About a decade ago I started using a video about sea star wasting syndrome in my science methods courses and workshops when I introduced the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) in NGSS. The video provided a real life phenomenon and multiple scientists and citizen scientists talking about the work they were doing trying to figure out what was happening to the sea stars on the west coast of the United States. I liked using the video because rather than just reading about the SEPs we could see (or partially see) the SEPs in action. (That video is embedded at the bottom of this post.)

Today my inbox had a link to this video where scientists at Friday Harbor Labs have been raising sunstars and have recently set them out into Puget Sound in an initial experiment. It’s exciting to see work that is happening to potentially repair some of the damage done by sea star wasting syndrome. It is a short video and I think one of the things I love about it is the sense of caring that you get from the scientists. One of the misconceptions about science and scientists is that they are uncaring, impartial, distant, removed observers. I don’t get that sense here. This group of people feel invested in these little creatures.

• What do you notice when you watch this video?
• What do you wonder?

And just for fun below is the PBS News Hour report on sea star wasting syndrome that I’ve been using in my methods courses and workshops for years now. See if you can identify any of the Science and Engineering Practices at work.