Newsletter – Spring 2012

What do you do when you have students who want to learn about the ocean, but other priorities are put ahead of MARE at your school? At Eisenhower Intermediate School they started a MARE Student Leaders club!

Given the current legislation, school programs such as MARE have taken a “back seat” in most cases. Eisenhower Intermediate School, like many, has also experienced much of this “re-prioritizing,” so with the creation of our MARE Student Leaders club our hope was to put the wind back into the sails of MARE.

Student Leaders in ocean science lab.

The MARE Student Leaders are a group of students and teacher advisors that are committed to learning about the ocean and its preservation. Using many of the MARE lessons and activities as a backbone (see the Try This! section later in the newsletter for some examples), the MARE Student Leaders meet and work in our ocean science lab performing experiments, activities, and maintaining the specimens we house in our ocean science lab. Our MARE Student Leaders meet four times a month.

With our “restructuring” of MARE within Eisenhower Intermediate School, our goal is to maximize our time and energy to make each meeting significant.  Each year students continue to want to be a part of our MARE program and its roots will become stronger with each group of students.
- Jason Draine, Art Educator

Science Standards Graded: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently completed their third national review of State Science Standards. There’s good and bad news for New Jersey.

State Grades for Science Standards

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute published the results of their third review of the states’ science standards early in 2012. They brought in science experts from each of the main science disciplines to review the “Content & Rigor” and “Clarity & Specificity” of the standards. Overall, the national average was a C. However, only 6 states received an A grade, while 27 states received a D or F. The report found that in general science standards were: undermining evolution, had vague goals, did not provide enough guidance for teachers of how to integrate the history of science and the concept of scientific inquiry into lesson plans, and there was not enough attention to math instruction.

Unfortunately, New Jersey received a D grade (2/7 for Content & Rigor and 1/3 for Clarity & Specificity). This low grade highlights some of the short comings of our science standards (i.e. incomplete standards at the high school level, confusing supplemental class materials). However, the low grade also masks some of the positive components of our science standards, for example the lower grade standards are straightforward and complete. To read the complete report or to view New Jersey’s and other state’s report cards visit the Fordham Institute’s The State of Science Standards website.

* Good to Know: All hope is not lost! The Fordham Institute also conducted a review of the National Research Councils Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework). Using similar criteria, the Framework received a B+ grade. The Framework received a perfect 7 out of 7 for the “Content & Rigor,” which is good news considering New Jersey has much room for improvement in this category and we are one of the 26 states currently assisting in developing national standards from the Framework. Remember, the Next Generation Science Standards are a set of national science standards (see Winter 2011 Newsletter), currently being developed with the assistance of 26 states. The first public review and feedback period is scheduled for the spring 2012, visit www.nextgenscience.org.

For more information of how ocean sciences are in the NGSS and how the MARE team is involved read the MARE Blog post.

Oysters not only taste delicious, but they create reefs used by many organisms, much like temperate coral reefs! But how are they doing?

Oysters have been important to human populations throughout the world for millennia. There are even reports of ancient Romans eating oysters! Ecologically, they are really important because they are “ecosystem engineers,” meaning they create reef habitats in temperate marine environments that are the home for the entire ecosystem. Unfortunately, the numbers of oysters in different places have decreased over time, but what are the conditions of oyster reefs globally?

Recently, an international group of scientists, including Dr. Ximing Guo at Rutgers University, compared the past and current health/condition of oyster reefs across 144 bays throughout the world. In addition, the scientists identified multiple cost-effective solutions for conservation, restoration, and the management of oyster reefs.

Researchers found that in 70% of the bays throughout the world, of which they had past and present oyster reef data, the abundance of oyster reefs had decreased by more than 90%. In many of the bays, the abundance had decreased over time by more than 99%. This means that the oyster populations are considered “functionally extinct” (the population level is so low that they can no longer create reefs large enough to support the ecosystem that relied upon them, so all of the other organisms in the ecosystems are negatively impacted as well).

The global condition of oyster reefs in bays.

While the results of the study are not positive in terms of the global health of oyster reefs, the story is not all bad. In some places the oyster reefs are in good condition (blue on the map). The scientists also highlighted many programs that are successfully bringing oysters populations back and outlined other steps we can take to conserve, restore, and manage oysters effectively (i.e. prioritize oyster reef protection as important ecosystem habitats).

To access related lesson plans about oysters and oyster reefs and to read the scientific article visit the Oyster & Oyster Reefs in Your Classroom Topic on the MARE Blog.