Salmon - Coming Home

Teacher's Activity Page  [Standards] [Related Hot Links] [Student Page] [PDF File] Background In studying the life cycle of salmon, students are most curious as to how salmon can find their way back to the stream in which they were hatched. They are especially amazed that they can find their home stream after being out in the open ocean as many as six years. Scientists have conducted research in this area, and it seems almost certain that salmon use the smell of the water to find their home stream. In this activity students can experience first hand what it is like to be a returning salmon attempting to find its home by smell. This activity provides for the entire class to participate in the life cycle of the Pacific salmon and the hazards of their journey. Object: Students will be able to: Experience first hand what it would be like to be a returning salmon attempting to identify a home stream by smell. List hazards that a salmon encounters in its journey to sea and back to its home stream. Identify the stages of the salmon life cycle. Resources/Materials/Supplies: Video Segment from Program #4 "Ode to the Sockeye" page Styrofoam cups masking tape pencil paper towels salmon species cards an assortment of smells (i.e. cloves, vanilla, peppermint, etc.). It is best to use smells that the students can't easily identify, so sometimes I mix the scents. Optional Materials: Jump rope, numbered cards for salmon removal. To construct the salmon's home stream, crumple a paper towel and sprinkle a smell on it. Then stuff the scented paper towel into one end of the cup. Invert the other cup over cup containing the towel and tape the two cups together. Write the name of a stream on the bottom of the cup. You will probably want to construct 5-6 streams. As you assemble these, avoid any visual differences. Finally in setting up this activity, construct salmon name tags (Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Pink, Chum). The number of tags you make depends on the number of students in your class. Description Review the video segment in class. Discussion questions: What interesting features did you notice about the salmon and bear behaviors at Brooks Camp? How do you think the salmon population grows in this area. What is the life cycle of the salmon? Read the "Ode to the Sockeye" and ask the class to write 1-2 impressions about the life of the Sockeye Salmon. Pass out the salmon name tags to students who will play the parts. Punch holes as uniformly as possible in the bottom of the cups and place around the room. Let students become acquainted with their streams. Have them identify their stream by looking on the bottom of the cup. Send the salmon out to sea to feed and grow. While the salmon are feeding, change all the stream positions. As small feeding salmon, they encounter many hazards en route. They could get caught in turbines. This could be simulated by having them run through a rope being turned. If caught, they are eliminated. Or feeding salmon could be caught in gill nets or by other predators. This can be done by having extra students draw numbers for the fish they will take. In their journey home, they might encounter impassible fish ladders or high dams. To represent this place several streams on a high shelf or block the way to the stream. Then call all of the surviving salmon back to locate their stream. When they feel they identified their stream, let them check the stream name. With a new group of salmon, proceed with the above mentioned activities, but alter a stream(s) by polluting it. You can spray room deodorant on the cup, both heavily and lightly. Be sure to leave one or two streams unpolluted. Mix the positions of the streams again. It will be difficult for them to identify the heavily polluted streams. Find and read the information in the Internet Hot Links. Management Tips and Hints: As you can see, this activity lends itself to many options and ideas. You can make it simple or more complex. Students are actively involved and are very enthusiastic throughout the activity. They begin to realize a few of the problems of being a Pacific salmon. Adapted through the source of "Sniffing' Salmon" by Dr. Richard Dudley, Fisheries Biologists, Oregon State University and Bill Hastie, Marine Consultant, Oregon Department of Education.