Case study 4
Svanøy sea shore investigation
In 2012 we decided to combine a field trip with the group 4 project. In the past all Biology and Environmental systems students have gone on an overnight trip to Svanøy and island 1hr North of RCN (by boat). The purpose was to do an investigation of the life on the shore line as well as visiting a deer farm and having a nice time. Physics students, and their teacher, always stayed at home so missed out on the trip but had a chill weekend. So this was something new and to be honest I was a little sceptical, what will my students do on a biology trip?
Preparation
The first level of preparation was to prepare the teachers so that we all knew what was going to happen. The Bio and ES teachers knew what was going to happen but I didn't have a clue so needed to get up to speed. After meeting with Jelena, the bio teacher I realised that the point was to measure the physical conditions on the shore whilst the bio students counted shells. The sort of things we can measure are temperature, reflectivity of surface, orientation and slope of surface and most importantly height of surface. The students were going to have to work out the connections themselves but to give them a head start I spent a couple of lessons talking about tides and waves. Since they'd also do some sea measurements on the way to the island I also covered conductivity of electrolytes . The class then had the challenge of devising a method for drawing the profile of a slope using a plastic tube and a ruler. We did this outside because the weather was so nice. Biology students had a more thorough preparation and a small group were given responsibility for putting together and looking after a practical kit. These student would act as group leaders.
Oceanographic measurements.
On the way to Svanøy the boat stopped 4 times so that a group of physics students could send down a probe to measure % Oxygen, Conductivity, salinity and temperature. It is interesting that there are two measurements of conductivity. One is the actual measurement and the second is a measurement that has been corrected for temperature. the standard temperature used is 25°C. The water was much colder than this so the corrected measurement was always higher because conductivity of electrolytes gets higher with increased temp. It was also interesting that the unit for conductivity is Sm-1 where S is the Seimen which is 1/Ohm. I can't understand why they don't use Ω-1. One of the biggest challenges was doing trigonometry on the fly with no calculator. This had to be done since the sensor didn't hang vertically in the water so the students had to calculate how much wire to let out so that the probe went down to 20m.
The other measurement we made was transparency. This was done by sending down a white disc until it can no longer be seen.
Whilst the physics students did their measurements biology students collected plankton and chemistry students used a colorimeter.
Group meetings
After everyone had arrived on Svanøy the groups met to discuss the individual roles and responsibility. After about an hour the first groups went to the shore line. This had to be in the evening to catch low tide.
A staff member was allocated to each group to give help and make the assessment. After something to eat from the barbecue, the first groups went to the sea shore to take measurements. Only half of the groups could go at a time since we didn't have enough equipment for all the groups, the other half were kept busy moving logs and cutting smalls trees.
On the shore line everyone was actively employed counting organisms and taking measurements. The idea is that after the event the students will share data and make some conclusions about why certain organisms live where they do. Thanks partly to fantastic weather and Jelena's meticulous organisation, the two days was a great success. I also think we did well in meeting the aim of encouraging an understanding of the relationships between scientific disciplines and the overarching nature of the scientific method.
Here are some more photos
