Sea sponge fibers
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- 8
- Subjects
- science (oceanography, technology and innovation), thinking skills (information literacy)
- Provider
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
Legal
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In this Science Update, students explore how scientists are improving fiber optics from deep within the ocean. Scientist Joanna Aizenberg from Bell Labs in New Jersey explains that the spindles of a sea sponge know as the “Venus Flower Basket” actually conduct light like telecommunication fibers and are more resilient. Overall, researchers hope to better understand how nature forms these materials and apply these devices to improve existing or new technology. Science NetLinks provides links to the audio file, a written transcript, and questions to engage students in discussion about how the sea sponge’s spindles resemble fiber optic cables. This lesson also contains links to the Bell Labs site, the How Stuff Works page on fiber optics, and the “Sponges: Wonders of the Seas” webpage from the Oceanic Research Group.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Science (2005)
Grade 8
- Goal 1: The learner will design and conduct investigations to demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry.
- Objective 1.01: Identify and create questions and hypotheses that can be answered through scientific investigations.
- Objective 1.05: Analyze evidence to:
- explain observations.
- make inferences and predictions.
- develop the relationship between evidence and explanation.
- Objective 1.08: Use oral and written language to:
- Communicate findings.
- Defend conclusions of scientific investigations.
- Describe strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, and/or data.
- Objective 1.09: Use technologies and information systems to:
- Research.
- Gather and analyze data.
- Visualize data.
- Disseminate findings to others.
- Objective 1.10: Analyze and evaluate information from a scientifically literate viewpoint by reading, hearing, and/or viewing:
- Scientific text.
- Articles.
- Events in the popular press.
- Goal 2: The learner will demonstrate an understanding of technological design.
- Objective 2.02: Use information systems to:
- Identify scientific needs, human needs, or problems that are subject to technological solution.
- Locate resources to obtain and test ideas.
- Objective 2.03: Evaluate technological designs for:
- Application of scientific principles.
- Risks and benefits.
- Constraints of design.
- Consistent testing protocols.
- Objective 2.02: Use information systems to:
- Goal 3: The learner will conduct investigations and utilize appropriate technologies and information systems to build an understanding of the hydrosphere.
- Objective 3.03: Evaluate evidence that Earth's oceans are a reservoir of nutrients, minerals, dissolved gases, and life forms:
- Estuaries.
- Marine ecosystems.
- Upwelling.
- Behavior of gases in the marine environment.
- Value and sustainability of marine resources.
- Deep ocean technology and understandings gained.
- Objective 3.06: Evaluate technologies and information systems used to monitor the hydrosphere.
- Objective 3.03: Evaluate evidence that Earth's oceans are a reservoir of nutrients, minerals, dissolved gases, and life forms:
