Marine Discovery Developed Lesson Plans

Outreach > Marine Discovery K-12 Lesson Plans

Below is a table with lesson plans developed by Marine Discovery students at the University of Arizona. The lessons are in varying degrees of completion. For many of the students, this was their first attempt to create a lesson plan. The "Rank" column is a quick assessment by the course director, Dr. Katrina Mangin, to help identify how far along each lessons is in the development process. Please fell free to test and/or alter any of the lessons below.

If you have tried any of the lessons below, we would greatly appreciate it if you could take a minute and fill out a brief teacher evaluation form. Thank you.

Title	Date created	Rank
Fish Diversity Inquiry	Spring 2001
Awesome Osmosis	Spring 2001
Hurricanes	Spring 2001
Feeding Habits of Marine Animals	Spring 2001
Human Disturbance of the Marine Environment	Spring 2001
Thermoregulation of Marine Mammals	Spring 2001
Marine Mammals: Just Like Us	Spring 2001
The Cool Communication of Cephalopods	Fall 2000
Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles	Fall 2000
The Great Plankton Race	Fall 2000
Marine Birds	Fall 2000
The Plankton Project	Fall 2000
Deep Sea Fish	Fall 2000
A Whale of a Tail!	Spring 2000	Almost ready
Comments	echolocation activity needs expansion and clarification
Amazing Whales	Spring 2000	Needs work
Comments	whale construction too time consuming for benefits and dangerous if kids trapped inside, echolocation activity needs expansion
Challenges of the Deep-Sea	Spring 2000	Almost ready
Comments	more explanation needed on activity 4
Crocodiles: A Three Day Lesson Plan	Spring 2000	Almost ready
Comments	needs to be fit into a larger context, evolution part misleading - cannot evolve fast enough to adapt to human disturbance
Eat 'em and weep: Problems involving commercial fishing	Spring 2000	Needs work
Comments	needs more substance and to show the positive side of fishing
Learning the Zones of the ocean using an oil spill.	Spring 2000	Classroom ready
Comments	ready to be tested
Oil, Oil, Everywhere	Spring 2000	Classroom ready
Comments	ready to be tested
Pond Science	Spring 2000	Almost ready
Comments	shorten and re-format
Shark Encounter	Spring 2000	Needs work
Comments	shorten & clarify
Where do I belong?	Spring 2000	Classroom ready
Comments	ready to be tested
Marine reptiles	Fall 1999	Needs work
Comments	better for high school or upper middle school. Live animal part okay for grades 3-5. Background info needs organization and editing.
Light in the Dark: A study on bioluminescence	Fall 1999	Almost ready
Comments	Needs more engagement activity and discussion at the beginning. Would benefit by a link to the broader theme of animal communication and bioluminescence as a form common in sea. Improve ending to illustrate what was learned and to reenforce learning. Video information missing.
Oh where oh where have all these fish gone?	Fall 1999	Classroom ready
Comments	Good. Needs to specify grade level
The Use of Color amongst Marine Life	Fall 1999	Needs work
Comments	Needs editing of grammar and spelling.
Clowning Around Sea Anemones	Fall 1999	Almost ready
Comments	Almost ready. Lots typos and grammar errors to be fixed first. Cute activity for kids in K-3
The Web of Life	Fall 1999	Classroom ready
Comments	ready to go!.
The Convergent Evolution of Marine Fish and Whales	Fall 1999	Needs work
Comments	This could be a great activity, but needs more development. Basic concept is fantastic and rich with learning potential. This would tie in well as a follow up for fish diversity station, and shark and squid dissection.
Fresh Water Science	Fall 1999	Almost ready
Comments	Almost ready to go. Very good activity.
Marine animals and their Environments	Fall 1999	Needs work
Comments	Good idea but needs fleshing out. It would benefit by having the environments better defined.
Life In The Rocky Intertidal	Fall 1999	Needs work
Comments	Could be a good follow-up for rocky intertidal station. Needs to be simpler (eg, genetic diversity too complex) for grade 4.
Physiology and Physics of Diving	Fall 1999	Almost ready
Comments	This could be very good. It incorporates math and science, including physiology and biology. This could be an excellent follow-up to a marine mammal station. If so, incorporate something about diving into the station.
Pinniped Station	Fall 1999	Almost ready
Comments	Could be very good as a station, but needs a game.
Biological Magnification	Fall 1999	Almost ready
Comments	Good idea, and important - biomagnification. Needs more fleshing out of activity, and connection of jars of water with dye to trophic levels. It is active and has lots of potential.
Whale Tails and Fingerprints	Fall 1999	Almost ready
Comments	This is a very good, active, interactive activity. It would take 3 hours minimum to do. It needs a tie-in showing the connection between the biology of whales and the ways that we identify whale individuals (fluke patterns, etc), to the biology of humans and fingerprinting, to the biology of other mammals with markings. Include examples of other animal species with distinctive individual markings & examples of other animals that look very similar to one another (monomorphic). How are we similar to whales a) physically? b) behaviorally? How are we different from whales? Review characters of mammals.