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How Does This Relate to Sustainability and Why Does It Matter?

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How Does This Relate to Sustainability and Why Does It Matter?

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The Ocean makes up almost 3/4 of our planet. We rely on it for a food source, clean air, medicine, and much more. Teaching students about the Marine Ecosystems and the direct relationship between humans and our oceans shows them how important this concept is. Humans simply cannot survive without Oceans, and economies across the world would crash and burn if this food supply diminished. On top of all that, the regulation of different climates are controlled by the oceans, and we would not be able to breathe without them.  I have always had a love for Marine Biology and think it is absolutely amazing how intricate these systems really are, but I never really thought about how important it is to teach these concepts to future generations.  Marine Biology and everything that is entailed with it is super complex, so it is important to introduce the basics to students at a young age.
Taking it a step further and teaching students about how to make a difference in Recycling and Pollution Reduction is the biggest connection to Sustainability. These kids are the future generations of this country, and it is very important that we teach them about these concepts so they grow up with a mindset to make a difference. When it comes down to it, teaching this topic is one of the most important things you will teach to your students.

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Why is the Marine Ecosystem and oceans so important?
What are some of the marine life species and why are they important?
What is happening with pollution and waste that is hurting the oceans?
How big is this problem, really?
How can we help?

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Strand 3. Concept 1. Describe the interaction between human population, natural hazards, and the environment.
-PO 1. Describe how natural events and human activities have positive and negative effects on environments (e.g. fire, floods, pollution, dams).
Strand 4. Concept 3. Understand the relationship among various organisms and their environment.
PO 4. Describe ways in which resources can be conserved (e.g., by reducing, reusing, recycling, finding substitutes).
Strand 4. Concept 4. Diversity, Adaptation, and Behavior. Identify plant and Animal Adaptations.
PO1. Recognize that successful characteristics of populations are inherited traits that are favorable in a particular environment.

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Day 1: Amazing Oceans: Species, characteristics, etc.
Day 2: Specifics of Adaptations, Environments, and Traits
Day 3: Human Relationship with Oceans
Day 4: Teach pollution. What is it, what kinds are there, etc. How it is affecting our oceans.
Day 5:  What can we do to help?

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Book: Ocean and Sea (by: Steve Parker)
Students will learn about a variety of different species like the Green Sea Turtle and Clown Fish. They will gain insight on how a Coral Reef works and how it is a community that thrives with thousands of different species. This website will allow students to explore the different animals and learn a little bit about them. We will go through this slideshow together on the Smart Board, as students create an OWL chart about what they are learning, This technological resource produces visuals for the students. After the reading and exploration, we will have a group discussion reflecting on some of the interesting things they learned and wrote in their charts. They will be asked to draw a picture of one of the species they learned about, and then write one sentence about that species. This lesson will open student's eyes to some of the amazing things that happen in our oceans and some of the species that thrive in these environments. It is important to teach this because this marine life is extremely important and there are many different things that factor into having a sustainable marine environment. This lesson is intended to be an introduction to marine life, and teaches students some of the basics so they understand what is happening in the days following.

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Reef Fish, French Frigate Shoals

Colorful fishes throng a reef in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Credit: James Watt

Spotfin Lionfish

The spotfin lionfish ( Pterois antennata), with venomous spines extended, is native to Indo-Pacific reefs. Certain lionfish species have invaded reefs in Florida, the Caribbean and are moving up the Atlantic coast. The native Pacific fish probably escaped from an aquarium. Lionfish are aggressive predators and threaten local species. They are also referred to as turkeyfish because depending on how you view the lionfish it can look like the plumage of a turkey.

Credit: Chuck Savall

Parrotfish in Mucus Cocoon

A parrotfish ( Chlorurus sordidus) creates a mucus cocoon to protect it from parasites, like bloodsucking isopods, while it sleeps.

Credit: Lexa Grutter

Clownfish in their Host Anemone

Two bright orange anemonefish ( Amphiprion ocellaris) poke their heads between anemone tentacles. Anemonefish are able to swim amongst the stinging tentacles without getting stung - but no one knows exactly sure how. One dominant theory explains that they have a protective slime coating their bodies. However, anemonefish are not born with this protective slime and scientists don't know how they develop it.

Credit: Flickr user Jenny Huang (JennyHuang)/EOL

Purple Nudibranch

The feathery strands at the back of this nudibranch's ( Chromodoris willani) body are no mere adornment: they're its gills! Nudibranchs, shell-less snails or sea slugs, are named for these tufted gills, as "nudibranch" comes from Latin and Greek words meaning "naked gills." They're known for their bright coloration, and this species, found in Western Pacific Ocean coral reefs, ranges from dark purple to bright white.

Credit: Jeff Dawson

Green Sea Turtle

A diet of algae and seagrasses gives this turtle ( Chelonia mydas) greenish colored fat-and its name. Weighing as much as 500 pounds, the threatened green sea turtle lives its life at sea, with only females coming to shore to lay eggs.

