Highways of the Sea Lab Report

Instructions: In the Highways of the Sea Lab, you will chart the traveling shoes and
predict how ocean currents move. Record your findings below. You will submit your
completed lab report.

(30 points possible)

Name and Title:

Highways of The Sea Lab, Dakota Kuta, Mrs.Maniscalco, 11/2/2021

Objective(s):
What was the main purpose of the lab?
The purpose of this lab is to show the ocean currents strength and ability to move
objects in the water and to show where the nike shoes floated at sea.

Hypothesis: (2 points)
This should be a prediction that can be tested. You may use the if/then format to write
your hypothesis.
If, the North Pacific Ocean currents are strong Then, the Nike shoes will most likely drift
towards the U.S. and Canada.

Procedure: (8 points)
On the map below, locate and mark the locations of shoes provided in the data table.
You may print your map and mark it by hand or copy it to a program to edit. Label each
data point in chronological order from 1 to 11 on the map, and connect the data points
with arrows.
Data:
Conclusion: (20 points)
1. Define the following terms: (2 points)

a. Current- The motion of the ocean

b. Gyre- A ringlike system of ocean currents

2. Using the map and the data points, what can you conclude about the general pathway
the shoes took? (2 points)

The shoes stayed mainly in the general area around the U.S. and Canada except in
January 1993-1994 when they drifted towards China.

3. Compare the pathway of the shoes to the map showing the major surface currents in
the Pacific. Which current(s) did the shoes most likely encounter? Add these to your
map above. (2 points)

The Nike shoes most likely encountered the North Pacific Gyre and other nearby
currents like the North Equatorial and/or the Kurodhio.

4. Which data point is an outlier? What may have happened to this batch of shoes? (2
points)

The tenth data point is an outlier, for this batch of shoes some stayed but the rest may
have drifted off.

5. How fast did the shoes travel? (4 points)

a. From where the shoes spilled (48°N, 161°W) to where they first made landfall
(49°N, 126°W), how many kilometers did they travel? How many days did they take to
travel that distance? (You can use November 30 as the date found). What was their rate
of travel in kilometers per hour?
The Nike shoes traveled 2,557 kilometers in 187 days, their rate of travel was 1.75
kilometers per hour.

b. From where the shoes spilled (48°N, 161°W) to where they were found in 1996
(54°N, 133°W), how many kilometers did they travel? How many days did they take to
travel that distance (use April 30 as the date found)? What was their rate of travel in
kilometers per hour?

In 1996 the Nike shoes traveled 2,052 kilometers and took 2,165 days, their rate of
travel was 25.32 kilometers per hour.

6. The shoes traveled faster than the rubber ducks and bath toys. Propose a hypothesis
to explain the why the shoes traveled faster, and develop a plan to test your prediction.
(2 points)
I propose that due to the shoes having more mass than the ducks and bath toys results
in the shoes having a quicker rate of travel, I can test this by placing the shoe and the
ducky a long bucket of water and use some sort of blower and see which object reaches
the other end of the bucket first.

7. The shoes floated low in the water, while the ducks floated high in the water. How
could this fact have changed the course and speed of both the shoes and the ducks? (2
points)

The shoes may move faster underwater, causing it to be faster than the ducks because
the shoes might not be affected by the weather than on the surface like wind which could
cause the duckys to move in a different direction or slow them down.

8. Give a possible explanation why some shoes drifted northward along the coast while
others drifted southward. (2 points)

Some of the Nike shoes could have been separated and drifted away by other currents
causing several shoes to end up in the North and several in the South.

9. Your friend has invited you onto her family’s boat for a day of fishing. After lunch on
the boat, your friend wants to throw a bag of trash overboard. After researching the
impact currents have on objects, explain what you would do in this situation and why. (2
points)

I would take the trash bag out of the water and tell my friend that the oceans currents
cause the trash to circulate around and sink deeper into the ocean and doing so might
cause some sea animals to mistake it as food which can potentially harm or kill the
animal.