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We hope you are enjoying Phytopia: Discovery of the Marine Ecosystem. Many Phytopia users are incorporating the CD-ROM in their classroom and their students are loving it! Some of those users have been kind enough to share their ideas with us, and we thought that you might enjoy them too. If you would like to share an idea you have for using Phytopia in the classroom, please send your idea to us at phytopia@bigelow.org. We'll post it on this page so other teachers can benefit. Thank you! |
| "Introduction to 'The Phyto Files'" Students learn how to use the CD-ROM and view organisms in the "Phyto Files" module. This worksheet was developed by Susan Richman, teacher at South Portland High School, Maine. (high school). (If you do not have Adobe Acrobat or another way to view PDF files below, click here to download the free software). |
| "Getting to Know You" Students explore the different organisms in the PhytoFiles. After choosing an organism on which they would like to focus, students are provided with data sheets on which they can enter the following information about their species of choice: sketch, name, physical attributes, distribution, trophic level, toxicity, etc. They then present their findings to the rest of the class. This exercise gets students familiar with a variety of planktonic organisms, without having each of them conduct exhaustive research on every species. (middle school). |
| "Phytoplankton in the Water Column" Students learn about the key environmental factors that affect plankton growth and distribution. While viewing the introductory movies in PhytoFactors, students are encouraged to take notes on what they learn through a guided note-taking exercise. Students are able to pause, rewind, and forward the movies with the control buttons at the bottom of their screens. This activity not only helps students develop note-taking skills, but it also introduces them to the important environmental factors in the world of phytoplankton, and it prepares them for using the other components of PhytoFactors (middle school). (If you do not have Adobe Acrobat or another way to view PDF files below, click here to download the free software). |
| "Can You Make a Bloom?" Students are challenged to choose environmental factors that will lead to a bloom in the Gulf of Maine. By interactively manipulating the amount of sunlight, the water temperature, and the wind intensity, students can investigate how different environmental parameters can affect bloom formation. Once they create a bloom, students take a closer look at one of their bloom organisms to determine how that organism was able to flourish under the conditions chosen (middle school). (If you do not have Adobe Acrobat or another way to view PDF files below, click here to download the free software). |
| "Plankton Exploration" Students learn about classification and diversity as they investigate the organisms present in a natural water sample or in samples from various cultures. They identify the organisms they find using the PhytoFiles database. To aid in this process, they utilize the "Attribute Search" function to narrow the number of organisms to focus on organisms that have certain attributes. (middle school) |
| "Global Bloom " Students discover how bloom dynamics are tied to environmental conditions. In PhytoFactors, groups of students explore the different regions of the globe through "View Data Sets." Each group collects data on how their region's environmental and biological parameters change with season. The groups are then responsible for teaching the rest of the class about the region they chose. This exercise illustrates the tight coupling of the environmental conditions and bloom dynamics. (high school) |
