A whole new world

This exercise is a part of Educator Guide: All About Explainers, Cornell Notes and A New Undersea Mountain / View Guide
golden coral
A Chrysogorgia (golden coral) encountered by a robot diving along an unnamed Nazca Ridge seamount harbors other deep-sea species, including a Calliaster seastar and Lyrocteis ctenophore (yellow, gelatinous animals with trailing tentacles). Squat lobsters (Uroptychus sp.) may be a species new to science. ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

Directions for teachers:
To engage students before reading the article, have them answer the “Before Reading” questions as a warmup in class. Then, instruct students to read the online Science News Explores article “Underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean may be home to 20 new species” and answer the “During Reading” questions. As an optional extension, instruct students to answer “After Reading” questions as a class discussion or as homework.

This article also appears in the February print issue of Science News Explores. Science News offers another version of the same article written at a high school reading level. Post this set of questions without answers for your students using this link.

For more on hard-to-reach environments, see the activity lesson plan: Solving Hard-to-Reach Problems with ROVs. In this activity, students will think critically about how engineering practices can be used to monitor environmental issues or solve real-world problems before designing and modeling an ROV that could be used to investigate a real-world problem that impacts their local environment.

Directions for students:
Answer the first set of questions as instructed by your teacher before reading the article. Then, read the online Science News Explores article “Underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean may be home to 20 new species” and answer the remaining questions as directed by your teacher.

Before Reading
1. What are some challenges of studying ocean life that we do not encounter on land? What are some ways that we overcome such obstacles?

Answers will vary but may include thoughts about the potential extreme pressures and temperatures of underwater conditions and the fact that people can’t breathe oxygen under water without scuba-diving gear. Students may mention remotely operated vehicles and other devices that can explore areas with extreme conditions where humans cannot go.

2. To what extent do you think it’s important to discover new species? We live in a time of rapid climate change. How does climate change affect the importance of documenting new species? Explain your answer.

Answers will vary. Students may mention that fully understanding an ecosystem requires knowledge of the animals and organisms within it. Climate change may lead to species declining in population or becoming extinct, which makes discovering species more urgent, as more may decline or become extinct before they are discovered. People also can learn a lot from animals; identifying new ones may inspire new ideas for medicine, conservation, engineering and more.

During Reading
1. After reading the story, define a seamount. Then compare your definition to the one given at the end of the online version of the story in the Power Words section. What is one common way that a seamount forms?  

A seamount is an undersea mountain. Many seamounts develop as undersea volcanos.  

2. What type of organism do the golden-yellow zoanthids reside on? Use the Power Words at the end of the digital story to explain how this life form creates habitats for species.

The golden-yellow zoanthids live on bubblegum coral. Corals often produce a hard exoskeleton layer as a substrate for other species.

3.  Explain the inspiration behind the Casper octopus’s informal name.

Because this coral is ghostly white, its name was inspired by Casper the Friendly Ghost. Scientists haven’t formally described or given this species a scientific name.

4. Explain why the discovery of the Casper octopus surprised researchers.

Until this expedition, the Casper octopus had only been found in the North Pacific, and this was the first time it had been found in the South.

5. What made this expedition’s finding of a Promachoteuthis squid different from previous findings?

The team recorded footage of a living Promachoteuthis squid. In the past, researchers had only found dead specimens.

6. Describe the sea toad’s unusual use of its pectoral fins. Use the Power Words at the end of the online version of the story to explain where on the fish the pectoral fins are located.

The sea toad used its fins to brace itself between rocks and remain in place. Pectoral fins are located behind the fish’s head.

7. What could be considered surprising about the structure of a siphonophore?

A siphonophore looks like a single organism but is composed of many organisms working together as a colony.

After Reading
1.  “Only the ocean remains as the last great unexplored portion of our globe; so it is to the sea that man must turn to meet the last great challenge of exploration this side of outer space.” This quote comes from H. B. Stewart’s 1996 book Deep Challenge, on page 13. In your own words, explain what this quote means. To what extent does this quote relate to this story? Briefly explain your answer.

Answers will vary.

2. Besides seamounts, what is another habitat that might harbor undiscovered forms of life? Describe this place to the best of your knowledge. Then, speculate about forms of life that might reside there. Feel free to be creative! Explain how this fictional lifeform would be suited to this environment.

Answers will vary but may point to unexplored cave systems, remote regions of the world, areas deep underground, aquatic habitats underneath glaciers or the deep ocean. Fictional lifeforms will vary but should be related to features of the specified habitat.