Credit: Pedro Carrillo/Nature's Best Photography

Crown of Thorns Starfish

A crown-of-thorns starfish ( Acanthaster planci) on a reef in the Marianas Islands. An "outbreak" of these coral-eating starfish can decimate a reef, and they have done great damage on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Credit: David Burdick/NOAA Photo Library

Hawaii's Maro Coral Reef

This bluefin trevally is lucky to call Hawaii's Maro Coral Reef, part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, its home. Maro is the largest reef in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands and just one of the many marine ecosystems protected in the 140,000 square miles of Papahānaumokuākea, one of the largest marine protected areas in the world.

Credit: ©James D. Watt/Ocean Stock

Eye to Eye With a Pygmy Seahorse

A master of disguise, the pygmy seahorse ( Hippocampus bargibanti) grows to only 2cm in length and matches the gorgonian coral that it lives on. The pygmy seahorse is so successful at hiding that it was not found until its home was being studied in a lab. So little is known about this mysterious creature that the major threats to it are unknown. However a possible threat is removing the pygmy seahorse from its habitat for aquarium use. Due to this, countries like Australia are being cautious and requiring export permits to protect this shy creature.

Credit:
Critidoc, Flickr

Mandarinfish Duo

These beautiful mandarinfish ( Synchiropus splendidus) are covered in bright blue, red, yellow and orange waves. What they lack, however, are traditional fish scales. They live in western Pacific tropical coral reef ecosystems and instead of your typical fish scales they are covered in a smelly, thick mucus coating. It's possible that this mucus, which not only smells-but tastes-bad, is used as a deterrent to predators.

Credit: Erwin Poliakoff

Coral Goby Cleans Coral

One of the first signs of a sick coral reef is seaweed creeping across the corals, stealing their precious sunny real estate. Healthy corals, however, aren't completely hopeless: in some reefs, small fishes, such as this broad-barred goby ( Gobiodon histrio), help eat the seaweeds away. But how do corals contact the fish to ask for cleaning services? By sending out a chemical signal.

Credit: Courtesy of Danielle Dixson, Georgia Institute of Technology

Coral Head Near Pearl and Hermes Atoll

A rainbow of tropical fish hovers over a coral head near the Pearl and Hermes Atoll, part of the Papahānaumokuākea World Heritage Site.

Credit: Louiz Rocha

Surgeonfish: Indicators of a Healthy Reef

Convict surgeonfish ( Acanthurus triostegus) are the roaming sheep of the reef but, instead of noshing on grass, they feed on algae. Their grazing helps to balance the growth of algae and coral on the reef. Both corals and algae get their food from sunlight, but there is limited space underwater where sunlight reaches. Corals take much longer to grow, so the seaweed needs to be trimmed by surgeonfish and other herbivores regularly to keep it from growing out of control and blocking the sun from the coral. Seeing many herbivorous fish and not too much algae or seaweed is a sign of a healthy reef. But if herbivores are overfished, there are fewer checks on the seaweed and algae.

Credit: Michael Webster

Yellow-mouth Moray Eel in the Red Sea (Eilat, Israel)

" This moray eel was resting among some hard coral and was mesmerized by my dive lights, making it a very cooperative subject. The moray eel rhythmically opens and closes its mouth to move water through its gills and facilitate respiration, giving it the appearance of being aggressive and making for a dramatic portrait." -- Nature's Best photographer, Steven Kovacs

Credit: Steven Kovacs, Moore Haven, Florida, USA, www.underwaterbliss.com

A School of Hawaiian Squirrelfish

Check out the eyes on these Hawaiian squirrelfish ( Sargocentron xantherythrum)! Because squirrelfish are almost entirely nocturnal, they need big eyes to absorb as much moonlight and starlight as they can in the dark. During the day, they hide out in the nooks and crannies of tropical coral reefs. To defend its small hiding place, the squirrelfish grunts by grinding its teeth and stretching the muscles along its gas bladders-grunts that sound a bit like the chatter of squirrels!

Credit: James Watt, USFWS Pacific

Australia's 1.2 Million Mile Marine Reserve

In November 2012, Australia began protecting a huge swath of its ocean from overfishing and oil exploration, creating the largest network of marine reserves in the world at a grand total of 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square kilometers). The area, a third of the continent's territorial waters, includes an underwater canyon as large as the U.S. Grand Canyon, seagrass meadows, and the biodiverse reefs of the Coral Sea, including the one pictured here at Montague Island.

Credit: Tony Brown, Flickr

Can You Spot the Seahorse?

It's a pygmy seahorse ( Hippocampus bargibanti), found in Indonesia's biodiverse Coral Triangle and one of the smallest seahorse species in the world! They can change colors like a chameleon to blend into their environment. This helps to protect them from predators and ambush their prey.

