Maps can be extremely valuable in helping ocean scientists answer their research questions. By comparing maps of fish population distribution and ocean currents, for example, scientists can determine where they are most likely to find certain species of fish. In this lesson, students will consider a number of ocean research scenarios and determine how mapping might help answer questions related to that research.

The Opening section and the first part of the Discussion section ask students to look at maps on the Internet. If you have one computer in your classroom, have students take turns looking at the maps in small groups. If students have no computer access, print out the pages and have students look at them on paper. You won't need to make one copy for each student; just have the class pass the papers around so everyone takes turns looking at each copy. Likewise, you can print and photocopy the research information in the Suggested Assessment section.

Geography

Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective"
Standard 3: "How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth's surface"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"

Two hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Printed versions of the scenarios listed in the Discussion section below (Print or type each of these scenarios so there will be enough to distribute evenly between groups of three or four; thus, if you have 32 students in your class, you will want to print two copies of each scenario to distribute to groups of four)

Students will

• examine ocean maps and discuss what the maps show;
• compare four maps of sea turtle and shark distribution;
• analyze scenarios related to ocean research and determine how mapping can help answer the research questions; and
• explain how maps might have been helpful to researchers in the Sustainable Seas Expeditions.

It's important for students to learn how maps can be used to provide information about a variety of activities, distributions, and earth and ocean features. For example, you might want to tell them that marine maps can show areas of fishing activity, climate variation, fish distribution, and currents. Comparing maps with all of these features tells us something valuable about the relationship between these variables and the overall geographic area that has been mapped. This type of comparison is one of the fundamental advantages of GIS, or geographic information systems.

Have students look at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean page. On this page, they will see several different maps of the ocean.

Students will see that each of the maps on this page shows different things about the ocean. One shows recent seismic activity in the ocean, while another shows different temperatures at the ocean's surface.

Ask students how they think maps such as these can help them learn about the ocean. Why is it useful to create maps? Why is it good to have maps that show information other than just the "basics," such as the locations of the continents or major islands?

Have students look at the following maps of sea turtle and megamouth shark distribution:

• Leatherback turtle
• Green sea turtle
• Loggerhead sea turtle
• Megamouth shark

Ask them to explain in a class discussion how these maps might be helpful for people who want to learn more about each species. Then ask them how the maps as a group might be helpful. What can we learn by looking at all of the maps together? What if the maps were layered on top of each other—what information would that "master map" provide? Discuss students' ideas as a class.

Divide the class into groups of three or four. Give each group one of the following scenarios, which you have printed before class. Ask groups to discuss their scenarios and to determine the information they think would be helpful to see on a map. Ask them to list their ideas. Sample ideas are provided in parentheses.

Scenario 1: We know that many species of fish like to make their homes in sunken ships or other pieces of "junk" that have sunk to the ocean floor. How might a map might help us find members of a species that like to do this and that prefer warm and shallow waters? What information should be mapped? [Ideas: Map the location of shipwrecks and other debris, the distribution of ocean temperatures, and ocean depth.]

Scenario 2: Both the fishermen and the sea lions of Peru like anchovies very much. Anchovies live in cold water. During the 1997-1998 El Niņo event, in which warm currents flowed over much of the Pacific, anchovy populations declined, resulting in a collapse of the Peruvian anchovy fishing industry and the starvation of thousands of sea lions. Fishermen want to know how to minimize their losses during the next El Niņo period. How might a map help them figure out how to react to El Niņo? What information should they map? [Ideas: Map the extent of the last El Niņo, the distribution of anchovies, and the areas where fishing was best and worst during the last El Niņo.]

Scenario 3: Some scientists are studying hydrothermal vents under the ocean. These are places underwater where hot gases come out of the earth, like underwater volcanoes (although they are generally not as large or spectacular as the classic Hawaiian volcano). The vents emit high grade metals that make the water slightly cloudy. They also emit a gas called methane. Researchers want to know where to find more hydrothermal vents. How might a map help? What information should they map? [Ideas: Map the presence of methane and the level of cloudiness at the ocean surface, map places where hydrothermal vents have already been found.]

Scenario 4: The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska killed many marine animals. The fishing industry was also affected, as many herring and salmon fisheries had to close. Scientists are still studying the long-term effects of this spill on marine animals. They want to find out how much damage was really done, and they also want to reduce damage to wildlife and the fishing industry in the event of a future oil spill. How might a map help them? What information should they map? [Ideas: Map the extent of the oil spill, the incidents where affected animals were found, the locations of fisheries that had to close.]

Discuss groups' ideas as a class. Also discuss how maps in general can provide valuable information about the ocean. Under what circumstances is it better to look at a map than to just read information or see numbers in a table or chart? How might it be helpful to create maps in layers, with some information on one layer and then additional information on subsequent layers that can be removed or put back on? (Have students picture transparencies stacked on top of each other.)

Have students go to National Geographic's Blue Frontier Web site. Ask them to select "Expeditions" at the top of the screen. They will see a map showing four expeditions that have already been conducted. Explain that these expeditions involved the use of deep sea vehicles that explored the areas on the map.

Have each student or pair of students choose one of these four expeditions. Ask them to click on that expedition and then select "Research" in the lower right area of the screen. In this section, they'll read about the research questions the scientists investigated on the expedition.

Ask students to answer these questions about the information in the "Research" section:

• What are the scientists studying? What are their research questions?
• How can mapmaking help them answer these questions? What types of information should they map? How would they use these maps to answer their questions?

Have groups draw examples of the maps they have recommended in their analyses of the scenarios. If possible, give them transparencies so they can draw one type of data (e.g., anchovy distribution or location of hydrothermal vents) on each layer. Then ask them to combine layers in different ways and write sentences describing what each combination of layers shows.

Students won't automatically have the actual data and information necessary to make "real" maps for the above scenarios, so allow them to imagine what the maps might look like and make them up. A more ambitious project would be for them to conduct Internet research to find some of the actual data; this, however, will probably be quite time-consuming and may be too difficult for students at this grade level.

This lesson is made possible by a generous grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Sanctuary Program.

ESRI: What is GIS?
National Geographic: Blue Frontier
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Ocean in the Spotlight