Virtual Field Trip: Ship To Shore Exploring the Deep Sea with the R/V Falkor
Summary
The deep sea is home to a variety of understudied, otherworldly ecosystems that are in need of human understanding if they are to have any protection from encroaching deep sea fishing and mining activities. These systems support the global marine environment through habitat creation, nutrient cycling, and maintenance of biodiversity. However, they also happen to be found in areas with rich stores of oil, gas, minerals, and potential new pharmaceuticals. Understanding what ecosystem processes generate these key services is fundamental to their protection.
Join us as we virtually board the R/V Falkor and learn more about their research and new discoveries, both positive and negative.
The Pacific margin of Costa Rica is an area of seamount subduction where methane seeps, thermal anomalies, and non-subducting seamounts intersect and presumably interact. Despite several research expeditions to this region, scientists still know very little about how these types of ecosystems may be connected to communities in the rest of the oceans including the soft sediment background communities and deep-sea corals. To characterize these interactions, Dr. Erik Cordes, from Temple University, and his team of interdisciplinary researchers will use a framework coupling benthic sampling, near-bottom chemical sensor, and photographic profiling, along with vertical characterizations through the water column from deep to shallow.
Panelists
Dr. Erik Cordes
He has worked on the ecology of deep-sea corals and hydrocarbon seeps for over 20 years. He has spent over 16 months at sea on over 30 research cruises, 10 as Chief Scientist. The research in his lab is focused on understanding the areas of the deep sea that support the highest biomass communities: deep-water coral reefs, natural hydrocarbon seeps, and hydrothermal vents. He studies these ecosystems at all levels of organization, from energy flow in ecosystems and patterns of community assembly, down to gene expression and microbial processes. Dr. Cordes worked on deep-sea corals for his Master’s thesis at Moss Landing Marine Labs, worked on cold-seep ecology for his Ph.D. at Penn State University, and studied the microbial communities within hydrothermal vent chimneys during his NSF Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Harvard. At Temple, his lab has continued to explore the deep Gulf of Mexico while working on the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on deep-sea coral communities and the effects of ocean acidification on the reef-forming deep-sea coral Lophelia pertusa. He participated in R/V Falkor’s 2012 Deep Sea Coral Shakedown. In addition to the studies of the seeps and offshore seamounts of Costa Rica on this cruise, ongoing investigations in the Cordes lab include the deep-sea corals of the Phoenix Islands, and the Deep Search project studying the various deepwater habitats of the Atlantic coast of the US as the Department of the Interior considers offshore oil drilling.
Classroom Resources
Plastic, Sort It Out!
In this investigation, students design and create a Recycling Sorting Machine to eliminate the amount of waste that is incorrectly being sent to landfill. Students use basic resources (recycled and/or reused items in the classroom, home, or their community) to engineer a solution to the growing problem of waste in our schools.
PlasticSeas: Nurdle Know-How
Students examine the nature of the problem and work collaboratively to create solutions to the issue of nurdles becoming evermore present in our oceans. Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets which are used to make many of the plastics we use every day. Unfortunately, they end up where they are not supposed to and cause a wide range of problems. Nurdle Know-How is a series of activities that will ultimately prepare students to design and build a nurdle capture system to clean up their local bay, harbor, or coastal waters.
PlasticSeas: Microbeads, A Major Problem
As the name suggests, microbeads are very small (microscopic) beads of plastic. Since they are particles of less than 1mm, they are almost impossible to capture as they enter household drains. This leaves these small, solid balls of plastic to enter our aquatic ecosystems where they are ingested by organisms and accumulated within the food web. In this activity, students are challenged to design and construct their own device to extract microplastics from cosmetic products such as facial cleansers, body wash, and toothpaste.
PlasticSeas: ReThink Your Plastic
Students will follow the engineering design process to explore solutions to the overwhelming plastic packaging problem. They will develop sustainable designs that will consider alternatives to plastic packaging in items like juice boxes, plastic straws, bin liners, and single-use take-away/take-out containers.
PlasticSeas: Product Life Cycle
In this investigation, students describe the life cycle of man-made products that include or originate from plastic to evaluate how they may impact the environment. Students use a basic life cycle assessment – similar to assessments used by process engineers – that allows them to identify and order the different steps in the life cycle of a product. Using their analyses to compare the impacts of different products, students develop ideas to reduce the environmental impact of the production process or lifecycle of the product.
EarthEcho Expeditions: PlasticSeas - Engaging videos, STEM career close-ups and more!
STEM Design Challenges:
Plastic, Sort It Out!: In this investigation, students will design and create a Recycling Sorting Machine to eliminate the amount of waste that is incorrectly being sent to landfill. Students will use basic resources (recycled and/or reused items in the classroom, home, or their community) to engineer a solution to the growing problem of waste in our schools.
Nurdle Know-How: Students examine the nature of the problem and work collaboratively to create solutions to the issue of nurdles becoming evermore present in our oceans. Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets which are used to make many of the plastics we use every day. Unfortunately, they end up where they are not supposed to and cause a wide range of problems. Nurdle Know-How is a series of activities that will ultimately prepare students to design and build a nurdle capture system to clean up their local bay, harbor, or coastal waters.
Microbeads, A Major Problem:
As the name suggests, microbeads are very small (microscopic) beads of plastic. Since they are particles of less than 1mm, they are almost impossible to capture as they enter household drains. This leaves these small, solid balls of plastic to enter our aquatic ecosystems where they are ingested by organisms and accumulated within the food web. In this activity, students are challenged to design and construct their own device to extract microplastics from cosmetic products such as facial cleansers, body wash, and toothpaste.
ReThink Your Plastic: Students will follow the engineering design process to design and create solutions to plastic packaging problems. They will create and adapt suitable and sustainable designs that will consider alternatives to plastic packaging for example juice boxes, plastic straws, straw wrappers, bin liners, and single-use containers.
Product Lifecycle: In this investigative assessment, students describe the life cycle of man-made products that include or originate from plastic and other materials, and evaluate how they may impact the environment. Students use a basic life cycle assessment – similar to assessments used by process engineers – that allows them to identify and order the different steps in the life cycle of a product. Using their analyses to compare the impacts of different products,
students develop ideas to reduce the environmental impact of the production process or lifecycle of the product.
Play with rePurpose: Play with rePurpose is a series of activities that will ultimately prepare your students to design and build playground installations made from repurposed plastic materials. We have provided pre-design challenges so your students have the knowledge and step by step guidance they need to design the repurposed playground, including the design, creation, and testing of one piece of equipment made from PET bottles. This guide provides students with an opportunity for an integrated STEM approach to teaching and learning.
Costa Rican Deep Sea Connections Cruise with the R/V Falkor:
https://schmidtocean.org/cruise/costa-rican-deep-sea-connections/#collaborators
Science Standards
NGSS:
MS-PS1-3 Matter and its Interactions
Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
MS-ESS3-3 Earth and Human Activity
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.*
MS-ETS1-1 Engineering Design
Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
MS-ETS1-2 Engineering Design
Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
MS-ETS1-3 Engineering Design
Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.