Outreach and Classroom Activities
HABby Clam CARD GAME
How do harmful algae impact seafood safety? Clams and other organisms that eat the toxic phytoplankton Alexandrium can accumulate toxins in their tissues. Marine mammals, birds, or people that eat toxic clams can become sick. In humans, seafood sickness caused by Alexandrium is known as “Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning.” In this activity, students will become hungry clams and will track how their toxicity changes as they eat different phytoplankton. By simulating this process through gameplay and analyzing the results, students will gain an understanding of how harmful algal blooms can impact seafood safety, as well as how different conditions in the environment can shape harmful algal blooms.
See links below for a complete lesson plan, handouts and other materials. We are looking for feedback so that we can continue to improve this activity! If you have the chance to try it out, feel free to email us your thoughts or fill out this survey.
This activity was co-developed with PolarTREC educator Rebecca Siegel; for more information about harmful algal blooms in the Arctic, check out Rebecca's blog posts from our 2022 expedition!
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- Lesson Plan
- Instruction Handout (one per group)
- Datasheet (one per student)
- Card Templates
- Card Template - Alexandrium
- Card Template - Other Phytoplankton
- A note on printing card decks: A group of eight students will need 8 sheets of Alexandrium cards and 12 sheets of other phytoplankton. If you intend to have smaller groups (4 or less) you can divide the decks in half. To save paper, gather the cards at the end of the game and reuse in the future! These templates are compatible with Avery 5371 business card stock, or you can print on regular paper and have the students help cut out the cards.
Bloom Detectives: Using the Imaging FlowCytobot to Identify Harmful Algal Blooms
How do we know what kind of phytoplankton are in the water? The Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) is a robot that scientists use to image phytoplankton in the water. One IFCB can take up to 30,000 pictures per hour! The IFCB can be used in the field to detect plankton blooms in real time. In this activity, students will practice identifying phytoplankton in IFCB datasets and will compare summer and fall communities from several locations in the Alaskan Arctic.
This activity was co-developed with PolarTREC educator Rebecca Siegel and all materials live at the PolarTREC webpage here.