Credit: Sam Taylor / Guylian Seahorses of the World 2005, courtesy of Project Seahorse

Fireworm Takes on Fire Coral

This bearded fireworm ( Hermodice carunculata) must have a strong stomach -- it's sucking on fire coral ( Millepora sp.), which would give the unlucky snorkeler a nasty sting. Encountered in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, the worm in this photo is about 15 cm (6 inches) long, but they can get up to twice that length. Those venom-filled bristles can break off in human skin, causing an intense burning sensation.

Credit: Allen G. Collins/NOAA

Butterflyfish and Wrasse

A wrought iron butterflyfish , Chaetodon daedalma, being cleaned by a small wrasse in the waters of Japan's Ogasawara Islands.

Credit: © Brian Skerry, www.brianskerry.com

Toothy Goby in Coral

The toothy goby or common ghost goby ( Pleurosicya mossambica) lives among soft corals and sponges in the Indo-Pacific ocean. The relationship it has with its host is commensal, which means the goby benefits from the protection and habitat in the corals, but the coral doesn't get hurt or benefit from the relationship.

Many of the other 2000 or so species of gobies form such symbiotic relationships, both commensalisms and mutualisms. Gobies and pistol shrimps will live together, with the near-blind shrimp tending their sandy burrow while the goby watches for predators. And cleaner gobies ( Elacatinus) clean the mouths of bigger fish that would normally treat them as prey.

Credit: Mark Rosenstein, Flickr

Caribbean Reef Shark

Living in warm shallow waters often near coral reefs in the Western Atlantic, from Florida to Brazil, the Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) is the most abundant shark in the Caribbean. It feeds mostly on bony fishes and rarely attacks humans. Despite the shark's abundance in some regions, it has a high mortality rate from bycatch and is sought by commercial fisheries for its fins and meat. It is illegal to catch Caribbean reef sharks in U.S. waters. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species' status as "Near Threatened."

Credit: © Brian Skerry, www.brianskerry.com

White Xenia Crab from Indonesia

"Lembeh Strait is a fantastic place to find species that have evolved to resemble other animals or plants to survive. Because of the lens I was using, I had to get really close to this crab. As I moved in, it retreated into the xenia coral polyps. When I backed up, it came back out. The skittish crab, in addition to having the wrong lens for the task, made this a challenging shot." -- Nature's Best Photographer, Marli Wakeling

Credit: Marli Wakeling/Nature's Best Photography

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Bizarre and Beautiful Coral Reef Animals

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From parrotfish that cover themselves in a blanket of their own mucus to tiny pygmy sea horses, there are some bizarre sea creatures that live in coral reefs. In this slideshow you can explore some of the oddest and most amazing ones there are to see.

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Day 2: The In's and Out's of Adaptations, Environments, and Life in the Ocean

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Day 2: The In's and Out's of Adaptations, Environments, and Life in the Ocean

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Students will be. involved in a group discussion about what adaptations and traits that different species have in order to survive in their environments. This will connect to their prior knowledge because we will review what we learned before about this topic, and then connect it to marine life and this ecosystem. The link below is instructions for an activity that shows them how camouflage works, and how it protects fish from big predators. Students will then work in small groups in order to create a fish (or other marine animal) that has some of these characteristics so it can hide and survive in a coral reef. I will have a picture like the on in the background of this padlet on the Smart Board, so they can see some of the colors and factors that might affect their fish. For this activity, they will use large paper, markers, colored pencils, scissors, etc. At the end of the lesson, student will be asked to write about their creation and why they chose these specific traits to help them survive (exit ticket).

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Study Abroad with SEA Semester | Sea Education Association | SEA Semester

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SEA Semester offers study abroad semester at sea programs focusing on oceanography, environmental studies, marine biology, sailing tall ships, and the environmental study of oceans.

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Students will learn about coral reefs, including what they are, how they work, and why they are so important. Students will gain a better understanding of these amazing ecosystems, and how the different species in these ecosystems all work together to thrive and survive. They will learn about different relationships like an Anemone and a Clownfish.
https://www.leisurepro.com/blog/explore-the-blue/5-marine-symbiotic-relationships/
The link above gives examples of different relationships between marine life. Students will be able to explain how these different species rely on each other in order to live in their environments, and how each and every animal needs each other to survive, so it is important to protect them all.

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1. Home

2. Ocean Life

3. Invertebrates

4. Corals and Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine ecosystems. They teem with life, with perhaps one-quarter of all ocean species depending on reefs for food and shelter. This is a remarkable statistic when you consider that reefs cover just a tiny fraction (less than one percent) of the earth's surface and less than two percent of the ocean bottom. Because they are so diverse, coral reefs are often called the rainforests of the sea.

