Ballast Blockade: Stopping Aquatic Immigrants

Abstract

This article emphasizes not only an important environmental issue for the Great Lakes but also the importance of decision-making skills in scientific thinking. The activity allows students to acquaint themselves with current Great Lakes topics while simultaneously partaking in decision-making processes that could affect them. As students work through the outlined steps of making a decision, they also participate in cooperative learning, scientific reasoning, and interdisciplinary processing. Students are presented with six ballast water treatment methods that they must evaluate on the basis of provided criteria. They assess the treatments using the decision-making skills of rating, weighing, and discussing.

Key Words:

• ballast water
• decision making
• exotic species
• Great Lakes
• shipping

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara White

Sara White is a high school biology and earth science teacher at Thomas Worthington High School in Columbus, Ohio. Ms. White graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1999 with a B.A. in environmental science and zoology and from The Ohio State University (OSU) in 2002 with a M.S. in environmental education. In addition to teaching, Ms. White is coordinator of the Worthington Science Fair, instructor for Worthington Field Studies, Inc., and the varsity girls' tennis coach. Much of Ms. White's graduate work stemmed from studies she did at Stone Laboratory, OSU's freshwater laboratory located on Lake Erie.