Middle School Earth and Space Science

Monitoring Human Impact

Brine shrimp are a real water quality test animal.

Labs that check water safety use brine shrimp because they are cheap, fast and sensitive. Students design their own version: pick a contaminant, set up a dilution series and count what survives.

Buy the microplastics lab Back to Middle School

MS-ESS3-3 NGSS, grades 6 to 8

7.11.B Texas, grade 7

SC.7.E.6.6 Florida, grade 7

How the lab meets it

What students do that satisfies the standard

Grades 6-8

NGSS MS-ESS3-3

Standard: Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

What the kit does: Students design the monitoring method themselves. Honest fit: strong on monitoring, lighter on minimizing, which the class reaches in discussion.

Grade 7

Texas 7.11.B

Standard: Describe human dependence and influence on ocean systems and explain how human activities impact these systems.

What the kit does: Brine shrimp are saltwater animals, and students expose them to things people put in the water, such as microplastics or a contaminant in a dilution series. What survives, and what ends up inside the animals, shows directly how a human activity affects life in salt water.

Grade 7

Florida SC.7.E.6.6

Standard: Identify the impact that humans have had on Earth, such as deforestation, urbanization, desertification, erosion, air and water quality, changing the flow of water.

What the kit does: Students test how a contaminant changes water quality for a living animal and measure the effect themselves. Honest fit: partial. The kit covers water quality only, not the land and air impacts on the list.

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