Unfortunately, people also pose the greatest threat to coral reefs. Overfishing and destructive fishing, pollution, warming, changing ocean chemistry, and invasive species are all taking a huge toll. In some places, reefs have been entirely destroyed, and in many places reefs today are a pale shadow of what they once were.

Animal, Vegetable & Mineral

Corals are related to sea anemones, and they all share the same simple structure, the polyp. The polyp is like a tin can open at just one end: the open end has a mouth surrounded by a ring of tentacles. The tentacles have stinging cells, called nematocysts, that allow the coral polyp to capture small organisms that swim too close. Inside the body of the polyp are digestive and reproductive tissues. Corals differ from sea anemones in their production of a mineral skeleton.

Shallow water corals that live in warm water often have another source of food, the zooxanthellae (pronounced zo-o-zan-THELL-ee). These single-celled algae photosynthesize and pass some of the food they make from the sun's energy to their hosts, and in exchange the coral animal gives nutrients to the algae. It is this relationship that allows shallow water corals to grow fast enough to build the enormous structures we call reefs. The zooxanthellae also provide much of the green, brown, and reddish colors that corals have. The less common purple, blue, and mauve colors found in some corals the coral makes itself.

Coral Diversity

In the so-called true stony corals, which compose most tropical reefs, each polyp sits in a cup made of calcium carbonate. Stony corals are the most important reef builders, but organpipe corals, precious red corals, and blue corals also have stony skeletons. There are also corals that use more flexible materials or tiny stiff rods to build their skeletons-the seafans and sea rods, the rubbery soft corals, and the black corals.

The family tree of the animals we call corals is complicated, and some groups are more closely related to each other than are others. All but the fire corals (named for their strong sting) are anthozoans, which are divided into two main groups. The hexacorals (including the true stony corals and black corals, as well as the sea anemones) have smooth tentacles, often in multiples of six, and the octocorals (soft corals, seafans, organpipe corals and blue corals) have eight tentacles, each of which has tiny branches running along the sides. All corals are in the phylum Cnidaria, the same as jellyfish.

Reproduction

Corals have multiple reproductive strategies - they can be male or female or both, and can reproduce either asexually or sexually. Asexual reproduction is important for increasing the size of the colony, and sexual reproduction increases genetic diversity and starts new colonies that can be far from the parents.
ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION
Asexual reproduction results in polyps or colonies that are clones of each other - this can occur through either budding or fragmentation. Budding is when a coral polyp reaches a certain size and divides, producing a genetically identical new polyp. Corals do this throughout their lifetime. Sometimes a part of a colony breaks off and forms a new colony. This is called fragmentation, which can occur as a result of a disturbance such as a storm or being hit by fishing equipment.
SEXUAL REPRODUCTION
In sexual reproduction, eggs are fertilized by sperm, usually from another colony, and develop into a free-swimming larva. There are two types of sexual reproduction in corals, external and internal. Depending on the species and type of fertilization, the larvae settle on a suitable substrate and become polyps after a few days or weeks, although some can settle within a few hours!

Most stony corals are broadcast spawners and fertilization occurs outside the body (external fertilization). Colonies release huge numbers of eggs and sperm that are often glued into bundles (one bundle per polyp) that float towards the surface. Spawning often occurs just once a year and in some places is synchronized for all individuals of the same species in an area. This type of mass spawning usually occurs at night and is quite a spectacle. Some corals brood their eggs in the body of the polyp and release sperm into the water. As the sperm sink, polyps containing eggs take them in and fertilization occurs inside the body (internal fertilization). Brooders often reproduce several times a year on a lunar cycle.

Coral Growth

(Owen Sherwood)

Reefs form when corals grow in shallow water close to the shore of continents or smaller islands. The majority of coral reefs are called fringe reefs because they fringe the coastline of a nearby landmass. But when a coral reef grows around a volcanic island something interesting occurs. Over millions of years, the volcano gradually sinks, as the corals continue to grow, both upward towards the surface and out towards the open ocean. Over time, a lagoon forms between the corals and the sinking island and a barrier reef forms around the lagoon. Eventually, the volcano is completely submerged and only the ring of corals remains. This is called an atoll. Waves may eventually pile sand and coral debris on top of the growing corals in the atoll, creating a strip of land. Many of the Marshall Islands, a system of islands in the Pacific Ocean and home to the Marshallese, are atolls.

It takes a long time to grow a big coral colony or a coral reef, because each coral grows slowly. The fastest corals expand at more than 6 inches (15 cm) per year, but most grow less than an inch per year. Reefs themselves grow even more slowly because after the corals die, they break into smaller pieces and become compacted. Individual colonies can often live decades to centuries, and some deep-sea colonies have lived more than 4000 years. One way we know this is because corals lay down annual rings, just as trees do. These skeletons can tell us about what conditions were like hundreds or thousands of years ago. The Great Barrier Reef as it exists today began growing about 20,000 years ago.

