How can we use coastal engineering to protect ecosystems?

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 geography and engineering.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Xiao Yu at the University of Florida, USA. He is an oceanographic and coastal engineer investigating the impact of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) on the flow of water. SAV is a term that refers to aquatic plants that grow completely under water. These plants reside in both freshwater and saltwater, but in estuaries – where both fresh and saltwater are often mixed together – they can be particularly important for aquatic organisms, which rely on SAV for food and shelter. The resource tasks students to consider how Xiao’s work can help us manage our natural resources sustainably.

• This resource also contains interviews with Xiao and Rob Taylor, an undergraduate studying environmental engineering. If you or your students have a question for them, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. Xiao or Rob will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Xiao’s work, and has activities - including instructions on how to estimate the flow rate of a local river.

The PowerPoint summarises the key points in the article and has additional Talking Points.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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