Program Format

The first session is a multimedia presentation and discussion focused on the discovery of the challenges humans are placing on the survival of marine mammals and ocean health.

• The program will begin with a video introduction and overview of Pacific Marine Mammal Center
• Presenter and participants explore and discuss threats to marine mammals with human origins including:
  • Bycatch of marine mammals in the fishing industry
  • The effects of chemical pollutants and the pathways they take to enter the ocean
  • Plastics and other marine debris and the pathways they take to enter the ocean including the 'garbage patches' that ocean gyres are collecting.
  • Direct human interaction
  • Climate change
• Participants will view pictures and videos highlighting affects listed above
• Presenter and participants will explore and discuss environmentally friendly behaviors which can be adopted daily to reduce human impact on the environment on an individual level
• Presenter and participants will discover example technology and systems that have been developed to mitigate some of the threats discussed.
• Presenter will outline the project participants are to tackle by restating the different threats to marine mammals originating from humans, encourage them to select one of the issues they feel most passionate about.and relay that they are to engineer a solution or system to mitigate the anthropogenic threat they chose. Participants will be directed to their teacher/program leader as to the amount of time they have to complete the task and when they will be presenting it in the subsequent session. 
• Time is allotted for additional questions and discussion

Participants select one of those challenges and, between program sessions, embark on an exercise to create a viable solution which they then present to our ocean expert in the second session. During that session the design’s feasibility will be analyzed and a discussion of how it might be implemented then ensues.

Vocabulary

Persistent Organic Pollutants, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Harassment, Migratory, Entanglement, Habituation

Connection Technology

We use Zoom to connect with participants. The education department will send you a link with instructions on how to connect with us for the program. In order to insure your presentation goes smoothly, we ask that you do not connect via WIFI. A cabled connection to the internet helps insure transmission of HD video files included in the presentation.

Program Objectives

Students will:

• Explore, discuss and develop an appreciation for threats to marine mammals with human origins
• Explore, discuss and develop an appreciation for environmentally friendly behaviors which can be adopted daily to reduce human impact on the environment on an individual level
• Discover example technology and systems that have been developed to mitigate some of the threats discussed.
• Research, evaluate, design and engineer a solution to one of the threats discussed
• Communicate their design and participate in a constructive critique

Standards, Disciplinary Core Ideas, Cross Cutting Concepts and Science and Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas:

Physical Sciences:

• PS1: Chemical Reactions
• PS2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Life Sciences:

• LS2: Ecosystems: interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Earth and Space Sciences:

• ESS3: Earth and Human Activity

Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

• ETS1: Engineering Design
• ETS2: Links among engineering, technology, science and society

Cross-Cutting Concepts:

Patterns

• Cause and Effect: Mechanisms and Explanation
• Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
• Systems and System Models
• Energy and Matter: flows, Cycles, and Conservation
• Structure and Function
• Stability and Change

Science and Engineering Practices:

• Asking Questions and Defining Problems
• Developing and Using Models
• Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
• Analyzing and Interpreting Data
• Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
• Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
• Engaging in Argument from Evidence
• Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information