NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE A Trip to the Beach: Untangling the Mystery of Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes Clearview High School SCIENCE 101 APESCCA

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NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE Clearview High SchoolSCIENCE 101APESCCA by Part I – The Problem Matt and Flora are college sophomores studying biology who had met in their fr... eshman biology lab. Matt had invited Flora up to his summer cottage on Lake Michigan to spend a week with his family and was excited to show her the beautiful beach. He hadn’t been to the cottage in a couple of years because he had been working in the city to save up money for college. After arriving on a hot August evening, they decided to go straight out to the beach and chatted as they walked along the path. “I can’t wait for you to see the beach. I’ve been walking and swimming here since before I can remember. It even inspired me to study biology,”NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE Matt explained. “It sounds really beautiful. Maybe we can take a dip in the lake to cool down after the long drive,” said Flora. When they arrived, there was a bad smell in the air and there were piles of brown goop along the water’s edge. This wasn’t how Matt remembered the beach. “What’s that lined up along the shore? And that smell! Do you think there’s been a sewage leak?” Flora asked. “I’m not sure, but I don’t think we should stick around to find out. Let’s go back to the cottage and ask my parents if they know what’s going on,” Matt replied. When they got back to the cottage, Matt’s parents told them that for the past two years large quantities of green algae had washed up on the beach. The rotting algae formed stinking clumps along the shore. Fewer tourists had been coming to visit the area since the beach was so unpleasant when this happened. Their neighbors were worried about the impact on the value of their lake property. “I wonder what’s going on?” Matt asked. “I think we should find out,” Flora replied. “My Aunt Janet works for the Department of Natural Resources. I’m going to send her an email and ask if she knows anything about this,” said Flora. “Great idea. I’m so sorry, Flora, that wasn’t the romantic walk I had in mind,” said Matt. Questions 1. What could have caused a recent increase in the amount of algae washing up on the beach? Brainstorm a list of possibilities. Some of the reasons that there was an increase in the amount of algae washing up on the beach could have been an increase in fertilizer around the area and therefore more runoff of fertilizer in the water, a large amount of algae die-off that was washed upon shore, or an increased amount of CO2 in the surrounding atmosphere . 2. Choose three of your ideas from the above list and write a testable [Show More]

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