Fibonacci's Seahorse

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Fibonacci's Seahorse

The Ocean Drifters in the Web of Life


Targeted Grades: 9-12
Master Teachers: Marilyn L. Bridgan and Jay Paulson

OVERVIEW

This lesson is part of a unit on ocean drifters and the web of life. The unit focuses on the characteristics necessary for maintaining a place in the food web. Students work with multi-media, including the "Puget Sound" CD, the video NOVA: Kingdom of the Seahorse, and related internet and classroom lab activities. (Time: six 45-minute class periods.)

VIDEO

NOVA: Kingdom of the Seahorse

LEARNING OBJECTIVES


Students will be able to:

  • Observe the organism and build models of the organism and replicate the seahorse environment.
  • Define the physical parameters of the seahorse habitat.
  • Develop analogies for understanding the seahorse and compare it to other objects or organisms.
  • Interact with science and technology through internet interactive activities.
  • Define and develop mathematical models of the Fibonacci sequence and analyze patterns found in nature.

This lesson will meet the following Washington State Essential Academic Learning Requirements:

Student will understand and use scientific concepts and principles.

  • Students will conduct scientific investigations to expand understanding of the natural world.
  • Students will apply science knowledge and skills to solve problems or meet challenges.
  • Students will use communication skills to demonstrate their understanding of science.
  • Students will connect to other subject areas and real-life situations.

Materials
  • Colored pencils
  • Worksheet Packets
  • Sea water ingredients
  • Assorted recycled materials (washers, fishing weights, styrofoam, beads, string, paperclips, nails, wooden blocks, plastics, rubber bands--check your garbage !)
  • Large garbage can
  • Large Hefty( garbage bags
  • Fish tank thermometer
  • Hydrometer
  • Fish tank
  • One box of sea salt
  • Pineapples
  • Pinecones

PRE-VIEWING ACTIVITIES

Build an Ocean Drifter

Ask students to gather recycled materials to build an organism that can stay suspended in water. The organism cannot touch the bottom of a container of water or break the surface. Students may gain more points by demonstrating their understanding of other characteristics necessary to live in an ocean food web--a defense mechanism, means of reproduction, eating mechanism, communication device, or other unusual features. Students give their presentations prior to viewing NOVA: Kingdom of the Seahorse.

FOCUS FOR VIEWING



Ask students to prepare to take notes for a lesson on an organism that preys on ocean drifters. To give students a specific responsibility while viewing: (1) assign one student to monitor the remote control; and (2) the student will use the pause button when his classmates ask him to pause the video so they can answer the following questions about surviving in the food web. (Also see Worksheet #1)

  1. What is the seahorse's means of movement?
  2. What unusual features are their about the seahorse body plan?
  3. How is their skin different or similar to other organisms?
  4. When and how does the seahorse use his tail?
  5. How do some types of seahorses differ from other seahorses?
  6. What does the seahorse environment look like?
  7. How does the seahorse display social behaviors?
  8. What do they prey upon and what is their greatest predator?
  9. What is the seahorse's feeding mechanism?
  10. How does a seahorse mate?
  11. What is a seahorse's best defense mechanism?
To introduce the video, say: "Today you will observe the segments for the following information (indicate overhead, blackboard, or work packet). The sound will be off and one of you will use the pause button to stop the video to give you time to record information into your notes.. We will stop the video when you see the female seahorse loose her clutch of eggs and her partner swim off."

VIEWING ACTIVITIES



Start Nova's Kingdom of the Seahorse with the sound off at the beginning of the tape.
Pause when locating areas for the student to slowly view and record his observations.
Pause to allow students to ask questions and freely make comments during their observations.

Ask the student with the remote control to fast forward from the spawning sea urchin to the shots of the various pipe fish.

Stop video after you hear (and read on closed-captioning), "Despite the loss, the male settles down to tend the eggs he has received. In three weeks, he'll be ready to give birth." You see the hospital doors open to an obstetric delivery areas. A sign will say "caps, masks, gowns."

POST-VIEWING ACTIVITIES



Divide the students into pre-assigned groups. Assign two groups to participate in Internet Activities and two groups for Classroom Labs. Provide the students going to the library brief instructions and one on-line activity packet per group. Switch the groups during the next classroom section.

Internet Group:
Go to the NOVA: Kingdom of the Seahorse web site http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/seahorse/ See Worksheet #2

Classroom lab activities:
Exploring the Habitat of Seahorses (Physical processes workshop)
Worksheet #3--Characteristics of a Seahorse (Analogy workshop)

Math Class lab extension:
Worksheet #4--Math Connections-Fibonacci's Seahorse

ACTION PLAN

To extend this lesson outside the four walls of the classroom:

Option 1:
Obtain Amanda Vincent's e-mail address. (Amanda is the marine scientist interviewed in the video.)
E-mail Amanda Vincent one question. Students note her response in their notebooks.

