LSI: Charting the Natural World

The Anemone is a stationary predator of the sea.

Assignment - Marine Organisms

For each of your organisms, there are 8 things your teachers want you to cover:

What is the scientific name of this organism in terms of Phyla and Class?
Where does the organism live?
What are the important physical characteristics of this organism
How does the organism get food and what does it eat?
What does the organism have for defense?
What is the lifecycle of this organism? (egg or live born? Parental care? Shed shells? Intermediate stages?)
Behavior - is this organism mobile? Is it a loner? Does it live in groups? Other bits?
What are some other cool facts about the organism?

These print Sources are reference Books and stay in the library. They are a great way to find the necessary information for your assignment.

Title of Print Source Click on title to see the Call Number	About the Resource
New Encyclopedia of Aquatic Life	Gives basic overview and pictures of Marine Creatures.
Encyclopedia of Aquatic Life	An older version of the above resource.
The New International Wildlife Encyclopedia	An encyclopedia devoted to the physical characteristics, behavior, and natural environment of animals. Includes many of the organisms on your list.
Animal	From the Smithsonian Institution, this single volume handbook is filled with amazing pictures and brief descriptions of many of the 20 organisms.
The Encyclopedia of Animals: A Complete Visual Guide	Another book with amazing pictures and some useful information.
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia	A Multi Volume Encyclopedia (over 9000 pages!), this is an advanced resource but will have most of the information needed to answer your research questions. It is not organized alphabetically, but by phylum. You will probably be concentrating in Volumes 1 & 3.

Octopus are cool!.

There are a variety of resources you can access using a computer.

Title of Electronic Resource Click on title to visit	About the Resource
EBSCO Animals	Simply search for your animal in the search box to get basic information on your animal.
Encyclopedia Britannica	Search the online version of this popular encyclopedia.
Oceanic Research Group	A non-profit group with information on a variety of ocean creatures.
National Geographic Animals	A selection of animal information can be found on the National Geographic Website.
Marine Bio Invertebrates	Some paragraphs on some of the more "well known" marine Invertebrates.
Access Science	The complete text of the McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. This is an advanced Scientific Encyclopedia. It includes articles on many of the organisms. Search each organism individually.

Plastic is forever!

Title of Resource	About the Resource
Oceans: An Illustrated Reference	A good introductory reference for issues having to do with the world's oceans.
Encyclopedia of Environmental Studies	This encyclopedia has sections on environmental issues that transcend the oceans (i.e. pollution or invasive species).
Encyclopedia Britannica	Search the online version of this popular encyclopedia.
National Geographic Animals	A selection of animal information can be found on the National Geographic Website.
Marine Bio Invertebrates	Some paragraphs on some of the more "well known" marine Invertebrates.

Title of Resource	About the Resource
Pew Oceans Commission(Website)	This non-profit group has numerous reports in PDF on marine issues including pollution, overfishing, and invasive species.
Endangered Oceans	Presents a series of essays presented in a point/counterpoint style.
Oceans 2020: science, trends, and the challenge of sustainability	Contains essays written about the future of the ocean including overfishing, off-shore drilling, the coastal zone, and climate change.
Water Pollution	Contains an entire section on pollution's affects on the world's oceans.
End of the line: How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat	Contains some good sections on the reasons for the decline in fish populations.
The Empty Ocean	Documents individual species struggles in their Ocean environment.

Title of Resource	About the Resource
CQ Researcher	Weekly reports on current events issues. Some recent reports include: Overfishing and Ocean pollution and Saving Ocean Biodiversity
Masterfile Premier General Reference Center Gold	These two general databases contain articles from thousands of different publications.
Opposing Viewpoints	This database offers point/counterpoint essays on a variety of sensitive topics including some on marine environmental issues.
Points of View	Offers point /counterpoint essays in a style similar tot he one listed above.