MARINE SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION

The Marine Biology/Oceanography High School Supplemental SEEd standards explore the interactions and processes that affect living things in the ocean. Students develop and use a model to describe the characteristics, properties and influences of the ocean and seawater. Students analyze and interpret data about marine life to classify them into different marine phyla and to determine their relationships within marine ecosystems. Students ask questions to obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the interaction between humans and the ocean. 

Strand MBIO.1: STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE OCEAN

Plate tectonics allowed the oceans to form with different marine zones. The unique properties of seawater influence and effect characteristics of the marine zones within the water column. Water surface phenomena influence the shoreline and affect marine life.  

Standard MBIO.1.1     Develop and use models which use scale, proportion, and quantity to describe the Earth’s oceans and the different marine zones.  

Standard MBIO.1.2     Plan and carry out an investigation to explain the unique properties, structure, and function of seawater when compared to freshwater. Emphasize the properties of temperature, polarity, solubility, salinity, density and how they change in the water column.   

Standard MBIO.1.3     Engage in argument based on evidence for how the patterns of sea water, tides, currents, waves, and weather affect the shoreline and influence the evolution, adaptations, and distributions of marine populations. 

Strand MBIO.2: MARINE ECOSYSTEMS

Scientific theories state that the earliest life on Earth originated from the ocean. Marine life in the ocean relies on chemosynthesis and photosynthesis to produce energy. A wide variety of marine life now exists in a variety of marine ecosystems which can be classified based on their characteristics. Energy flows and matter cycles within and between different marine ecosystems.  

Standard MBIO.2.1     Construct an explanation of how populations of organisms evolved (changed) over time as ocean ecosystems changed. Emphasize that the earliest life on Earth originated in the ocean.  

Standard MBIO.2.2     Ask Questions to analyze and interpret data for how matter and energy is used during photosynthesis and chemosynthesis in oceanic ecosystems. Emphasize the ocean zones in which photosynthesis and chemosynthesis are the primary mode of production in ocean organisms.   

Standard MBIO.2.3     Analyze and interpret data about marine life from varying marine ecosystems to classify them into different marine phyla using structure and function, distinguishing characteristics, and adaptations.   

Standard MBIO.2.4     Develop and use models to analyze the flow of energy and cycling of matter in marine ecosystems. Examples of models could include food webs, trophic levels, and carbon exchange.   

Standard MBIO.2.5     Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information regarding the stability and change of relationships between biotic and abiotic factors in marine ecosystems. Examples of ecosystems could include estuaries, coral reefs, kelp forests, the open ocean, and the deep ocean. 

Strand MBIO.3: SYSTEM INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HUMANS AND THE OCEAN

Interactions between humans and the ocean have occurred throughout history for a variety of reasons. Human activities may affect marine ecosystems. Climate change affects the ocean and marine ecosystems. Sustainability plans may affect changes to marine environmental systems.  

Standard MBIO.3.1     Ask questions to obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the patterns that exist in the interactions between humans and the marine environment throughout history. Emphasize historical and modern motivations for oceanic exploration and research as well as the associated challenges and findings.   

Standard MBIO.3.2     Engage in argument based on evidence about how human activities may affect marine ecosystems. Examples of human activities could include the extraction of resources, transportation, and recreation.   

Standard MBIO.3.3     Analyze and interpret data to investigate the causes and effects of climate change on the ocean and marine ecosystems. Examples of data to investigate could be sea level rise, thermal expansion, ocean acidification, ocean temperature, biomagnification of pollutants, ocean deoxygenation, and eutrophication.   

Standard MBIO.3.4     Design a solution in the form of a sustainability plan that impacts individual, city, or regional contributions (changes), including Utah, to marine environmental systems. Define the problem, identify criteria and constraints, develop possible solutions using models, analyze data to make improvements from iteratively testing solutions, and optimize a solution.