Participants investigate how rocky shore organisms survive changing tides, waves, and weather by gathering evidence from Birch Aquarium, field observations, and simple data collection. Working in teams, they analyze habitat zones, interdependence, and environmental change through charts, food-web models, sketches, and short CER explanations that integrate science, math, and literacy. The experience builds toward public products such as a field guide, habitat map, food web mural, science talk videos, and a data story board that communicate findings to peers and community partners. Throughout the project, teams reflect on how their observations, collaboration, and communication help them explain where organisms live, how they depend on one another, and how rocky shore systems respond to change.

Participants investigate how rocky shore organisms survive changing tides, waves, and weather by gathering evidence, identifying habitat zones, and explaining adaptation and interdependence using NGSS-aligned observation and CER practices. They analyze counts, measurements, tide, and weather data to find patterns in where organisms live, build food-web models, and use math, science, and literacy to communicate evidence-based explanations. In collaborative teams, they co-design fieldwork, revise concept maps and field notes after feedback from Birch Aquarium educators and local experts, and create public-facing products such as a field guide, habitat map, food web mural, data story board, and short science talk videos. They strengthen communication, leadership, and reflection by presenting claims clearly, listening to peers, connecting organism traits to engaging analogies such as Pokémon abilities, and documenting how their thinking changes over time.

Throughout the project, teams will build weekly artifacts including revised concept maps, field notebook entries with sketches and CER writing, organism data tables, and rough drafts of zone maps and food-web models. By the end, students will publish a rocky shore field guide with labeled species sketches, adaptation facts, data charts, and short evidence-based explanations drawn from Birch Aquarium and field observations. The class will also create a large tidepool habitat map and a shared food web mural showing organism zones, interdependence, and the effects of tides, waves, and weather. For exhibition, groups will present an interactive data story board and short science talk videos that compare a rocky shore organism’s survival traits to a Pokémon ability using accurate vocabulary, observations, and data.

Open with a “Rocky Shore Mystery Lab” where teams rotate through specimen photos, tide charts, weather data, short Birch Aquarium videos, and organism cards, then sort evidence to predict where each organism lives and how it survives changing conditions. Introduce the driving questions through a mission frame: students are preparing a field guide, habitat map, food web mural, and data story for a public showcase after learning from Birch Aquarium, a ranger or naturalist, and local marine science partners. Add a quick hook by asking groups to match one rocky shore organism to a Pokémon ability or move, then defend the comparison with one observation and one adaptation claim. Close with a team notice-and-wonder protocol that generates questions for the upcoming aquarium visit and launches shared roles for collaboration, data collection, and communication.

Host a public “Rocky Shore Research Showcase” where teams present their field guides, habitat maps, food web mural, data story boards, and looping science-talk videos in a gallery walk for colleagues, Birch Aquarium educators, a marine scientist, families, and community partners. Include a brief live CER presentation at each station in which groups explain how tides, waves, weather, and interdependence shape where organisms live, using charts, labeled sketches, field notes, and Birch Aquarium evidence. Add an interactive element by inviting guests to leave feedback on response cards about scientific reasoning, communication, and collaboration, and let teams demonstrate one organism-to-Pokémon adaptation comparison to make the learning memorable. Close with a whole-group reflection circle in which learners share one shift in their thinking about rocky shore systems, one useful data pattern they found, and one way their team grew over the four weeks.