Students will use the motion detector to determine the topography of the items in the box, which simulates the ocean floor. Students will interpret data obtained using sonar to describe a region.

 Science Discipline: Earth

Content Explored: (see attached sheet)

Formal Learning Objectives:

• Students will be able to use the motion detector to produce a visual in the form of a graph.
• Students will be able to interpret the graphs to describe an ocean floor.
• Students will be able to design questions that could be answered by using the motion sensor.

Inquiry and Design

• Describe relationships by making inferences and predictions.
• Communicate, use space and time relationships, define operationally, raise questions.
• Formulate hypotheses, test and experiment.

Earth Sciences

• Identify various earth structures (mountains, faults, drainage basins) through the use of models.
• Explain the ocean's impact on local weather and the climate of the region.
• Identify ocean and shoreline features (bays, inlets, spits, and tidal marshes).

Technology Devices

Describe and demonstrate the operation and use of advanced instrumentation in evaluating material and chemical properties (scanning, electron microscope, nuclear magnetic resonance machines…motion sensor).

Technological Design Process

Recognizing the problem, proposing a solution, implementing the solution, evaluating the solution and communicating the problem.

Information Technology

The technology that humans create to store and transmit information.

Instructional Technology

Any mechanical aid (including computer technology) used to assist in or enhance the process of teaching and learning.

Relationship Between Science and Technology

Science builds principals or theories while technology is the practical application of those principals or theories.

Science

Search for understanding the natural world using inquiry and experimentation.

Technology Education

The application of tools, materials, processes and systems to resolve problems and extend human capabilities.

Topographic Map

A representation of a region on a sufficient scale to show detail, selected and man-made and natural features of a proportion of the land surface including its relief and certain physical and cultural features; portrayal of the position of the land surface including its relief and certain physical and cultural features; portrayal of the position, relation, size, shape and evaluation.

Materials List

• Blue Paper
• Motion Sensor
• Computer
• Overhead of ocean floor
• Booklet for all groups

Procedures

Explore

Phase 1

Inquire to determine the student's prior knowledge using the KWL method by listing what the students know, what they want to know and finally what they have learned after the experience. Allow the students to propose any questions or concerns about the topic. Ask the students if they have any prior experience using a motion detector or if they know any other uses for motion detectors. During this time the teacher will describe the ocean floor and show the students an overhead of the ocean floor.

Engage

Phase 2

Using a motion detector, the students will determine the type of ocean floor topography located inside the boxes that the teachers have designed. After the first scan using the motion detector, the students will have the opportunity to arrange the objects in the box to create

another topography to scan. Students can create new ideas by building their own model. Students will record their observations and explain them after they have recorded them. The teacher will answer any questions and assist the students during the activity.

Argue

Phase 3

After the activity the students will have an opportunity to ask any questions or clarify any ideas that may be unclear to them. The students will have an opportunity to record a question about the activity. Students can list some items that may cause an inaccurate reading or what may be misleading about the readings.

Student assessment plan

Each student will pose a question about how they think the use of sonar can be helpful to the protection of the environment and finding shipwrecks or other wrecks (airplane crashes into the ocean).

Bibliography of Resources

12-2 The Sea Floor. An Earth Science Book Like Science Insights Exploring Earth and Space. Pp.312-314.

Arthur, M., Guber, A. L., and Pagani, Mark. The Sea Around Us. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1996.

Asimov, Issac. ABC's of the Ocean. Chicago: Children's Press, 1982.

Dispezio, Michael, and Marilyn Linner-Luebe. Science Insights Exploring Earth and Space. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Earle, Sylvia A. Dive! My Adventures in The Deep Frontier. Washington DC: The National Geographic Society, 1999.

ECO Guide: The Ocean Unfolds. New York: VanDam, 1990.

Pinet, Paul R. Invitation to Oceanography. St Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1996.

Teacher's Passport to Successful Science. Roseville, CA: Pasco, 2000

Detailed Explanation of Content Explored

• New Science Words:
• Continental Shelf
• Continental Slope
• Continental Rise
• Submarine Canyon
• Abyssal Plain
• Rift Zone
• Mid-ocean Ridges
• Ocean Trench
• Topography
• Seamounts
• Guyots
• Reefs
• Atolls

The Students will learn about features of the ocean. They will be learn the definitions of these science words during the usage of a motion sensor, and through inquiry and direct-instruction (about the ocean). These features will allow the students to learn about ocean floor topography.

Topography: A precise description of the surface features in a particular area including elevation.

Continental Margin: The part of the continent that extends out into the ocean. Has three parts:

• Continental Slope
• Continental Rise
• Continental Shelf

The continent does not end at the water's edge.

Continental Shelf: A gently sloping surface that extends under the water from the shoreline.

• Sediments transported by rivers form most of the continental shelf.
• Average width is about 65km but can be much wider or narrower.

Continental Slope: A steep drop at the end of the continental shelf.

• Made up of same materials as the continental shelf.
• In some areas (i.e. Pacific Coast of South America) no continental slope exists. There are deep ocean trenches close to the continental shelf.

Continental Rise: The area from the Continental slope to the deep ocean floor. Made up of sediments washed down from the Continental Slopes.

Submarine Canyon:

• Formed by moving masses of water and sediments called turbidity currents.
• During the ice ages when sea levels were lower, rivers flowed into the oceans and cut some of the canyons.
• Turbidity currents are not related to other ocean currents.
• They are very dense because of the sediments they carry.
• They flow swiftly down the steep canyons in the continental slopes.

Ocean Floor Features

Aabyssal Plains

• Flat areas of the deep ocean floor.
• Some abyssal plains show layers of sediment deposited over thousands of years. These sediments filled in rough spots, forming a smooth, flat surface.
• Build up of thick layers of undisturbed sediments. Deep ocean sediments contain the remains of microscopic organisms. After the organisms die, they sink to the ocean floor, forming a sediment called ooze.

Mid-Ocean Ridges

• Mountain ranges in the ocean basin.
• The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs through the Atlantic Ocean basin.

Seamounts and Guyots

Seamounts

• Volcanic mountains that rise more than 1000m above the ocean floor.
• Form near mid-ocean ridges or volcanic hot spots.
• Grow until plate movement carries them away from the plate boundary or hotspot.
• Can grow large enough to form volcanic islands.
• When seamount stops growing and is leveled off by wave action, it is called a Guyot.

Reefs and Atolls

• Made of limestone skeletons of many generations of coral organisms.
• Coral reefs form in shallow water on the continental shelves.
• If volcanic island later sinks below the water surface, a ring of coral reefs (an atoll) is left behind.

Ocean Trenches

• Deep cracks in the earth's crust.
• Form at converging plate boundaries.

Rift Valley

• A long, narrow valley in the earth's crust.