Wetlands and Estuaries (Week 6)

manna moment

Galatians 4:4-5- “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Redemption is the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.  What happens before redemption?  Sin, error, or evil.  In this lesson, we will learn about a wetland that was devastated by chemical dumping and polluting but was redeemed because of processes set forth by a Creator God.  And while humans had a part to play in turning from their dumping and polluting, it was God and His processes that brought the redemption and healing.  This parallels to the greatest redemption the world has ever known, the redeemed life through Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Jesus redeemed our life from sin.  Our sin and error had polluted our souls, we needed to make a conscious effort to repent but it was God’s processes of reconciliation and redemption that bought our freedom and our adoption as sons and daughters of God.

Read Aloud:  Meadowlands by Thomas Yezerski

This is a great and encouraging wetlands survival story.  It covers the history of this 20,000 acre land throughout the years from its discovery to modern times.  My favorite part of this is that it is a true story.  Redemption is real!  The processes are available if we would from our ways of doing things and accept a better way to live.

I had my students use this Reading Guide to follow along with the story or to review it at home with their parents.

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Science Demonstration:  Is saltwater more dense than freshwater?

Materials:
2 fresh eggs
2 quart jars
water 
1/3 cup of salt

Fill up the jars halfway with water and add 1/3 cup of salt to one jar and stir.  Stir the solution until the salt is completely dissolved.  Now add a fresh egg to the fresh water.  Draw what happened in the jar on the demonstration sheet.  Then add the egg to the saltwater.  Draw what happened in the jar as a way of gathering data.  Use the questions that follow to analyze the data and follow up with a conclusion statement

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This is a student who was looking at the result of the demonstration that I forgot to take a picture of.  It is easy to replicate so this might leave some motivation for you to see for yourself why this student is so interested in the results.

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Science Investigation:  Do Saltwater and Freshwater mix?

Now that we know if saltwater is more dense than freshwater, we can now see if saltwater and freshwater mix.

All you need for this investigation is:
4 clear cups
water
4 tsps of salt
green and blue food coloring
pipettes or eye droppers
Investigation guide (this is helpful to guide you through the process)

First you will want to label the 2 cups fresh and 2 cups salty.
Fill each cup half full of water and add 2 teaspoons of salt to each of the salty cups.  Add 2-3 drops of green food coloring to one of the salty cups.  Add 2-3 drops of blue food coloring to  one of the freshwater cups.  Next, you will use a pipette to take some green salty water and add it to the clear freshwater cup.  What happens?  Next, use a pipette and grab some blue freshwater and add it to the clear saltwater cup.  What happens?  Did they mix?

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I love how this student wanted to be as true to the teaspoon of salt as he could so he used his finger to level it off.

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As the blue freshwater was placed in the clear saltwater, you could see the blue water bounce up and remain on the top signifying that they don't want to mix and the freshwater remains on top of the saltwater.

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This is green saltwater being placed in clear freshwater.  The reflection of the color doesn't let you see very well that the green saltwater was going straight to the bottom of the freshwater.  Saltwater is more dense than freshwater.

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Estuary Ecosystem Sheet

Here is an estuary ecosystem sheet where students can create their own and review what we learned about estuaries today.  I included some more information about the flora and fauna of this ecosystem as well.

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