Killer Whale Task Force is the introduction to eight units in the Explore the Salish Sea Curriculum. Each unit contains a detailed unit plan, a slideshow, student journal, and assessments. All elements are adaptable and can be tailored to your local community.
This unit introduces the overall phenomenon for the curriculum-the endangered status of the Southern Resident Killer Whales - and puts students in the roles of working group members in the Governor-appointed taskforce to identify the biggest threats and recommend solutions to save the whales. No matter which units you choose to implement with your class, start here to set the premise.

In this unit, students wonder about the physical drivers of ocean movement, explore density differences, and take a look at some tiny creatures who struggle to keep their place in the water column in the midst of all that ocean motion.
Each unit of the Explore the Salish Sea curriculum contains a detailed unit plan, a slideshow, student journal, and assessments. All elements are adaptable and can be tailored to your local community.

In Unit 2 of the Explore the Salish Sea curriculum, students will review the water cycle, learn the parts of a watershed, and the effects of erosion and pollution, then learn ways of purifying these waters before they enter our streams and estuaries to safeguard these ecosystems for marine life and us.
Each unit in this series contains a detailed unit plan, a slideshow, student journal, and assessments. All elements are adaptable and can be tailored to your local community.

Salish Sea Rocks is Unit 3 of the Explore the Salish Sea Curriculum. Each unit contains a detailed unit plan, a slideshow, student journal, and assessments. All elements are adaptable and can be tailored to your local community.
In the unit, students will explore Earth’s processes that create the perfect spawning habitat for a few species of small but mighty fish.

In this unit, students will solve a mystery about changes in oyster larvae in the Salish Sea, causing oyster farmers to send their larvae to Hawaii until they grow stronger. They will look for clues in:
• activities and games, articles, and films that introduce the concepts of habitat and ecosystem
• structures and behaviors for survival in intertidal zone habitats
• the Earth-moon-sun interactions that drive the tides
• the importance of First Foods of the intertidal to first nations communities;
• how intertidal organisms interact across the Salish Sea food web
Afterward, they will arrive at the importance of a balanced carbon cycle in the health of the ocean and use a full scientific investigation to test if their local waters have a healthy pH for oyster larvae and other shelled creatures. Clear pathways of hope are woven into this complex issue, so students know that scientists and leaders are working to solve this problem - and kids can help!

The moon is more explored than the ocean, and that includes the Salish Sea. Where it is inconvenient or even impossible for people to go, we can engineer technology to go there for us, like the Mars Rovers, space probes, automatic unmanned vehicles, drones, and in this unit, remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s). Ocean Tech revisits the engineering process, but this time it requires physical, mechanical, and electrical engineers working together as a team to achieve a student-driven mission.

Chapter 5, Life in the Deep: The Subtidal World, is our first look into the amazing life forms that live their whole lives underwater. Is there access to the subtidal world near your school? If you can get to one (even if it is a pond or a pool), your students’ engineering efforts will find their reward. What mystery or problem will your students explore with their own ROV? Dive in!

Did you know that a elephant seal can hold its breath for 77 minutes and dive 5,000 feet (1524 meters) into the sea? We are still working on the science to discover just what enables these remarkable feats under intense pressure, cold, and dark. Diving birds and mammals utilize physical, behavioral, and physiological adaptations to withstand the extreme conditions of diving and still return to the surface with oxygen reserves (and a meal!). Your students can join us in investigating just how they do this.

This unit will review the concepts of pressure-changing with depth, marine food webs, structure and function, photosynthesis and respiration, and of course, the process of science. It will introduce metabolism, the diving reflex, sensory structures for detecting prey, wave properties of acoustics, trophic pyramids, and bioaccumulation of toxins in long-lived predators. Oh yeah, and there will be orca forensics!

Migration explores the routes, distances, and purposes for wildlife migration with a special focus on Pacific salmon. This iconic species of the Pacific Northwest has shaped life in Salish Sea watersheds since they first entered rivers and creeks to spawn, bringing their ocean-derived nutrients in reach of land animals, plants, and people. Nearly 1/4 of the nitrogen in the leaves of our giant temperate rainforest trees once swam in the sea as salmon. They are the reason for the great natural wealth of the Salish Sea and beyond.

Learning to identify habitat needs based on their specific migrations will empower students to identify ways they can improve salmon habitat near their own schools and possibly design and carry out a salmon habitat improvement project. Reach out to salmon experts in your community for support with this unit and project, from protecting storm drains to raising salmon in the classroom. Share your salmon project story along the way. Your school may just be featured as our next Salish Sea Heroes!

The culmination of the Explore the Salish Sea Curriculum is improving the environment for wildlife and people in your own community. Students will review the science and traditional ecological knowledge-based recommendations they have made after each scientific investigation throughout the previous units, then choose one to put into action. Their choices will depend on available resources, time, and expertise available.