Newsletter – Winter 2011

Welcome to the real Jersey Shore! Our district has been honoring the marine environment by using the MARE curriculum for the past 17 years.

MARE has grown and evolved in the Lacey Township School district over the years. We have added cross-curricular connections in the areas of technology, music and art. Our media specialists have become experts on literature and resources for MARE lessons. There is a volunteer MARE committee in each of our elementary schools that lead the staff each year and our amazing PTA provides the financial support for programs and supplies.

Lacey Township School students on a field trip with ReClam the Bay.

A partnership with local community members, the Lacey High School Biology club and Honor Society enriches the program at little to no cost.  Local Sea Captains and commercial fishermen share their knowledge with our children and often bring live specimens straight from the dock to the classroom. ReClam The Bay maintains many upweller nurseries in nearby towns and has shared hands-on lessons on conservation with our students. We take full advantage of our Jersey Shore community where our students enjoy field trips to county parks to experience the ocean, bay, wetland and pond habitats up close! Specialized lessons on local landmarks enrich the grade-specific lessons. For example, we investigate the Barnegat Lighthouse in the second grade Sandy Beach lessons.

The success and school-wide integration of the MARE curriculum is evident at the Ocean Week celebration in May and the “sold out” family night for the community. Students and staff don hand painted T-shirts honoring their grade level habitat.  The school buildings are flooded with displays of the student’s knowledge of the marine environment. Special needs children host a homemade touch tank and music students sing along with the Banana Slug Band on stage or screen.

MARE is definitely working its magic in Lacey Township and we are very proud.
- Susan Haskell

New Science Standards: Updated national science standards expected to be released Fall 2012; ocean literacy concepts are well highlighted.

Science is both a body of knowledge and an evidence-based model and theory building enterprise.

Through a collaborative, state-led process, new K-12 science standards are being developed to provide all students an internationally benchmarked science education. These standards will be rich in content and practice and arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades. Since the development of previous national standards, major advances in science and our understanding of how students learn science have occurred and should be reflected in state standards. The National Research Council (NRC), National Science Teachers Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve have partnered to create the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in a two step process.

In the first step, “Getting the Science Right,” the NRC convened a committee composed of practicing scientists, cognitive scientists, science education researchers, and science education standards and policy experts to develop a Framework. The Framework describes a vision of what it means to be proficient in science. Framework content was informed by the Ocean Literacy: The Essential Principles of Ocean Science K-12 and other documents to ensure that the core ideas were current, accurate, and relevant. Therefore, ocean concepts are well highlighted throughout the Framework. The NRC recently released the final Framework and you can review it .

The second step, “States Developing NGSS,” is currently in progress. The NGSS will be developed collaboratively among representatives from 26 states and other stakeholders in science, science education, higher education and industry. New Jersey was one of the original states to participate. Review and guidance will be provided by advisory committees of nationally-recognized leaders in science and science education, business and industry, and the general public. The NGSS are expected to be completed by the Fall of 2012. For more information about the NGSS visit the website .

* Good to Know: The Lawrence Hall of Science has created some new ocean science curriculum materials responsive to these NGSS. For more information, check out the Lawrence Hall of Science New Ocean Science Curriculum Materials Topic on the MARE Forum or the MARE Blog.

Phytoplankton produce half of the oxygen we breathe and are the base of the ocean food web! But where do phytoplankton live?

Phytoplankton, like all plants, need nutrients and energy from the sun to photosynthesize. Understanding what conditions allow for more light to penetrate into the water column or more nutrients to be at the surface, enables scientists to explain where and when phytoplankton blooms and peak oxygen production occur and to understand food web interactions.

Recently, scientists used a 9-year dataset of satellite and glider chlorophyll data tried to do this for phytoplankton blooms in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, from Massachusetts down to North Carolina. This oceanic region supports a diverse food web of fish and shellfish that feed on phytoplankton biomass blooms (which can be measured using chlorophyll concentrations). However, the phytoplankton biomass and concentrations of other organisms vary throughout the year. Why?

Monthly mean chlorophyll from January 1998 to December 2006 for the Mid-Atlantic Bight (Xu et al. 2011).

Researchers found that 58% of the annual surface phytoplankton biomass occurs in the fall-winter months (orange-red boxes in the fall-winter sections). The water temperatures are cooling and there is increased storm frequency during these months. These two factors result in nutrient-rich bottom water being brought to the surface.  Therefore, the fall-winter bloom happens because the phytoplankton are provided with increased nutrient levels at the surface.

Phytoplankton biomass also peaks in the spring (red-orange boxes in the spring). As we enjoy warmer temperatures, the water temperature also warms and light penetrates further into the water. Thus the spring peak is caused by an increase in light for phytoplankton.

Phytoplankton blooms produce a large amount of oxygen and create a rich source of food, resulting in congregations at these locations of a diversity of organisms ranging from zooplankton to fish to whales. Knowing what factors drive the blooms and where they occur allow us to understand more about how ocean ecosystems work.

To access related lesson plans about phytoplankton and to read the scientific article visit the Phytoplankton in Your Classroom Topic on the MARE Forum or the MARE Blog.