Where are Reefs Found?

Corals are found across the world's ocean, in both shallow and deep water, but reef-building corals are only found in shallow tropical and subtropical waters. This is because the algae found in their tissues need light for photosynthesis and they prefer water temperatures between 70-85°F (22-29°C).

Cities of the Sea

(Klaus Jost, jostimages.com)

Reefs are the big cities of the sea. They exist because the growth of corals matches or exceeds the death of corals - think of it as a race between the construction cranes (new coral skeleton) and the wrecking balls (the organisms that kill coral and chew their skeletons into sand).

Corals also have to worry about competitors. They use the same nematocysts that catch their food to sting other encroaching corals and keep them at bay. Seaweeds are a particularly dangerous competitor, as they typically grow much faster than corals and may contain nasty chemicals that injure the coral as well.

Corals do not have to only rely on themselves for their defenses because mutualisms (beneficial relationships) abound on coral reefs. The partnership between corals and their zooxanthellae is one of many examples of symbiosis, where different species live together and help each other. Some coral colonies have crabs and shrimps that live within their branches and defend their home against coral predators with their pincers. Parrotfish, in their quest to find seaweed, will often bite off chunks of coral and will later poop out the digested remains as sand. One kind of goby chews up a particularly nasty seaweed, and even benefits by becoming more poisonous itself.

Threats

Global

The greatest threats to reefs are rising water temperatures and ocean acidification linked to rising carbon dioxide levels. High water temperatures cause corals to lose the microscopic algae that produce the food corals need-a condition known as coral bleaching. Severe or prolonged bleaching can kill coral colonies or leave them vulnerable to other threats. Meanwhile, ocean acidification means more acidic seawater, which makes it more difficult for corals to build their calcium carbonate skeletons. And if acidification gets severe enough, it could even break apart the existing skeletons that already provide the structure for reefs. Scientists predict that by 2085 ocean conditions will be acidic enough for corals around the globe to begin to dissolve. For one reef in Hawaii this is already a reality.

Local

Even activities that take place far from reefs can have an impact. Runoff from lawns, sewage, cities, and farms feeds algae that can overwhelm reefs. Deforestation hastens soil erosion, which clouds water-smothering corals.

Coral Bleaching

"Coral bleaching" occurs when coral polyps lose their symbiotic algae, the zooxanthellae. Without their zooxanthellae, the living tissues are nearly transparent, and you can see right through to the stony skeleton, which is white, hence the name coral bleaching. Many different kinds of stressors can cause coral bleaching - water that is too cold or too hot, too much or too little light, or the dilution of seawater by lots of fresh water can all cause coral bleaching. The biggest cause of bleaching today has been rising temperatures caused by global warming. Temperatures more than 2 degrees F (or 1 degree C) above the normal seasonal maximimum can cause bleaching. Bleached corals do not die right away, but if temperatures are very hot or are too warm for a long time, corals either die from starvation or disease. In 1998, 80 percent of the corals in the Indian Ocean bleached and 20 percent died.

Protecting Coral Reefs

There is much that we can do locally to protect coral reefs, by making sure there is a healthy fish community and that the water surrounding the reefs is clean. Well-protected reefs today typically have much healthier coral populations, and are more resilient (better able to recover from natural disasters such as typhoons and hurricanes).

Clean water is also important. Erosion on land causes rivers to dump mud on reefs, smothering and killing corals. Seawater with too many nutrients speeds up the growth of seaweeds and increases the food for predators of corals when they are developing as larvae in the plankton. Clean water depends on careful use of the land, avoiding too many fertilizers and erosion caused by deforestation and certain construction practices. In the long run, however, the future of coral reefs will depend on reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is increasing rapidly due to burning of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is both warming the ocean, resulting in coral bleaching, and changing the chemistry of the ocean, causing ocean acidification. Both making it harder for corals to build their skeletons.

Collections

The coral collection housed at the National Museum of Natural History may be the largest and best documented in the world. Its jewel is a collection of shallow-water corals from the U.S. South Seas Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842-one of the largest voyages of discovery in the history of Western exploration. The expedition brought back many unknown specimens that scientists used to name and describe almost all Pacific reef corals. These are known as type specimens in the collection. Altogether, the collection includes specimens of about 4,820 species of corals, and about 65 percent of those species live in deep water.

Research

Carrie Bow Cay Field Station

In the late 1960s, several Smithsonian scientists set themselves an ambitious goal: understanding the inner workings of Caribbean coral reefs. To study this complex ecosystem, they needed a field station where they could conduct research in one location, from multiple disciplines, over a long period of time.

The ARMS Project

It's not very colorful. And it's not made of coral. But by mimicking the nooks and crannies of real coral reefs, this Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS) attracts crabs, shrimps, worms, urchins, sponges, and many other kinds of marine invertebrates.

