The SMILE Program @ OSU

We stumbled upon this great activity for middle school science teachers. In this activity students are to learn how to navigate magnetic fields, just like sea turtles do.  This great activity only requires a few supplies and is sure to be a hit in the classroom! Check it out by clicking the picture.

At the 2015 Winter Teacher’s Workshop, elementary teachers continued to focus on ecology. Teachers were fortunate to work with researcher and professor in the department of integrative biology, Mark Novak.  A seven lesson unit focused around streams and macroinvertebrates was shared during this session.  Novak provided an overview presentation that can help with understanding the concepts included in these lessons.

Build-a-Bug allows students work in pairs to create macroinvertebrates with adaptations that would allow them to survive in a habitat. This supplemental PowerPoint gives students the necessary background information for this lesson plan.

Home, Home, in a Stream is an activity in which students create mock streams containing the same habitats that they built their bugs for.

In the activity Macro Feeding Frenzie (along with this PowerPoint) students use various tools to collect a variety of ‘food’, which models the different feeding styles and the accompanying adaptations.

Macro Mayhem allows students to play an exciting game to help them understand how pollution impacts the biodiversity of macroinvertebrates found in a stream ecosystem.

In Biodiversity in a Leaf Pack, students create micro-habitats that will attract macroinvertebrates and place them local streams to collect organisms.

With the activity Analyzing a Leaf Pack, students collect leaf packs and analyze their findings.

Hungry, Hungry Macros allows students to use the macros collected from leaf packs and perform an experiment to determine whether shredders or grazers will eat more leaf material.

During the Winter Teacher’s Workshop, SMILE Elementary Club teachers were introduced to lessons and content around the topics of coral reefs and ocean acidification.

In the first lesson on coral reefs, Coral Reef Diversity, students are introduced to coral reef ecosystems, the importance of coral, and adaptations coral has made to live in a unique habitat. In the second, Coral Skeletons, students learn how coral shells are formed and the impact of climate change has had on coral reef ecosystems worldwide. In the final lesson, Thermal Expansion, students learn about how warming waters affect the ocean ecosystem.

This presentation on coral reefs was shared by PhD Student Katherine Dziedzic from the Department of Integrative Biology.

In the first lesson on ocean acidification, Whale Jenga, students learn about how changes in the food web might impact the ocean ecosystem. In the second, Lego Shell Building, students are to explore how ocean acidification may make it harder for corals to grow shells. In the third lesson, Marine Osteoporosis, students learn about the effects of acidic oceans on certain marine organisms and the causes of ocean acidification. In the fourth lesson, Ocean Acidification Car Activity, students find out how the burning of fossil fuels in automobiles can introduce CO2 to seawater causing acidification. In the final lesson, Ocean Acidification Demo the students observe first hand CO2 being absorbed into water.

The following presentations on ocean acidification were shared by the Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary as part of the workshop ocean acidification:

• Oceans Recipe For Success
• Olympic Coast Sanctuary PowerPoint

We love it when you share with us! Paula Barnhart from Nyssa Elementary School thought this soils widget would be a great source for teachers and students. “Not All Soils Are Created Equal” is a great way to explore the soil layers in the Pacific Northwest and around the country. The widget also explores how the specific soil helps grow the plants in the region.  Enjoy exploring the soils around the country by clicking on the picture!

We love seeing updates and pictures from the activities SMILE has created. Forest Grove High School was nice enough to share with us the progress of their poplar trees that they received during the 2014 Winter Teacher’s Workshop. Students in this club are taking measurements every week. See for yourself their growing trees:

We had a great time hosting our teacher’s workshop where we got to showcase fun, new activities to use in the club or classroom setting. For the middle school and high school students we shifted our focus toward engineering by showing the teachers an algal lab where the students can design what they think is an optimal place for algae to grow.  For the elementary school students the focus was on ecology and geology, which lead to some awesome hands on activities. All of these activities and those showcased in the workshop can be found below.  Thanks again for joining us this year and please feel free to share your comments on the activities we provided.

Elementary School:

• Lesson 1: All About Owls
• Lesson 2: Owl Pellets Part 1
• Lesson 3: Owl Pellets Part 2
• Lesson 4: Specialists vs. Generalists
• Lesson 5: I’m in Danger
• Habitat Activity
• Mice and Munchies
• Owl Pellet Bone Sheet

Middle School:

• BrainSTEM Game 
• Growing Algae for Fuel
• Saving White City’s Air Part I
• Saving White City’s Air Part II
• Fueling the Future: Exploring Sustainable Energy Use

High School:

• Great Lakes Bioenergy Farm Game
• Growing Algae for Fuel
• Saving White City’s Air Part III
• Saving White City’s Air Part IV
• Fueling the Future: Exploring Sustainable Energy Use

During our August Teacher’s Workshop, teachers spent an afternoon at Hesthavn Nature Center learning about watershed stewardship projects. They rotated through various stations in order to gain ideas for creating projects back in their schools. These stations included riparian, macroinvertebrates, water quality, photopoint monitoring, plant identification, and the StreamWebs database. You can find all of the resources that were shared on the StreamWebs resources web page: http://www.streamwebs.org/resources.

Curriculum for the plant identification portion of the StreamWebs activities is also available. Click here to access the curriculum.

In addition to the resources that you can find on the StreamWebs site, SMILE has created a limited number of StreamWebs educator kits for SMILE’s teachers to borrow for use in their communities. There are three different kits available: riparian, water quality, and macro invertebrates. See the pictures below for the contents of the kits. If you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity, please contact Renee O’Neill at renee.oneill@oregonstate.edu.

Next week at our Teacher’s Workshop, Renee O’Neill will be presenting a new set of activities about owls, owl pellets, ecosystems, and food webs for use in at the elementary level. We are very excited about these activities, as they are hands-on, interactive, and fun! Check out the different lessons and components at the links below. We look forward to seeing you at our Workshop!

If you are interested in ordering owl pellets from researcher Rebecca Terry for dissection in your SMILE clubs, please contact Renee O’Neill at renee.oneill@oregonstate.edu.

Lesson 1

All About Owls: click here

All About Owls Powerpoint: click here

Habitat Activity: click here

Whooo Am I Brochures: click here

Lesson 2

Owl Pellet Dissection (Part 1): click here

Bone Identification Sheet: click here

Lesson 3

Owl Pellet Dissection (Part 2): click here

Mice and Munchies: click here

Lesson 4

Specialists vs. Generalists: click here

Lesson 5

I’m in Danger: click here

Other activities:

Survivor: click here