Texas TEKS 7.11.B
The Standard
describe human dependence and influence on ocean systems and explain how human activities impact these systems.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify ways people rely on oceans for food, transportation, energy, oxygen production, and climate regulation. They explain how pollution, overfishing, coastal development, and greenhouse gas emissions change ocean habitats and food webs.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can trace a clear cause-and-effect chain, such as fertilizer runoff leading to algal blooms and low-oxygen water. They can connect ocean damage to consequences for wildlife and people, then suggest a practical response.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often think ocean pollution comes only from waste dumped at sea, not runoff carried by rivers and storm drains. They may assume removing one species will not affect a food web, or that oceans are too large for people to change.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Choose fertilizer runoff, plastic waste, or overfishing. Name one human dependence on the affected ocean system, then draw a labeled three-step impact chain.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build a model watershed with a tray, soil, colored sprinkles, and spray water to observe how land pollution reaches the ocean.
Write a response to this prompt: How could damage to an ocean food web affect a family that lives far inland?
Sort action, ocean change, and human consequence cards into cause-and-effect chains, then challenge a partner to find any mismatched link.
Examine a Gulf of Mexico dead zone map and fertilizer data, then propose one action for farms, cities, or households.
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Printable 7.11.B Worksheet
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Related Standards
- K.12.B
observe and identify the dependence of animals on air, water, food, space, and shelter.
- 7.11
Earth and space. The student understands how human activity can impact the hydrosphere. The student is expected to:
- 5.10.A
explain how the Sun and the ocean interact in the water cycle and affect weather;
- 5.12.C
describe a healthy ecosystem and how human activities can be beneficial or harmful to an ecosystem.
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