Ocean Life

Goals:

  1. The students will create a classroom table containing data on marine animal life.
  2. The students will work cooperatively with other students.
  3. The students will develop their oral communication skills by giving a short presentation for the other students.

Resources:

  1. The Internet is a valuable resource for this lesson. Students can discover some tasks pirates performed to remove barnacles from ships while at sea. 
  2. Students can find information from the Internet at http://oceanlink.island.net/ regarding marine animal life, marine world records and other facts. Also there is a directory of marine animal information at http://www.hshawaii.com/kvp/snuba/funpage.html
  3. Poems from The Sea, Ships and Sailors selected by William Cole (Viking Press, 1967)
    • "The Whale" by an unknown author about whales
    • "The Fishes" by Sea Shanty
  4. Access to library materials to research marine animal life.
  5. A blank wall or bulletin board is needed for a classroom information table on marine life. If a teacher decided to use a blank wall, the teacher will need a large piece of paper to create the table.

Time:

This lesson will need approximately 4 hours: 1 hour for introduction and table preparation, 2 hours to research information regarding the marine species of the student's choice and 1 hour for marine species presentations.
 

Procedure:

  1. Read poetry about ocean life.
  2. Start the lesson with an imaginary scenario. "Imagine you and Captain Kidd are sailing the Atlantic Ocean. One day a violent hurricane crosses your path to the United States. It tosses your ship to and fro, smashing the ship against the waves, crushing the mast. In other words, destroying your ship. How would that make you feel?"
  3. After some discussion, the teacher could conclude the imaginary scenario by saying "Now, sunken pirate ships are being discovered. In March of 1997, Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge was discovered by a group of researchers disrupting the ocean life in the area. Now, if and when the Queens Anne's Revenge is salvaged, what could happen to the ocean life in that area?"
  4. Create a list based on what the students want to know about marine life. Edit the list if needed. (E.g. - What do marine species eat?, Picture of animal, Scientific name, How fast do marine animals swim?)
  5. The students form groups of two or three.
  6. The teams select a marine specie of their choice.
  7. The teams research information regarding their marine specie, answering all of the questions the students would like answered from the table in step four.
  8. The teacher will create the table with blanks allowed for each team's discoveries.
  9. The teams will input data into the table.
  10. Each team will give a brief presentation of its marine specie.
  11. Each student will write a summary of their team's success or failure and the contribution of each member to the team project.

Assessment:

  1. Students will turn in a picture of their marine specie along with a sheet answering the questions in the classroom table. (Criteria for success - A picture of their marine animal along with answers to 85% of the questions.)
  2. Students will create an oral presentation informing the remainder of the class of their findings. (Criteria for success - An organized oral presentation that flows well and answers the student's table of questions.)
  3. Students will fill in the Team Member Assessment Rubric to assess each team member's contribution to the team's success. (Criteria for success - The students must score a 2 or greater on both parts to be considered successful.)

Curricular Strands and Major Concepts:

  1. Language Arts - Poetry and the organization and creation of oral presentations.
  2. Science - Learning the characteristics of marine species.

Possible Extensions:

  1. Create bar graphs comparing length, weight and speed of marine species.
  2. Using an idea similar to the "Fractions and Percentages of Pirates" lesson, students can find ratios between various marine species' sizes and weights.
  3. Create a food chain of the marine species.
  4. Discuss the positive and negative effects of disturbing an aquatic ecosystem.


     

    Go to:

    Schedule of Summary Lessons

    Lesson Plans List