Design Your Own Farm

In this hands-on adventure, you’ll design your very own oyster farm using cut-out gear, a big coastal map, and your imagination. You'll decide where to place your oyster cages, longlines, and buoys—and give your farm an awesome name and logo. But building your farm is just the beginning. Once your setup is complete, the ocean throws some challenges your way! What will you do if a big storm hits? What if invasive species try to take over your farm? You'll work through these real-world aquaculture problems and figure out how to keep your oysters healthy and your farm strong.

Materials:

• Coastal Map
• Cut-out oyster farm components
• Scissors
• Glue stick/tape
• Markers, colored pencils, or crayons

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Introduction:

Oyster farming, also called aquaculture, is an important way people grow food, support local economies, and help the ocean stay healthy. Oysters clean the water as they grow and provide habitat for other marine life, making them a key part of many coastal ecosystems.

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In this lesson, you’ll take on the role of an oyster farmer. Using a coastal map and cut-out materials, you’ll design your own farm by choosing where to place your gear, how your farm will operate, and creating a name and logo to represent it. Once your farm is set up, you’ll be challenged to think like a real farmer by facing different environmental situations, like storms or invasive species. You'll come up with strategies to keep your oysters safe and your farm running smoothly. This activity combines science, creativity, and problem-solving to help you understand how aquaculture works and why it matters.

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Procedure:

1. Choose Your Farm Site: Review the map and think about key factors:
   1. Water depth (shallow vs. deep)
   2. Distance from shore (close vs. far)
   3. Water quality (clean vs. polluted areas)
   4. Bottom type (muddy vs. sandy)
2. Select Your Gear: Choose how your oysters will grow by selecting the tools and equipment for your farm.
   1. Boat: to get to and from your farm
   2. Buoys: to mark your farm and keep your gear afloat
   3. Longlines: to suspend gear in the water
   4. Anchors: to keep farm in place by weighting to the seafloor
   5. Cages with pontoons and bags for cages
   6. Bags with pontoons
   7. Bottom cage
   8. Tumbler
   9. Harvest crates
3. Design Your Farm Layout: Use glue or tape to arrange your farm on the map
   1. Create a name and a logo that reflects your farm’s style and values
4. Face Real-World Challenges: Write down the following challenges on pieces of paper. Close your eyes and choose one:
   1. A nor’easter rolls in
      1. Is your gear secured with anchors or ropes?
      2. Can you move your oysters to a safer location (like land or a protected cove)?
      3. What gear can stay in the water? What needs to come out?
   2. Biofouling clogs your cages—what maintenance is needed?
      1. What tools would you use to clean your gear (brushes, sprayers, etc.)?
      2. Can you rotate or rest equipment to give it time to recover out of the water?
      3. Would a tumbler help shake off growth?
   3. A nearby factory lowers water quality—do you relocate or adapt?
      1. Can you test water quality before harvesting to protect your product?

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Accommodations: If you don’t have a printer or access to one, you can trace the coastal map and farm components, or draw them on your own. Don’t see a piece of equipment you need? Invent it! Draw your own tools or gear.