Smithsonian Scientists

Dr. Nancy Knowlton

Besides holding the Smithsonian's Sant Chair for Marine Science, Dr. Knowlton currently serves on the Pew Marine Fellows Advisory Committee, the Sloan Research Fellowship in Ocean Sciences committee, and the national board the Coral Reef Alliance. She is an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, winner of the Peter Benchley Prize and the Heinz Award, and author of Citizens of the Sea.

Dr. Stephen Cairns

When he was 10 years old, Stephen Cairns lived in Cuba and collected sea shells. That's when he decided to become a marine scientist. Today he is a research zoologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, focusing on the diversity, distribution, and evolution of deep-water corals-both fossil and living. Deep-water corals live up to 4 miles deep in cold, dark waters. So Dr. Cairns conducts much of his field work on oceangoing research vessels and in deep-sea submersibles. Dr. Cairns has published about 150 papers and books, in which he has described more than 400 new species of deep-water corals. He assures us there are still many more to be discovered.

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Home Ocean Life Invertebrates Corals and Coral Reefs Coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine ecosystems. They teem with life, with perhaps one-quarter of all ocean species depending on reefs for food and shelter.

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This is a good extension lesson for Day 2. It is a lesson I found on National Geographic Education about Whales. If I had more than one week to teach this whole lesson, there are so many other species I would love to teach my class about.
The last week of class we learned about different methods of teaching Sustainability and different ways of incorporating these concepts. This lesson is such a fun one, that it might be one I just keep handy for if we had down time or something in the classroom.
This lesson includes different Math concepts as well, because students compare the size of the Whale to different human objects like a bus. They also learn about different Marine Animals and their sizes in this lesson, so they are using actual set measurements.

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1. Introduce the size and weight of a blue whale.
Project the graphic Extreme Measures on the board. Invite volunteers to describe what the graphic shows. Then read aloud the caption. Ask: How does comparing a blue whale to an everyday object like a bus help you understand its size?

2. Have students research and record the length of six ocean organisms.
Distribute a copy of the worksheet Size Me Up-to Ocean Animals! to each student. Divide the class into six small groups. Scroll through the organisms in the Marine Organisms photo gallery. Have each group use library resources to research the size (length) and interesting facts about one of the animal s on their charts. Then have groups fill in column 2 in the worksheet (metric measurements) and share their findings with the class.

3. Ask students to convert measurements and compare their bodies to the length of marine organisms.
Tell the class that since they have one measurement for each organism's length, they can convert their findings into English, metric system, and/or "Unifix" units using conversions listed in the worksheet key. Explain that a "Unifix" is an unconventional unit of measurement. One Unifix Cube equals one inch; therefore, one foot equals twelve Unifix Cubes. For example, 94 feet is the equivalent of 1,128 Unifix Cubes (94 x 12). After students have completed their conversions and written them in their charts, have them collect data on themselves. Ask students to use measuring tape to find parts of their bodies that are comparable in length to the length of the organisms they just researched. For example, a student could measure his or her pinky finger at two inches long and note that it is a similar size to an Antarctic krill.

4. Discuss students' discoveries about the marine organisms' lengths.
Ask: How many gulper eels does it take to equal the length of one African pompano? How many viperfish to equal a blue whale? Which animal was about the same length as your body? Encourage students to share facts they have learned about these ocean animals and their sizes. Record the data on the board. Discuss students' findings and results.

5. Have students compare their combined lengths to the length of a blue whale.
Instruct students to lay head to foot in a straight line across the length of the classroom floor. Use a tape measure to determine the length of the group. Write the length on the board. Then ask: Is our class longer or shorter than a blue whale? What are some other things that compare in size to a blue whale? A particular vehicle? A part of the school building? Wrap up the activity with a discussion of the following questions: How does your body compare in size to ocean animals? What does that tell you about the size of the ocean?

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1. Introduce the size and weight of a blue whale. Project the graphic Extreme Measures on the board. Invite volunteers to describe what the graphic shows. Then read aloud the caption. Ask: How does comparing a blue whale to an everyday object like a bus help you understand its size?

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(Day 1)

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Other Resources and Worksheets for Marine Lesson 

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Other Resources and Worksheets for Marine Lesson 

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-"Mysteries Of The Deep" worksheet has students color different marine life, and then create "panel tool" that when you move the ROV view down, you see some of the species that live at different levels in the ocean. ( Day 1).

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Day 3: Human Relationships With Our Oceans

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Day 3: Human Relationships With Our Oceans

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Students will be asked to brainstorm different things that we use our oceans for, like for food, water, etc. in order to show why this lesson is relevant to them. This is a good starting activity to this lesson because it is connecting to their prior knowledge, and then they will build on that throughout the lesson.
I would then show them this picture and talk about the different things, and how it relates to their lives. We will have a group discussion about food systems and how fishing is important and about things like transportation and how some of the everyday things in their life would never be accessible without Oceans. When you make a topic relevant to students' personal lives, they can make a better connection and are more likely to remember the concepts.

