Oceans in Extra Depth! FractalMom, Marine Life, the 1000 Year Conveyor Belt, & More!
Come explore the oceans from top to bottom all around the globe... In this Ongoing discussion, learners will direct the next topic and we will build from week to week!
Karen Fisher Favret the FractalMom
Average rating:
4.7
Number of reviews:(178)
What's included
1 live meeting
45 mins in-class hours per weekClass Experience
US Grade 4 - 7
Learners will explore the oceans from top to bottom and all around the globe with a research oceanographer. I will tell stories, answer questions, give demonstrations, show images and play sounds while we explore the scientific data that we need to understand each topic. Students will get to use their critical thinking skills as they look at some of the data themselves, and decide what it means as citizen scientists. We will use the framework of scaling, a rapid way of approaching math problems used by scientists all the time. Each class is stand-alone, and learners do not need to have any particular background knowledge to take this course. Repeat visitors will get to learn about a variety of different topics, and begin to build an understanding of how everything fits together. Interested students are invited to do the experiments as I demonstrate, learners can do it at home after the class, and delve into more details when we rotate back to topics already covered. Topics will change, and there will be new things each week! Some examples of topics we will cover: biodiversity of marine life; Global Conveyor Belt (thermo-haline circulation); Ocean Carbon Pump (biological drivers of the carbon cycle); Red Tides (phytoplankton blooms); Ocean color satellites (remote sensing of the oceans); Sounds of marine mammals and birds (passive acoustic monitoring); Layers in the ocean (vertical stratification and mixing); Nets and bottles vs echo sounders and AUVs (oceanographic instruments); Beaches and coastlines (consequences of sea level changes); Sustainable fisheries (marine resource management); Ocean catastrophes (internal waves, brinicles, tsunamis, underwater avalanches); Pollution Problems (human impacts on the ocean); Ocean Careers (how to be a biological oceanographer? marine biologist? fisheries manager? environmental scientist? ship captain? ); How big is the ocean? (scaling all the water in the earth system, from the global budget to the drinkable water).
Other Details
Parental Guidance
If learners do the experiments at home, they may get wet, salty, or non-toxically food colored... Also, please warn your learner that if they have trouble hearing me or the sounds I am playing, they should make sure to raise their hand (for real or in zoom), _and text me_ in case I cannot hear them either so we can work it out. Home computer systems seem to react very differently when I share my computer sound so everyone can hear the whales sing, and at least one student could not hear anything even though everyone else was fine.
Supply List
Handouts will be provided to allow students to follow the experiments, demonstrations, or data analysis that we do in class. For learners to do the basic physics experiments at home, they will need (depending on the week) two empty spaghetti-sauce sized jars, tap water (warm and cold), ice cubes, salt, and liquid food coloring (usually found in four packs in the baking aisle at supermarkets) some pennies or dimes, and a small eyedropper/pipette for making water droplets. Optional towel that can get wet and multi-colored. To do the demonstrations, they will also need a larger, rectangular container that can hold water (the more transparent the better). A glass bread loaf pan, small aquarium, or similar shaped plastic container the size of a shoe box will work. To make beaches and ocean floors, sand or gravel to fill about 1/4 to 1/3 of the container, or clay/play-dough/other materials that can get wet for awhile without dissolving completely.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Joined February, 2019
4.7
178reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
Doctoral Degree in Science from Cornell University
As a research oceanographer, I have worked in many different ocean environments. I have been to sea in the North Atlantic off Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, the Southern Ocean off the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Pacific off the coast of California. I have worked with marine biologists, fishermen, fisheries managers, ship captains, environmentalists, and all sorts of oceanographers (physical, chemical, biological, geological). As a team, we have looked at how plankton dynamics are affected by ocean currents, how fisheries respond to climactic changes in circulation, and how whales and dolphins respond to our research efforts in their homes. I am teaching these classes because the world needs citizen scientists who can think critically about how our world is changing, and find new ways to communicate, innovate, and compensate.Reviews
Live Group Class
$15
weekly1x per week
45 min
Completed by 251 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 9-13
3-9 learners per class
