Using marine mammal stranding data, students will create a model to document the location of strandings on the Oregon coast.

The data will be coded to include anthropogenic (human) reasons for strandings which will lead the students to look for patterns and develop future research questions. Students will map 40 data points of ten different marine mammals stranded along the Oregon coast between 2013 and 2017.

Topics

Authors

Tanya Boynay, Ian Dickson, Nancy FitzGerald, Mirriam Sutton, Jillian Worssam

Additional Resources

Next Generation Science Standards

Crosscutting Concepts
  • Scale, proportion, and quantity
Core Ideas
  • LS1.D: Information Processing
  • ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
Practices
  • Engaging in argument from evidence
  • Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Ocean Literacy Fundamental Concepts

  • 6.D: Much of the world’s population lives in coastal areas.
  • 6.E: Humans affect the ocean in a variety of ways. Laws, regulations and resource management affect what is taken out and put into the ocean. Human development and activity leads to pollution (point source, non-point source, and noise pollution) and physical modifications (changes to beaches, shores and rivers). In addition, humans have removed most of the large vertebrates from the ocean.