Why Teach About Plankton?
The word “Plankton” is derived from the Greek word “planktos,” which means “drifter” of “wanderer.” Plankton are organisms that float freely or swim weakly through aquatic, estuarine, and marine environments. As such, they are defined by their ecological niche (as opposed to being a phylogenetic or taxonomic classification). Plankton range in size; they can be as small as microscopic diatoms or as large as jellyfish. There are also different types of plankton. Phytoplankton are tiny (usually unicellular) algae that live near the water surface and utilize the light that is available there to support photosynthesis. Zooplankton are a type of plankton that consumes other plankton. Holoplankton are a type of zooplankton that remain in the plankton stage for their entire life, such as jelly fish. Meroplankton are zooplankton that are only planktic for part of their lives (typically the larval stage), such as crabs, sea urchins, and starfish.
Why Should YOU Teach About Plankton
Teaching about plankton can help you introduce your students to the concepts of adaptations, buoyancy, habitats, food webs, trophic levels, life cycles, and more. There are also some great lab activities that you can use to engage your students in these topics.
How Can YOU Teach About Plankton
The “Design and Construct a Plankter” lesson plan from the University of South Florida’s Project Oceanography program provides background information and a lesson plan that can help you teach about plankton. In the activity portion of this lesson, students design and build their own plankton and have “slow races” in a 10 gallon aquarium to determine who designed the plankton with the best buoyancy. A “For the Teacher” section that addresses national science standards and a Vocabulary List are also provided.
The Plankton Lesson Plans packet from the University of California, Los Angeles Marine Science Center also contains a “slow race” activity. In addition to this lesson, the packet includes a lesson activity on phyto- versus zoo- plankton and an activity in which students make a simple plankton net out of nylon stockings, use it to collect plankton from a local stream, and observe the plankton under a microscope. This last lesson is similar to the Plankton Lesson developed by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, in which students collect a plankton sample, identify the types of plankton the collected, classify the various components of the plankton, and draw inferences about productivity based on their sample.
You can supplement these lesson plans with some of the following resources:
- Dinoflagellates Podcast – Encyclopedia of Life
- Plankton – The Drifters – Washington Post NIE Program Lesson Plans
- Plankton Wars Lesson Plan – NOAA Southeast Phytoplankton Monitoring Network
- Ocean Drifters Lesson Plan – NOAA Ocean Explorer
- What are Phytoplankton – NASA Earth Observatory
- As the Seasons Change, Will the Plankton? – NASA Earth Observatory
- Plankton Fact Sheet – Nature Works