The National Foundation of Oceanography needs your help! Your team of aquanauts are known world wide for their innovations in deep sea exploration. The National Foundation of Oceanography has been trying to study the causes for the depletion of the planktonic communities in the world's oceans. Zooplankton keep disappearing every time they send out a study team during the day. We need your expert team of aquanauts to investigate the zooplankton's disappearance. Your team of aquanauts needs to answer the following questions:

1. What are zooplankton? 
2. Where do zooplankton live?
3. Where have the zooplankton gone?

Good Luck!
 
 

Your task is to find out what zooplankton are, where they live, and where have they all disappeared to. You will be visiting various websites to help you answer these questions. You will also be visiting a few websites that will provide you with examples of what zooplankton look like.

After completing your research, you will present your findings in a video production that will be shown to the class. Each team member will participate and contribute in the production of the video project. To be included in your video, your team will construct a model of a copepod and explain to the audience concerning its anatomy and the type of zooplankton that it represents.

Each team member will participate in an additional project in which they will be using mathematical conversions and calculations of sea water and zooplankton.

1. First, your team of four aquanauts will visit the website Bay Journal to find out what zooplankton are. At this site, how are zooplankton described? How many zooplankton are in one gallon of water?
2. Now, your team will find out how plankton are classified by clicking onto Zooplankton. How are plankton classified? How does Holoplankton differ from Meroplankton? In what ways are the characterized? What is the meaning of Oceanic, Neritic, Estuarine and Nueston? How are zooplankton normally captured?
3. Next, you will visit the site Plankton. Here will see a variety of forms that zooplankton have. What does "planktos" in zooplankton in Greek mean? Some zooplankton are larval or very immature stages of larger animals. What are these called? Name some of these animals. Other zooplankton are tiny crustaceans like copepods. What percentage of all plankton does this group represent?
4. Your next step is to look the site Copepod. What does copepod mean? How many orders (in the taxonomy) of copepods are there? How many species? How big/small are these creatures?
5. Now, you need to find out where the zooplankton are disappearing to during the day. Click onto Bermuda's Coral Reefs and scroll down to the third paragraph. Where are the zooplankton descending to in the morning? Where are they ascending to at night? What kind of migration is this called? Why do they migrate in this nocturnal (meaning night) movement? What might be other reasons for this vertical migration? (keep reading).
6. Next, let's take a look at the variety of zooplankton shapes by clicking onto Mastigias,Lobster Larva, Aequorias, Copepods, Starfish, Larval Shrimp, and Stomatopod Larva. 
7. Now that your team has done the research and you know about zooplankton, it is time to get to the projects.
8. For your first project, you are each going to figure out the following problems concerning zooplankton. After you have calculated your answers you will turn them into your teacher. 
From your research, you have learned that one gallon of water can contain more than 500,000 zooplankton. Using the estimation that 1 gallon =500,000 zooplankton, how many zooplankton would you find in 2 quarts of sea water ? How many would you have in 2 pints of sea water ? How many would you have in 2 oz. of sea water?
9. For your second project- as a team, the aquanauts are going to create a video production to use as a tool to teach the rest of the class about zooplankton. Here is how you are going to do it. 
• First, your team will construct a life size model of a copepod (click on copepod to review) One of the team members is going to wear the model in the video. 
• The copepod model must include labeled body parts.(see copepod) 
• Your team may construct the copepod model out of anything that you wish. 
• Your video should be approximately 5 to 8 minutes long. 
• You should include an introduction-your groups name and members of your teams name, and your subject. 
• Then, you should explain what zooplankton are, where they live-including all the various environments that you researched. 
• You need to talk about where they migrate to and why.
• You will explain what the name copepod means, the anatomy (body parts), and what you constructed the copepod from. 
• All team members need to contribute to the conclusion of the video in which each team member will give a final word concerning something they learned about the project/research.
• Your finished video production will be viewed by the class. After the video, there will be time for discussion/explanation/questions.

Evaluation: 

Each team member can earn a total of 100 points. The points will be broken down in the following ways:

• Each team member can earn a total of 25 points for group participation in the WebQuest adventure.
• Each team member can earn a total of 50 points for their participation and contribution to the video production project. In order to earn the maximum 50 points the video must include:
• An introduction stating the groups name, the team members' names, the subject the video is about.
• Your video must include a copepod model in which one of your team members will wear. There are no restrictions on the construction or materials you may use in your copepod model. Use your imagination and what ever materials you have available.
• Your copepod must have labeled body parts.
• You need to introduce your copepod representative.
• You need to explain in your video what zooplankton are, where they live-including all the various environments that you researched.
• Your need to explain where they migrate to and the possible reasons why.
• You need to explain what the name copepod means, the anatomy (body parts), and what materials you used to construct your model.
• Your video needs to be between 5 to 8 minutes long.
• All team members need to contribute to the conclusion in which each team member will give a final word concerning something they learned about the project/research.
• Each team member can earn a total of 25 points for completing the calculation and handing them in to the instructor.

Conclusion:

Congratulations! Your mission has been successful and we have been able to find out where the zooplankton have been disappearing to. Hopefully, you have learned something  about what zooplankton are, where they migrate to and why. 

But, zooplankton are not the only microscopic organism living in our oceans. There are many strange creatures in the deep blue such as bacteria that converts chemicals to nutrients in a process called "chemosynthesis". You could also explore the microbiology of the deep sea by exploring and clicking on to Ocean Planet.

1. Background-
http://www3.umassd.edu/Public/Exhibit/DES300/game/zooplank.htm
2. Water drop picture-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/catalogue/micromarine/pages/e002_jpg.htm
3. Zooplankton cartoons-
http://www.uoguelph.ca/zoology/ocean/index.htm
4. Bay Journal-
http://www.bayjournal.com/95-03/zooplank.htm
5. Zooplankton-
http://www.vims.edu/sms/courses/ms503/zooplankton.htm#tsp
6.Plankton-
http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/plankton/Planktonprintout.shtml
7. Copepods-
http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/crustacean/Copepod.shtml
8. Bermuda's Coral Reefs-
http://www.coexploration.org/bbsr/coral/html/body_zooplankton.html
9. Mastigias-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/2dplankton/images/hires/mastigi.htm
10. Lobster Larva-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/2dplankton/images/hires/phyly.htm
11. Aequorias-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/2dplankton/images/hires/aequ.htm
12. Copepods-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/2dplankton/images/hires/prickle.htm
13. Starfish-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/2dplankton/images/hires/starf.htm
14. Larval Shrimp-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/2dplankton/images/hires/shrimp.htm
15. Stromatopod Larva-
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/2dplankton/images/hires/stomat.htm
16. Ocean Planet-
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/oceanography_recently_revealed1.html