Fieldwork

Week 1: Intro to Oceanography/Tides, waves, and currents

(Before you begin, note on your syllabus that you have a shell collection due right before Christmas break. Start collecting and identifying shells now, and continue to do so as the weeks progress. Keep your eyes open for nice shells every time you visit the water. Don’t leave this for the last minute! Please do NOT collect shells from any living creature (snail or hermit crab). If you find a particularly nice shell and it is still alive, take a picture of it and let it go.)

1.) Read Seaside Naturalist chp 1. Copy and label wave diagram (p5) and ocean zonation diagram (p6) into your notebook. Add a summary paragraph to each.  Print up a blank world map, sketch in and label the major currents. Add the map to your notebook.

2.) Visit website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/fun/highseas_flash.html and go through the animation. Answer the following questions in your notebook:

• What determines the size of a wave?
• What causes a wave to “break?”

3.) Design an experimental method for measuring the wavelength, wave height, and period of waves at the nearest body of water.  Perform the experiment. Write up your materials, methods, and results in your notebook.

4.) Visit the following website: ONR Tides-characteristics and read the information, watch the animation, and take the quiz  just for fun (follow the arrows at the bottom of the page.) How did you do?

5.) Obtain a current tide table for your local water body. Attach it into your notebook, and  answer the following questions:

• What times  are the highs and lows for today?
• Why are there two high tides and two low tides each day?
• By how much time do the tides change each day and why?

6.) Go to a local sea wall or beach and measure the height of water at  both high or both low tides for a single day. Are they the same? If not, then how do they differ and why? Write up your materials, methods, results  and discussion in your notebook.