NEPTUNE Canada

Underwater Researchers (Grade 10)

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Learning Objective(s)

The objective of this lesson is to get students thinking about research, how it is carried out and what are the aspects involved with setting up an experiment underwater.

Introduction

Introduce the subject by talking about the various methods of underwater research (i.e. ship based, small cabled observatories and Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles), what they are looking at/for, why and what sort of instrumentation might be used to carry out the experiments?

Introduce NEPTUNE Canada as a new approach to underwater research. Discuss how sensors are deployed, what they are used for and the discoveries that will occur as a result of this new technology.

Materials

Access to computers and the internet.

Activity

Ask the students to get into small groups of threes or fours. They must act as if they are an underwater research team. They can research anything they want which is relevant to the NEPTUNE project. For example:

• Look at hydrothermal vents to search for the origin of life.
• Monitor fish stocks so we can see a rise or decline in the number of fish and direct fishers accordingly.
• Search for new species
• Assess temperature changes in the ocean over several years to determine if climate change is affecting the ocean
• Evaluate plate characteristics

They must try and win the contract with NEPTUNE Canada, which will fund all the sensors they need for their special underwater experiment.

Choose one of the groups to be the interview panel. Whilst the others are discussing their ideas, have this group compile a list of questions which the other groups must answer. Ask this group to target each question at one particular person in order to deter one person from answering all the questions. This group will get to choose the overall winner of the contract, but they must be able to explain to the class why the group was chosen and what benefits it will have on society. Hints on the type of questions could include the following:

• What is your reason for wanting to study this topic?
• How will it benefit society?
• What sensors do you want to deploy?
• Where would you like to put them?
• How often would your experiment require samples?
• If the experiment tests the water column – how regular would the sample interval be and how would you stop the instruments from getting damaged by fishermen and trawling?
• If your experiment requires light – how will you stop it from affecting life that relies on darkness?

Extension

Students could write a letter to NEPTUNE Canada requesting to add sensors to the NEPTUNE observatory in order to conduct their desired experiment.

Assessment

• Do the groups choose appropriate research topics?
• How well do the groups answer the interviewer’s questions?
• Does each member of the group input ideas and knowledge into the interview?

Related Website

Research projects already approved for funding by NEPTUNE Canada.

Tags

research, sensors, instruments, instrument platform