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Day 3 (cont.d) Human Relations With Our Oceans 

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Day 3 (cont.d) Human Relations With Our Oceans 

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This is an activity from National Geographic about making connections with the Ocean. Students will work in small groups to brainstorm different things that come from the Ocean. The teacher asks different questions to help them think of ideas like "What food do we get from the ocean?" and "What things do you use in your life that comes from the ocean or a part of it does?". Students will also write down things that we do that the Ocean gets from us, like Pollution. Then, students will try to organize their things into different columns of where these come from (around the World).
From there, the teacher would lead a whole group activity where all the things were pooled together and put on sticky notes. The things like food and things we get from the Ocean would be on one color sticky note, and the things we "give" the ocean like pollution would be on another sticky note. The class would work together to put these sticky notes on a big map. After that, you would tie strings linking the notes to where they came from to make connections.
Students will then look at the finished product, and make a connection to the different relationships. They will be able to visualize what the positive and negatives are when it comes to the relationship with the ocean.
There is a video at the end of the lesson on the link called "Why The Ocean Matters", and this sort of helps tie everything together for the students.
Students will be given a writing piece that asks, "What did you notice about the relationship between humans and our Oceans? Do you think the relationship is the same between what we get from our ocean and what we give? What do you think would happen if we were not able to get these things from Oceans anymore?". Students will be asked to write at least two well-written paragraphs, and this would be their exit ticket.  The activities students did today requires them to use Systems Thinking, because they must think of all the different pieces that play into the relationship between Humans and Oceans. They are sort of connecting the dots around the world, and they witness how a lot of factors play into making a system work. It is something they would not usually think about otherwise.

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1. Brainstorm connections to the ocean.
Divide students into groups and provide a large sheet of paper and markers for each. Tell them that they will be brainstorming as a group how they are connected to the ocean. To begin the brainstorm, ask students: In what ways is the ocean a part of your life? Encourage groups to be specific; for example, if they suggest fish, ask them to name a specific type of fish. To help students think creatively, ask questions such as the following as part of the brainstorming:

What do we eat that comes from the ocean?

What do you use every day that comes from the ocean, or has parts that come from the ocean?

Do you ever go on vacation to the ocean? If so, where?

Think about the physical geography of where you live. What travels to the ocean?

2. Determine the sources of ocean connections and map them on a world map.
Next, have students categorize items on their brainstorm lists according to where these items originate. Have students underline items that originate in the ocean, and circle items that originate from their home location. While students are doing this, distribute two different colors of sticky notes to each group.

Once groups have finished categorizing, explain that they will next represent these items on the World Physical MapMaker Kit. Using one sticky note color, ask students to write items from their list that they circled-items that come from them or their town. Using the other color, ask students to write items that they underlined-those that come from the ocean. Students should use one sticky note per item. Ask students to place their sticky notes on the map where each of their ocean connections may have originated. For example, a group might list that they eat crab, and also that pollution from their town flows into the ocean. The group should then write "crab" on one colored note and "pollution" on a note of a different color. The group places their "crab" note in a location in the ocean and the "pollution" note where their town is located.
3. Students explore how they affect the ocean.
Using string and tape, have students make connections between locations on the map. Have students tape string to connect sticky notes that originated in the ocean to their location. For sticky notes that originated at their location, students tape one end of the string to their location and the other to a part of the ocean that might be impacted. String sizes will vary based on the distance between each location.
4. Students display and share how they impact the ocean.
Encourage students to step back and look at the whole map to see a clearer picture of how they are all connected to the ocean. Ask for volunteers to share what they get from, and give to, the ocean. Talk with students about how they can positively give to the ocean by learning about it and sharing what they have learned with others. This is important because people protect things that they know and care about.

Extending the Learning

Show students the National Geographic video, "Why the Ocean Matters." Ask, Did anyone think about how the air we breathe connects us to the ocean? Have students return to their earlier brainstorm paper and add new ideas they have as they watch the video. Students might also consider the role that the ocean plays in the hydrosphere and in weather and climate.

Credits

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Writer

Mary C. Cahill, Middle School Science Coordinator, The Potomac School, McLean, VA

Editors

Anne Haywood, National Geographic Society
Samantha Zuhlke, National Geographic Society

Educator Reviewer

Lydia Lewis, M.Ed., Grade 5 U.S. History/Geography Educator; National Cathedral School, Washington, D.C.

Expert Reviewer

Julie Brown, National Geographic Society

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1. Brainstorm connections to the ocean. Divide students into groups and provide a large sheet of paper and markers for each. Tell them that they will be brainstorming as a group how they are connected to the ocean. To begin the brainstorm, ask students: In what ways is the ocean a part of your life?

