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Using online and other resources, students can track a satellite-tagged sea
creature to monitor its movements and to gather scientific data.
Academic Areas: | Geography, Math, Language Arts, Science |
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Grade Levels: | Grades 4-8 |
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Learning Objectives: |
After participating in the activity that follows, students will be able to do the following:
- Tell how scientists use satellite tracking to learn about animals.
- Use actual tracking data to plot an animal's movements on a map.
- Use tracking data to make observations about an animal.
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Standards Met: |
Geography
- Understands the characteristics and uses of maps, globes, and other
geographic tools and technologies
- Understands global development and environmental issues
Math
- Uses a variety of strategies in the problem-solving process
- Uses applies basic and advanced procedures while performing the processes
of computation
- Understands and applies basic and advanced properties of the concepts of
measurement
Language Arts
- Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing
process
- Gathers and uses information for research purposes
Science
- Learns about diversity and adaptations of organisms
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Materials for each team of three or four students: |
Internet access (optional), research materials, maps, paper, pens, markers
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Background:
Many sea creatures are migratory, which means that they travel great distances during the
course of a year to mate, find food, or raise their young. Just as many birds fly south for
the winter, many sea creatures make seasonal trips to take advantage of food supplies,
warmer waters, and other factors. Pacific humpback whales, for example, journey south
from Alaskan waters in fall and swim for up to eight weeks to reach the warm waters off
Hawaii. There, females give birth to calves. In spring, they head north again, swimming a
roundtrip journey of 6,000 miles. Learning where animals go and what habitats they need
helps scientists learn how to better protect the animals and their habitats. But following
animals that fly great distances or swim unseen beneath the waves is difficult.
Thanks to satellite technology, though, scientists are making progress. Now they are
able to track marine animals by e-mail! Here's how it works. Scientists attach a small
radio transmitter to an animal such as a sea turtle. The transmitter sends signals to an
orbiting satellite, giving the turtle's position. The satellite, in turn, transmits the data by e-
mail to the scientist, who uses the data to map the turtle's movements. The transmitter
may also relay other information, such as water temperature. Using satellite-tracking
technology, scientists have been able to follow leatherback sea turtles from the Caribbean
Sea to Newfoundland and then down the Atlantic and along the coast of Africa. Learning
where leatherbacks travel to feed and nest helps scientists know what areas need to be
preserved or monitored for things such as pollution so they can protect these endangered
animals.
The following activity directs students to Web sites where they can monitor the daily
progress of actual satellite-tagged animals. Participating in the activity suggestions will
give your students a taste of what actual scientific work is like.
What to Do: |
Note: Detailed information about how satellite tracking works and how to interpret
tracking data is available on the Web sites listed below. Also included on most sites are
interviews with research scientists and even logs of their findings. Most sites require that
you register your class to begin receiving data. Registration is free, and you can often
download a teacher's guide to use in conjunction with the site.
- Tell your students that they are going to do the work of real scientists and track
marine animals by satellite. Before they begin, have a discussion in which you pose
questions like these: What good does knowing the travel patterns of an animal do?
Why might an animal travel or migrate? If an animal is threatened with extinction,
how might knowing its movements help scientists? If animals cross international
waters, what countries are responsible for their protection? Students may not know all
the answers, but they will find them once they begin their tracking activities.
- Each team should choose an animal to track. Before their studies begin, ask students
to write down in a log book what questions they have and what they'd like to learn
about their animal. The log will be an important tool as they participate in this
activity. The sites listed below feature information about animals with active and
defunct satellite tags. Students can download actual satellite tracking data, which may
be updated daily or weekly.
- The Albatross Project contains data from past tracking observations. Even though the
information isn't "live" it is still a good case study of the amazing journey of these
sea birds.
- Caribbean Conservation Corporation and Sea Turtle Survival League maintain a site
where students can track loggerheads, leatherbacks, and green sea turtles.
- Journey North follows the migrations of several species throughout the school year,
including gray whales, humpback whales, manatees, and right whales. Scientists
studying the animals provide weekly observations, and students receive "live" data
from tagged animals.
- WhaleNet contains a wealth of information about satellite tracking and various
animals that can be tracked, including harbor porpoises, gray seals, loggerhead
turtles, and northern right whales.
- The sites themselves provide many activity ideas, but here are some other ways to use
the satellite tracking data.
- Find out about the species being tracked. Where is its range? What does it eat? Does
it live alone or in groups? Is it a threatened or endangered species? If so, why? Why
does the animal migrate?
- Plot the animal's movements using latitude and longitude measurements on a map.
Many of the sites provide maps that you can download for this purpose.
- Use the maps to calculate how far the animal travels in a day or a week. Determine
the animal's average rate of travel. Total up the distance traveled from the beginning
of the animal's journey to the end (if it's over). If you receive depth data for your
animal, calculate its average dive depth. Create charts or graphs using the information
gathered.
- Use the data to answer questions about the animal's behavior. For example, if the
animal dives, when does it dive the most and where? If the animal is still for a period
of time, can you explain why? Does temperature seem to affect the animal's
movements? Does the animal travel to areas where humans affect it? How does
human intervention affect the animal? What questions about the animal and its
movements can't you answer with the satellite data? What might be some other ways
to learn more?
- Students should keep logs of their animal's journey, including their hypotheses about
its behavior and answers to questions that they find along the way. Upon concluding
the tracking study, each team should prepare a report for the class to share what the
students learned. Encourage students to make the reports graphically interesting.
Have them assess the activity by reflecting on the questions they asked at the
beginning of the study. Did they find the answers they sought?
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