Sea Otters: A Keystone Species

The Ocean Science Discovery Lab (OSDL) is part of a program to educate students in Kodiak, Alaska about marine science, focussing on species local to the Kodiak Archipelago. The program offers field trips to the OSDL for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students where they get to participate in hands-on learning. Each grade is offered a different unit: Marine Food Webs for 3rd grade, Sea Otters: A Keystone Species for 4th grade, and Sea Stars and Experimental Design for 5th grade. During the Covid-19 shutdown, the OSDL was not open for field trips so we created videos of the units. This video, Sea Otters: A Keystone Species, presents material that is most appropriate for 3rd-5th graders. Students will learn about marine mammals, sea otters and marine invertebrates, use division and multiplication to calculate how much a sea otter needs to eat and how much the students would need to eat if they were an otter, and the concept of a keystone species. Have fun watching!

Chapters
0:00 - Introduction of Instructor and Helper
0:27 - What is a Keystone Species?
1:27 - Oswald (The Sea Otter Pelt)
2:20 - Animals in the Otter Family
3:40 - Mammal Traits
4:52 - Staying Warm in Cold Water
6:21 - Sea Otters Diet
7:17 - Body Adaptations for Hunting & Eating
8:22 - ACTIVITY TIME! How much does a sea otter eat?
15:45 - ROUND 2: How much does an urchin weigh?
19:03 - ACTIVITY 2! What else does a sea otter eat?
29:39 - Where does their food live? (Kelp Forests)
35:26 - Lesson Summary of Sea Otter Unit