Vocabulary:

barrier island
beach
communities
dune
logic
maritime forest
marsh
salty
sound
windy

Objectives:

• To be able to describe coastal communities.
• To be able to order communities from the sound to the ocean.
• To be able to explain how marsh differs from the beach.

Materials:

• one set of logic clues and community cards per group

Procedure:

Cut apart the logic clues and community and place in an envelope.  Each group of four to six students should get one envelope.  Read these directions:

Your group has been given a set of logic clues and community cards.  One person should open the envelope and give out the large logic clues (without looking at the clues) until everyone has one or two clues.  Place the smaller community cards in the middle of the table. Each person should take turns reading their clues aloud.  You may read your clue aloud as many times as you like.  You may not show your clue to another person.

Use all the clues to determine the order of the communities.  To check your answer when you are done, everyone should read their clues again to see if all the clues fit.

Discussion Questions

• Were there clues that didn’t help you solve the problem?
• Which community is the driest?
• Think about animals that live on the coast. Can you name an animal that could live in more than one community?
• Which would be saltier, the marsh or the sea?                                                  

Spin-Offs

• Make up your own logic problem using the zonation that occurs at the edge of a forest and a pond
• Ask each student in the group to become an expert on one of the communities.  After researching the characteristics of the community, each expert makes a report to the team.
• Build a large mural and illustrate it with pictures of the animals that are found in each community. 

This activity is from the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve Education Office, January 2001.

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve Program, within the Division of Coastal Management, was authorized by the NC General Assembly in 1989 to protect unique coastal sites. The program includes the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve, part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve system, which the Division manages in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under the Coastal Zone Management Act.  

[Home] [Reserve Information] [Teachers & Students] [Current Events] [Research]
[Estuary Cam] [Coastal Communties Services] [Hourly Weather & Water] [Contact Us]