Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence
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A Hurricane's Storm Surge Affects our Estuaries
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In this activity, learners construct a coastal landmass from sand and add features such as tidal creeks and barrier islands.
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Plankton Feeding
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This activity provides a hands-on experience with a scale model, a relatively high viscosity fluid, and feeding behaviors.
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Don't Stop for Hitchhikers
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In this activity, learners role-play the part of lake inhabitants and the aquatic exotics who displace the native species.
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How is Coastal Temperature Influenced by the Great Lakes and the Ocean?
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In this two-part lesson, learners discover how large bodies of water can serve as a heat source or sink at different times and how proximity to water moderates climate along the coast.
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Plankton Races
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In this two-part activity, learners investigate buoyancy, density and surface area as well as biodiversity and the relationship between the structure and function of organisms.
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Ocean Home: Swimming Fishes
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In this activity, learners model, on a human-sized board game, how changes in water temperature may affect fish distributions and, ultimately, fisheries.
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Melting Ice
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In this activity, learners explore density, convection, stratification, and, by inference, the melting of icebergs. Learners make hypotheses, test their hypotheses, and explain their observations.
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Introduction to Ocean Zones
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In this activity, learners will create a diagram of the ocean zones and determine what organisms live in each zone.
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I Am/Who Has: A Litter Matching Game
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In this game, learners match descriptions of marine debris (shoes, batteries, paper towels, etc.) to images of these items.
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Causes and Effects of Melting Ice
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In this activity, learners explore the concept of density-driven currents (thermohaline circulation) and how these currents are affected by climate change.