Choose the evidence pathway before starting
The eight student learning pathways supply readings, original labeled datasets, calculations and checked answers. Every unit can be studied inland without collecting organisms or entering water. The complete Unit 07 investigation specifies the record, sampling denominator, missing-data rules and analysis evidence.
An optional observation requires instructor and site approval, a dry accessible designated viewing location, suitable conditions and a non-destructive method. A supplied-data assignment is not a performed field/practical credential. Record separately any instructor-approved instrument or prepared-specimen skill that was actually observed.
Keep what you observed, what a source supplied and what you inferred visibly separate.
1 — Safety
This page is a readiness check, not a field permit, dissection procedure or chemical-handling authorization. Stop and use the supplied-data alternative when approval or safe access is absent.
- No diving, breath-holding, marine-mammal physiology imitation, cold-exposure challenges, boats, wading or hazardous tidal access.
- No handling wild animals, unapproved collection, ingestion, unknown-microbe culture or hatchery experiments.
- Optional observations stay on an approved dry accessible path or indoor viewing area. Do not approach animals, touch plants, install plots or lower equipment into water.
- Use anonymous plot codes. Do not publish personal locations, sensitive animal locations or identifying details about people.
- Any separate preserved-specimen or instrument session needs its own instructor-approved protocol, competent supervision, appropriate protective equipment, hazard information and disposal arrangements. Odor is not a safety test; room ventilation must meet that protocol.
- Stop for inaccessible conditions, uncertain identification, missing scale or unsafe access; record the reason and use the inland dataset.
2 — Setup
Prepare the sources and record sheet so the analysis can be reproduced without guessing missing measurements.
- Select foundation, core or honors by readiness and record prerequisites before instruction.
- Open the assigned reading sections and complete dataset, not just a broad textbook recommendation.
- Prepare paper or an accessible spreadsheet with sample IDs, source, units, volume/area/effort, missing values and uncertainty.
- Record provided temperature, salinity scale and dissolved oxygen as supplied metadata unless personally measured in an approved session.
- Agree the permitted references, response format and accommodations. A fresh transfer checks understanding; answer-key copying does not.
- For separately approved practical work, confirm the protocol and instructor observation arrangements; do not improvise from this checklist.
3 — Readiness: the pre-lab questions
This is the section that separates a technician from a marine biologist. Before the first measurement, the student should be able to answer these in writing — in the lab notebook, in their own words.
- What is the question? State, in one sentence, what this experiment is trying to find out or measure.
- What is the biology? Write the key structure, relationship, or process the experiment depends on.
- What is my prediction? A specific, concrete expectation — the structures you expect to find, the likely identification, or the trend the data should show.
- What am I measuring, and in what units? Name every quantity you will record, its unit, and its uncertainty.
- What could go wrong? Identify the one or two steps most likely to introduce error, and how you will minimize them.
- What does success look like? Know, before you begin, what a reasonable result would be — so an absurd finding raises a flag at the bench, not a week later.
Retain the notebook record, calculations, graphs, source-linked limitation and transfer response for the rubric. Do not relabel synthetic counts as personal observations. Integration is reported separately and cannot lower the science grade or block a science demonstration pass. Each student has three tokens per term; each token retries one rubric criterion. Approved accommodations, equipment failures, and approved absences are handled separately and do not consume these tokens.