Purpose: Students will explain the economic importance of ecosystems and be able to define and give examples of ecosystem services.

Time needed: 30-40 mins

Materials:  

• Copies of article “Ecosystem Services: A Primer” by the Ecological Society of America

• YouTube video at http://youtu.be/V7LgPPtDWKo  

Instructions:

ENGAGE:  Introduce the term "ecosystem services" by writing it on the board. Ask students what they think this phrase might mean? Then, watch the following three minute YouTube video to provide an overview - "Ecosystem Services": http://youtu.be/V7LgPPtDWKo  

EXPLORE: Provide each student with a copy of the article- “Ecosystems Services: A Primer”. Use the questions below for class discussion of the article. It is suggested teachers provide the content questions to general level students (grades 9–10) and have them work in pairs or groups; advanced students may be asked to summarize the article using their own observations. The content questions can then be used to prompt class discussion. Extension and Personal Viewpoint Questions are better discussed in small groups and may require teaching of ecosystem concepts beyond what is found in the article.

EXPLAIN: 

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EVALUATE: 

Purpose: Students create a watershed model and then demonstrate the effects of having or not having an estuary on the amount of pollution that enters the ocean.

Time needed: 15-20 mins

Materials: white construction paper or cardstock; materials to represent pollutants (food dye, oil, spices, etc); spray bottles full of water; scissors; sponges 

Instructions:

ENGAGE: Tell students that estuaries are often called "Nature's Filters". Ask them what they think this means. What is a filter? What does it do? Filters are used in air conditioners and vacuum cleaners to help catch dirt and other things, cleaning the air and your homes. Then, tell them they are going to do an activity to show why and how estuaries are considered such great filters.

EXPLORE - PART 1

• Distribute one piece of paper per student. This can be either a standard size sheet, or you may choose to use poster paper and do this activity outside.

• Instruct students to crumple up their paper into a ball, then stretch it out again almost fully. This represents an area of land, or watershed. The ridges and creases that form represent mountains and valleys.

• Distribute blue water-soluble markers and allow students to trace the creases, representing rivers, streams and creeks. (If doing this outside with large poster paper, you can also allow students to add rocks, sticks, etc to represent various landforms.)

• Distribute spray bottles. Tell students to make it rain on their models and watch what happens - the blue ink will spread, showing the way that the water moves through the watershed..

• Next, distribute red markers. This color represents pollutants such as oil, chemicals, plastic, etc. Ask students to draw dots or x’s on their model in places where they might find pollutants.

• Repeat the experiment with the spray bottles, watching where and how the pollutants spread. 

• Note that in many cases, the blue and red ink combined (making purple). This is because pollutants often get washed into rivers and streams by the rain.

EXPLORE - PART 2

• Ask: can you think of anything that could prevent pollutants from getting to the ocean? One answer is estuaries: nature’s filters! 

• Tell students they are going to use sponges to represent estuaries in their models. 

• Distribute sponges and scissors and ask each group to cut up the sponges so that they form a solid blockade between the land and the ocean in their watershed model. Make sure the sponge goes tightly all the way to both sides.

• Distribute “pollutant” materials from Part 1. Allow a minute or or two for students to arrange these pollutants on the land part of their watershed models ONLY.

• Distribute spray bottles. Ask students to make it rain on their watershed until the pollutants begin to run down toward the sea.

EXPLAIN: Ask students to explain what happened. Did the pollutants make it into the ocean? Were these results different from the first time we did this exercise without sponges? Students should observe that this time, the “estuary” sponges prevented most of the pollutants from traveling into the sea. Explain that this is how the vegetation in real estuaries work: they collect many pollutants before they can get to the ocean or to drinking water sources, acting as natural filters that help improve water quality.

EXPAND: Together or in groups with tablets, explore the following interactive animation from NOAA showing how estuaries filter water: https://coast.noaa.gov/elearning/estuaries/  Note that while estuaries can filter many pollutants, some still escape into the ocean and surrounding watershed, and too many can harm estuary plants and animals (and people!). So it’s still very important to limit pollutants at the source: on land.

EVALUATE: Can students describe how estuaries work as natural filters and why this is important?

Purpose: 

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Materials: 

Instructions:

ENGAGE: 

EXPLORE 

EXPLAIN: 

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EVALUATE: 

https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2018-12/documents/es_lesson_1_bingo.pdf 

https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2018-12/documents/es_lesson_2_hehy.pdf