Shark Bay
Video 2 – Making and recording observations of Shark Bay’s habitats
Video 3 – Measuring seagrass
Video 4 – Developing hypotheses about fish distributions
Video 5 – Measuring fish abundance
Video 6 – Developing hypotheses about dolphin and dugong distributions
Video 7 – Quantifying habitat use of dolphins and dugongs
Video 8 – Revising hypotheses and studying tiger sharks
Video 9 – Testing the effects of dugongs on seagrasses
Video 10 – The importance of predators in ecosystems
