An inquiry approach is a method often used in science education. This question bank provides an initial list of questions about life in the sea and places where their answers can be found.
The article, Investigating life in the sea – introduction, has links to further resources and student activities.
Q. How could you decide if an organism is a plant or an animal?
Q. Why is a food web a better description than food chain for how organisms interact with each other for food?
Q. What’s the difference between a food web and an ecosystem?
Q. What do food web diagrams illustrate? What do the arrows mean?
Q. What is special about a keystone species?
Q. What can happen if a species is removed from a food web?
Q. Why would scientists want to tag an animal?
Q. How do humans affect life in the sea?
Q. Why are estuaries important?
Q. Why do you think it’s important for scientists to collaborate?
Q. What is environmental forensics? How can it help us to learn about life in the sea?
Q. Which adaptations do you think are most important for sea star growth and reproduction?
- Sea star adaptations: the dorsal view and the ventral view
- Sea stars
- Marine organisms and adaptations
Q. How are our New Zealand marine ecosystems managed?
- Looking at ecosystem-based management (EBM)
- Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge
- Environmental thinking and planning with ecosystem-based management (EBM)
Q. How do we measure human impacts on the marine environment?
- Identifying marine stressors
- Investigating marine and costal tipping points
- Modelling marine stressors and tipping points