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On this day, students will explore different kinds of pollution that are affecting the Oceans. This will range from plastics, to water pollution and everything in between.
We will introduce the concept by having a group discussion to brainstorm different things students think are a part of this pollution and where they think it comes from.
We are going to do an experiment I found from the Science & Health Education Partnership to help students visualize how pollution affects the animals. First, students will create an OWL chart, and write down a few things they already know about pollution and affects. They will be filling it out during the experiment as well.
-They will have one water bottle with water and a few drops of blue food coloring, which will be "Our Ocean". They will put a few beads in this bottle that will represent the sea animals, and each group will think of which bead represents what Marine animal. Some of the beads that sunk could be things like Starfish or Crabs, and some of the ones that float could represent things like Fish or Dolphins.
-There will be one water bottle full of "Pollution", and will have different things in it that would represent pollution. The lesson plan gave examples like red food coloring, Mayo, Soy Sauce, etc. As a group, decide what each item in the pollution bottle represents, like Sprinkles being plastic. Have students pour a little bit of the pollution bottle into their ocean bottle, and observe how it affects the "animals". They will jot down a few of their observations into their chart.
-Then, students will add a little bit of vegetable oil into their ocean, which will represent oil from cars and ships, and teacher will explain different ways this oil gets to the ocean in real life. Students will observe where the oil sits, and then we will have a brief discussion on how this is dangerous. (You can elaborate more on this by pouring oil on a feather and showing how it sticks, and how this could be dangerous for a bird.)
- Students will have a group discussion on some of the different things they observed in their oceans and how their animals were affected. Teacher will lead conversation into why pollution is bad.
-Students will complete their OWL charts, which will help them wrap up their learning. From this lesson, students will have gained a new understanding about different forms of pollution and what happens to it in the Ocean. They will have a visual representation of how it affects different species, and what it makes Oceans look like.

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Ocean Pollution & its effect on aquatic animals | SEP LESSONS

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Students brainstorm different sources of pollution. Then, students make their own miniature ocean inside a water bottle, and pollute it with waste and oil to observe the effects on animals in the water. A demonstration shows students the effect of oil on birds' feathers and discuss the consequences of oil spills for water birds.

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Over the past few days, students will have learned about different Marine Life, why Oceans are important, and about Pollution, so today is the day to wrap everything up and figure out what we can do to make a difference.
-Students will start by working in small groups to brainstorm different ways of reducing pollution in their own lives by thinking of the different kinds of pollution they learned about the day before.  We will then have a group discussion about some of the things they thought of and make a list on the board. Some of the things might be recycling, using less plastic water bottles, and finding ways to carpool or use public transportation.
-I found an activity book called "Be An Ocean Guardian" from the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary, and it includes many different activities on this topic. There is a crossword, a puzzle, and a few other activities that teach how to reduce our footprint. There is so much information included in the fun activities, and then at the end, each student takes a "pledge" to be an Ocean Guardian. I am so happy I found this, because everything included is absolutely awesome.
After they work through the workbook, we will have a class discussion to reflect on what we have learned, and create a "class goals" poster on what we are going to do as a class to make a difference in our own lives. We will discuss how we can tell others about what we learned, and how they can help make a difference.

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Caruana, S., & SEA. (1994). Academics. Retrieved April 5, 2018, from https://www.sea.edu/academics/k-12_detail/how_to_hide_in_the_ocean

Frost, E., & Smithsonian Institution. (2018, February 28). Corals and Coral Reefs. Retrieved April 4, 2018, from http://ocean.si.edu/corals-and-coral-reefs?amp

Keller, L., & Matyskiela, M. (n.d.). Ocean Pollution & its effect on aquatic animals. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from http://www.seplessons.org/node/350

Leisure Pro. (2017, January 10). 5 Marine Symbiotic Relationships. Retrieved April 12, 2018, from https://www.leisurepro.com/blog/explore-the-blue/5-marine-symbiotic-relationships/

Monterey Bay Aquarium. (n.d.). Dive into the Deep. Retrieved April 8, 2018, from http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/education/classroom-resources/games-and-activities/dive-into-the-deep

National Geographic Society, & Cahill, M. C. (2015, August 07). Ocean Connections. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/ocean-connections/

National Geographic Society, & Nelson, D. (2017, July 11). Size Me Up-to a Blue Whale! Retrieved April 8, 2018, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/size-me-up-to-a-blue-whale-/

Natural Beach Living. (n.d.). Ocean Zones [Photograph].

https://www.naturalbeachliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ocean-zones-coloring-2.jpg

Our World Ocean Provides [Photograph]. (n.d.). AAMBOceanService, NOAA.

Smithsonian Ocean Team, & Watt, J. (2017, December 21). Bizarre and Beautiful Coral Reef Animals. Retrieved April 5, 2018, from http://ocean.si.edu/slideshow/bizarre-and-beautiful-coral-reef-animals?amp