PopEd recently presented two ocean-themed conferences sessions – one for the Mid-Atlantic Marine Association conference titled “Teaching Ocean Ecology with Models and Simulations” and the other at the National Association of Interpretation conference titled “Our Wet Footprint: Interpreting Human Impacts on Marine Ecosystems.” In both sessions, we shared ocean-adaptations of a few favorite PopEd lessons. Educators loved seeing interactive and hands-on strategies for teaching ocean health and appreciated the relevance of PopEd lessons to marine education.
This blog will show you exactly how we adapted the PopEd lessons Pop Ecology Files, Web of Life, and Panther Hunt to teach about ocean and marine life in the classroom.
Ocean Food Chain Activity (Grades 3-8): Shark Hunt
In the original version of the lesson Panther Hunt (get the lesson plan here!), students act as panthers amassing prey like squirrels and beavers. To adapt this lesson for oceanic life, students act as predatory sharks and hunt for aquatic organisms like herring, shrimp, and pollock. In order to survive, the sharks must collect at least 50 kg of food. These are the prey animals you’ll use and the mass of each:
H = Herring (1 kg)
S = Shrimp (2 kg)
P = Pollock (7.5 kg)
O = Otter (20 kg)
D = Dolphin (75 kg)
Similar to the original version of Panther Hunt, teachers can utilize small cups to represent the prey animals and place them around their classrooms. For classes of 25 students, use 200 cups and label them as follows: 80 cups marked H, 60 cups marked S, 36 cups marked P, 22 cups marked O, and 2 cups marked D. Check out the Panther Hunt lesson plan to modify this cup count for classes with more or fewer students.
In Round 2 of Panther Hunt, students investigate how the habitat would be impacted by human actions. Then, students model the impact into the simulation. Examples include removing beavers to represent water becoming polluted, or removing prey animals from one side of the classroom to represent a development being built. Below are some ideas for modeling human impacts on the ocean in Shark Hunt:
Human impact: Ocean becomes polluted
Possible change to model: Remove a lot of prey animal cups from the model
Human impact: An oil rig is built in the ocean through habitats
Possible change to model: A line of desks or tape on the floor blocks part of the habitat or divides the room and sharks can only hunt on where their home area is located
Human impact: Overfishing occurs
Possible change to model: Remove pollock and herring cups from the model
Human impact: Water becomes polluted and there is bioaccumulation
Possible change to model: Use dry beans to represent pollution. Place a small number of beans under small prey animals and a larger number of beans under the larger prey animals. After hunting, sharks count their “pollution consumed” (the beans) to see the impact of bioaccumulation.
Not only does this marine food chain lesson provide students with key skills such as modeling natural systems and identifying trends and patterns, but it engages students through movement and tactility. It also provides opportunities for students to practice key math skills.
Ocean Lesson for Science and Math: Pop Ecology Files (Grades 6-9)
In Pop Ecology Files, students compare the size and fluctuation of various species’ populations, providing insight into the nature of population growth and ecology. This lesson serves as an excellent science and math lesson where students analyze data, identify trends and patterns, and form a position rooted in evidence. To adapt Pop Ecology Files to focus on ocean life and marine species, we swapped out the species for marine organisms and had students explore the population growth curves of phytoplankton, humpback whales, anchovies, central stonerollers, and Atlantic bluefin tuna. Click here to download the printable ocean adaptations for Pop Ecology Files! (The original version, with the full procedure, of Pop Ecology Files can be found here.)
Elementary Marine Ecosystem Activity: Web of Life
In Web of Life, elementary students participate as a character in an interactive story that explores how everything in nature is interconnected. The lesson is great for teaching language arts and science concepts, and encourages students to leave their community and surroundings better than they found it. While the original lesson’s story is about a forest, we rewrote the story to focus on an ocean community where animals such as fish, crabs, and sea turtles are interdependent. Click here to download the ocean story for Web of Life! (Download the original Web of Life lesson plan here.)
Why is the Ocean Important?
The ocean plays a vital role in maintaining the wellbeing of the planet and its constituents. The ocean regulates the health of the Earth by producing more than half of the planet’s oxygen, serving as a home to 80 percent of all biodiversity on Earth, and being a central source of food, medicine, and nutrients. Teaching students about threats to the world’s ocean and ways to protect it is essential for creating a sustainable future.
More Lessons about the Ocean!
PopEd has a plethora of lessons to teach about habitats and biodiversity that can be easily adapted to the ocean ecosystem and aquatic creatures. The Pondering Pandas elementary habitat fragmentation activity can be adapted to learning about seagrass fragmentation and turtles or manatees. In World of Difference, middle school students can compare and contrast the biodiversity of different ocean habitats, such as seagrass habitats, coral reef habitats, or open ocean habitats. In Our Shared Environmental History, high school students can write about the importance of World Ocean Day.
In addition to using these lesson adaptations to teach about the ocean in your classroom, PopEd provides several lesson plans and resources that directly cover ocean and marine life topics. Some of these water-related materials include:
- Code Blue Endangered Oceans (Grades 9-12): As the instructor reads a story about the history of the world’s ocean, students act as characters adding and removing items based on real-world events.
- Like Oil and Water (Grades 6-12): Students use the engineering design process to create and test prototypes for cleaning up oil spills.
- Who Polluted the River? (Grades K-2): Through an interactive story, students experience the pollution of a river over time and propose methods to protect the river from current and future pollution.