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Exploring the Ocean
Environment investigates the processes that develop ocean
basins and drive ocean currents, as well as the inevitable ocean-atmosphere
interactions. It concludes with an examination of the delicate balance
of the ocean environment, looking at marine productivity and the development
of dead zones.** |
- Unit 1 - The ocean basins |
Sample
- Students examine the dynamic nature
of ocean basins and the processes that form and continually
reshape them. Students investigate seafloor age, depth, and
plate tectonic processes. The unit culminates in an exercise
evaluating competing hypotheses for the age distribution of
the seafloor.
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- Unit 2 - Ocean Currents |
Sample
- Students examine how wind, temperature,
and salinity influence the movement of ocean water in surface
and deep-water currents. They also examine the direction, speed,
and temperature of surface currents as they seek to uncover
patterns in the movement of surface waters in the ocean basins.
The unit underscores the importance of currents in distributing
energy, nutrients, and dissolved gases around the globe.
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- Unit 3 - Ocean-Atmosphere interactions
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Sample
- Students investigate how the oceans
and atmosphere interact to moderate Earth's climate. This includes
an exploration of how the distribution of land and ocean influences
the transfer of energy in each hemisphere. They also conduct
an in-depth case study of the El Niño Southern Oscillation
(ENSO), comparing ocean and atmospheric conditions in the equatorial
Paci€c Ocean during normal, El Niño, and La Niña
phases. Finally, students examine the global climatic effects
of these events.
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- Unit 4 - Marine productivity | Sample
- Students compare terrestrial and marine
productivity,
examining how the availability of key resources dictates the
amount of
productivity in ocean surface waters. They also assess the biological
and
societal importance of primary productivity. Finally, a case
study of dead
zones on both a regional and global scale highlights the severe
negative
anthropogenic impacts that threaten nearshore waters.
** The SAGUARO Exploring GIS Investigations
for Earth Science curriculum requries the use of ESRI's ArcView®
GIS software version 3.0 for Macintosh or 3.2 and higher for PC.
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