Curricula
The lessons posted here were developed as part of OIMB’s Graduates in K-12 Education Project. The graduate fellows pulled from a variety of materials to develop lessons that met partnering teachers’ needs and complemented UC Berkeley’s MARE (Marine Activities, Resources and Education) curriculum. OIMB’s GK12 program followed the MARE structure of a different habitat for each grade. While the GK12 lessons are posted here by habitat and MARE grade, the lessons are appropriate for a range of ages and can be adjusted for older or younger students. Our goal in posting these lessons is to support continued teaching of marine science in our partner GK12 schools. In addition, we hope other educators and ocean explorers of all ages will find these lessons helpful and fun!
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*first publication occurred in Science Activities, Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas, 46(4)
**Copyright 2010, National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Reprinted with permission from Science and Children, 48(4), Dec 2010
Study the world of ponds! Start by exploring water – how it feels and moves, how some things sink in water and other things float, how drops form and hold together, and how different it would be to live and breath and feed in water. Learn about habitats and about the things that all organisms need. Learn about food webs and how plants and animals are interconnected. Study insects, snails and tadpoles, and build your own classroom ponds with pondweed, worms, snails, and fish. Observe and question, make and test predictions, observe and question some more!
MARE lessons (Teacher’s Guide to Ponds)
Water Water Everywhere
A Snails Place
Pond Homes
Build Paper Ponds
Adopt a Playground
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Rocky Shores – First Grade
Explore the rocky seashore and tidepools! Learn about what it is like to live where the waves crash and plants and animals are sometimes in water and sometimes in air. Observe and study sea stars, limpets, sea slugs, snails, chitons, mussels, barnacles, crabs, worms, fish and octopods. Explore the different adaptations these animals have for holding on, moving and eating in the busy world at the edge of the sea. Learn about algae—where different kinds grow, which seashore animals eat algae, and how we eat and use it too! Come up with experiments to test your questions. Very importantly, learn how to treat the rocky seashore, and plants and animals that live there, with care.
MARE lessons (Teacher’s Guide to the Rocky Seashore)
- Seashore Sleuthing
- A Snail’s Place
- Water Works
- Seaweed Soup
- Seashore Charades
- Tidepool Boogie
- Build a Rocky Shore
- Seashore Bingo
| Lessons | Field Inquiry: Life Under Rocks | Games |
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Sandy Beaches – Second Grade
Explore sandy beaches and dunes: observe and question, predict and test, classify and categorize, explore and imagine! Learn about tides and waves, and how beaches form and change. Explore how sand is made and where it comes from, and then examine different sand and learn how the materials, colors, grain sizes and grain shapes tell the story of the beach. Learn about animals that live on and in the sand, and about shells and who makes them. Study beach hoppers, hermit crabs, shorebirds, seals and sea lions. Where do people fit in? Learn about threats to our beaches and how we can care for these amazing places.
MARE lessons (Teacher’s Guide to the Sandy Beach and GEMS/MARE On Sandy Shores)
- Beach Bucket Scavenger
- Hunt Shell Sorting
- Making Sand
- Build a Sandy Beach
- Sand on Stage
- Chain of Life
- The Sights Sand Has Seen
- Oil on the Beach
- Pinnipeds – Ears to You
| Lessons | Field Inquiry: Beach Hoppers |
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Wetlands – Third Grade
Explore wetlands and estuaries–where fresh water meets salt water! Learn about watersheds and water movement and test water flow in mini-watersheds. With different samples of water, learn about density and salinity, and how along with temperature differences, these properties create water layers and currents. Examine different sediment types and test their properties. Learn about osmosis and how plants and animals meet the challenges of living in changing salinity. Study food webs and investigate adaptations of crabs, worms and clams. Examine the many ways birds are adapted to feed in these rich environments. Test your own hypotheses of the workings of mudflats. There’s a lot more there than mud!
MARE lessons (Teacher’s Guide to Wetlands)
- Salinity Currents
- Bird Beak Buffet
- Bivalve Booklets
- Butts Up
- Clam Dissection
- Estuary Life
- Build an Estuary
| Lessons | Field Inquiry: Mudflats |
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Kelp Forests – Fourth Grade
Explore kelp forests and learn how giant kelp create a habitat for many, many organisms! Observe and study these plants and animals and their relationships. Compare different species to learn about the many shapes and adaptations of algae and learn how people use these seaweeds. Study an amazing diversity of invertebrates and fish, and learn how they feed and live. Learn about the absorption of light in water, and what that means for animals in the ocean. Through games and role-playing, experience the impact of over fishing vs. managed fisheries. Take a virtual dive in a kelp forest, and then in a shore-based field inquiry, collect data to answer your own questions about algae and its adaptations and distribution.
MARE lessons (Teacher’s Guide to the Kelp Forest)
- Seasons of the Kelp Forest
- It Takes All Kinds
- Red Fish Roundup
- Sea Otter Jeopardy
- Build a Kelp Forest
- Seaweed Smorgasbord
- Fish Formation
| Lessons | Field Inquiry: Intertidal Algae |
|---|---|
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Open Ocean – Fifth Grade
There is no end to the study of the open ocean! Use the lessons below to create currents, observe upwelling, and learn about the links between the ocean and weather. Learn about plate tectonics and undersea volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. Model an ocean bottom and create topographic maps. Examine life in the sea from tiny plankton to whales, and from the sunlit surface to the dark depths. Learn about hydrothermal vents and life based on chemosynthesis. Study ocean food webs, natural selection, and the many forms and uses of bioluminescence. Dissect squid, and put together a whale skeleton. Examine the impacts and complexities of pollution and over fishing, and learn how we can better care for this vast area that makes up most of our planet.
MARE lessons (Teacher’s Guide to Open Ocean, GEMS/ MARE Only One Ocean, GEMS/MARE Ocean Currents)
- Apples and Oceans
- Ocean Routes
- Planet Ocean: Global Exploration
- Message in a Bottle
- Waste Disposal
- Squids: Inside & Out
- Current Trends
- Great Plankton Race
- Layering Liquids
- Whale with Class
- Ice Cubes Demonstration
- Build an Open Ocean
| Lessons | Field Inquiry: Jellies |
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Islands – Sixth Grade
Islands! Model the different ways islands form, and explore the implications for island structure. Examine the physical properties of sand, and the biology and chemistry of coral reef formation. Learn about many of the organisms that take advantage of the isolation of islands for breeding, such as elephant seals and birds. Learn about dispersal and colonization of islands, and island biogeography. Investigate cell biology and DNA, adaptation and natural selection. Study some of the animals in the waters around islands, from plankton to sharks. Apply what you learn to issues of management unique to island environments.
MARE lessons (Teacher’s Guide to Islands)
- Sands of Time
- Island Rock
- Mirounga Mirounga
- Build an Island
- Shark Encounter
- Santa Clara Island
| Lessons | Field Inquiry: Tidepool Islands |
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Aquariums
| Set-Up and Maintenance | Aquarium Lessons by Ryan Lenz | Collecting Permit Application |
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| ODFW scientific taking permits |
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0338153 and 0638731. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.