marine – Having to do with the ocean world or environment.
marine ecologist – A scientist who studies the ocean’s ecology
plastic trash – scientists estimate the seas contain about 5.25 trillion pieces of this trash. Its combined weight: an estimated 269,000 metric tons.
- Fish and other marine organisms can ingest tiny plastic fragments. This trash can then move up the food chain as seabirds, seals and other marine predators eat those fish.
- plastics can work like sponges, soaking up and storing toxic chemicals. These include PCBs, pesticides and flame retardants. When ingested, such plastic can release the pollutants, triggering health problems.
- ocean plastics also provide homes for germs, some of which can cause disease.
That’s engineering
- toxic – Poisonous or able to harm or kill cells, tissues or whole organisms. The measure of risk posed by such a poison is its toxicity.
- organism – any individual animal, plant, bacterium, etc. having various parts or systems that function together as a whole to maintain life and its activities
- disphoticzone – the middle ocean zone that receives very little sunlight and contains no plants and few animals
- intertidal – having to do with the area of a seashore between the high-tide mark and the low-tide mark
- oceanographic – having to do with the study of oceans, including their water, biology and geology
- estuary – the part of the river where fresh water mixes with the ocean\’s salt water
Engineering ideas
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Do It
Challenges for you to work on…
engineering 4 kids 