Option 2:
Research one of the following internet activities as assigned by your instructor. (Make a stack of action plan cards for student group exploration beyond the classroom.)

EXTENSIONS



What does a Marine Scientist do?
Explore the second half of the video and develop a profile with your students about the activities of a Marine Scientist. Have the students use action words to describe all of Amanda Vincent's activities.

WORKSHEET #1



Name:________________________________________________________

Pre-Viewing Activity

Organism name: ____________________________

My organism:
sinks
floats
stays suspended

My organism shows:
( Reproduction
( Defense
( Feeding
( Communication
( Other--explain: ___________________________________________________

Focus For Viewing Activity Sheet

1. What is the seahorse's means of movement?

2. What unusual features are their about the seahorse body plan?

3. How is their skin different or similar to other organisms?

4. When and how does the seahorse use his tail?

5. How do some types of seahorses differ from other Seahorses?

6. What does the seahorse environment look like?

7. How does the seahorse display social behaviors?

8. What do they prey upon and what is their greatest predator?

9. What is the seahorse's feeding mechanism?

10. How does a seahorse mate?

11. What is a seahorse's best defense mechanism?

WORKSHEET #2



Post-Viewing Internet Activities

Name: _________________________________________

Activity #1
Look for general information about seahorses.

Activity #2

Browse the World Wide Web for seahorse information.

1. The search engine will identify sites corresponding to your topic. To branch into subtopics, click on colored text, underlined text, and text over which the cursor assumes the form of a hand. 2. To move among subtopics, topics, or sites, click on "forward" (for the next page) or "back" (for previous pages) icons across the top of the screen.

Activity #3
The NOVA: Kingdom of the Seahorse web site offers many resources connected to the program. Search through the activities, pictures, and other information related to the topic and provide hard copy (written answers or printouts) for the italicized, underlined items.

1. Locate the icon bar across the top of the screen. Click on "open." Go to the blank search field, click on it, and enter the following address: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/seahorse/
2. Print a copy of the opening web page.
3. Locate the seahorse basics page and complete the following vocabulary list:

* Dorsal fin:
* Pectoral fins:
* Eyes:
* Reproduction
* Diet:
* Species:
* Size:
* Range:
4. Draw and label the parts of a seahorse.
5. Browse the NOVA web pages for the following information:
--List an additional resource about seahorses.
--Discuss in essay what makes seahorse reproduction so typical or unusual.
--What dangers are posed to seahorse populations?

WORKSHEET #3



Post Viewing Lab Activities

Characteristics of a Seahorse Analogies Workshop

Instruct students to list five things observed about the following seahorse features. Tell students to avoid using the terms like or as in their observations. For example the seahorse head has a long snout. It has two eyes. It moves in a backward rearing motion. It appears to have nostrils. A main seems to stream down from it's head. Then have the students complete three of the analogies.

Seahorse head
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Therefore the seahorse head is like

Because it:

Seahorse tail:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Therefore the seahorse tail is like

Because it:

Seahorse skin:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Therefore the seahorse skin is like

Because it:

Seahorse social life:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Therefore a seahorse is like

Because it:

Seahorse movement:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Therefore a seahorse is like

Because it: Seahorse feeding mechanism:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Therefore a seahorse is like

Because it:

Seahorse eyes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Therefore a seahorse is like

Because it:

WORKSHEET #4

Fibonacci's Seahorse Math Connection Lab

OVERVIEW

The lesson will begin with students creating an equiangular spiral on graph paper. The will identify the pattern resulting from the construction.. The students will then analyze the pattern and write a statement describing how to generate successive terms. History of the Fibonacci sequence will be discussed. Then, in small groups, Fibonacci patterns in nature will be discovered. The lesson will conclude with some exploration into other applications of the Fibonacci sequence. Main goals of the lesson are an understanding of the Fibonacci sequence and how it applies/occurs in nature and every day life. (See handouts provided.)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The student will be able to generate the Fibonacci sequence.
The student will be able to express in their own words how the Fibonacci sequence is generated.
The student will be able to demonstrate or provide an example of how the Fibonacci sequence occurs in nature.

MATERIALS

1/4 in graph paper (one per person)
one pinecone and pineapple per group of three students
one list of the first 30 Fibonacci numbers per person

Further Extensions:
Research projects and models demonstrating:
Fibonacci numbers in Art
Fibonacci numbers in Architecture
Fibonacci numbers in Music
Fibonacci numbers in Poetry
Fibonacci numbers in Science
Fibonacci numbers in Technology
Mathematical patterns within the Fibonacci sequence

On-line Extensions

Try http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fib.html for one site that has "one-stop-shopping" for almost all things Fibonacci. Other sites

http://weasel.cnrs.humbolt.edu/wdave/dave/ehs/CLARK.htm1
http://www2.hawaii.edu/suremath/fibonacci.htm1
http://math.holycross.edu/%7Edwards/fibonacci/fibonacci.htm1
http://www.math.uga.edu/wandrew/Fibonacci/fibhome.htm1