Tide Mobile

 Objectives:

To identify the definition of a tide
To identify and explore what causes high and low tides

Materials:

• 3 Styrofoam balls (small, medium, large)
• yardstick
• string
• wire coat hanger
• pin
• lump of clay
• wire cutters
• computer with Internet access

 

Procedure:

1. Activate prior knowledge about tides by asking the students if they have ever been to the beach and seen the water come up high to the shore and at other times the water has been much lower.  Explain what a tide is- it is the rise and fall of the surface level of the ocean which occurs twice a day due to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon on the earth..  Explain to the students that they will get into groups of four and create a tide mobile which will show how tides are formed. 
2. Cut the wire hangers greatest length (across the base).   Save the rest of the hanger.
3. Stick the smallest Styrofoam ball on one end of the wire length, the mid sized ball on the other.   (The moon and the earth)
4. Suspend the moon-earth structure by tying a string to the wire at the point of balance and tying the other end to a yardstick.
5. Near the center of the yardstick, use a string with a pin at the end to suspend the large Styrofoam ball (sun), and at the opposite end of the yardstick, place the lump of clay as a counterbalance.
6. Suspend the yardstick from the hooked end of the coat hanger. Balance the earth-moon-sun structure.
7. Spin the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun to demonstrate the function of your mini solar system.
8. Each group will demonstrate how tides are formed.
9. Visit Fitzgerald Marine Reserve- Tides, to view an animation of how high and low tides are formed.
10. Make daily entry into Ocean Journal

Vocabulary Words: 

Tides
Rotates
Neap Tides

Assessment:

Each group will explain how high and low tides are formed by presenting their tide mobile.

Homework:

Write a paragraph explaining how high and low tides are formed.  Use Microsoft Word and save your homework on a disk.  Proofread, spell check and edit. Print in out in class the following day.

Extension Activity: Tide Database

• After conducting research on the effect of the tide on various marine animals, students will use information to create a tide database
• Discuss what changes marine animals encounter when the tide is low- waves can be felt under the water as well as above it
• Research the following animals and tell how they are protected from the forces of waves or from rising and falling tides that cause exposure to air and sunlight.
• Use Worksheet to organize data
• Barnacle- mussel- kelp- tube worm- sea star- sea anemone
• Open the database application
• Create a field for the name of the animal
• Create a field for how it protects itself during the tide change
• Proofread, spell check, print