Exploring Ocean Mysteries is a curriculum that makes it easy to teach the seven Ocean Literacy Principles while meeting NGSS, Common Core and Climate Literacy standards. Lessons are targeted to middle grades and adaptable for grades 4-12. They use the National Marine Sanctuary System as an engaging backdrop that helps students understand their importance for exploration, research, Indigenous cultures and more.
Ocean Literacy Essential Principle 7: The ocean is largely unexplored.
In the Ocean Explorers: Unlocking Mysteries lesson, students investigate an ocean explorer and their work in and around national marine sanctuaries or monuments. Students will realize that we know very little about the ocean, with many mysteries yet to be investigated.
Lesson Plan
Students will:
- Research and describe orally and in writing an ocean explorer and their work.
- Explain the processes explorers and scientists use to gain and share knowledge in their field of study.
- Demonstrate skills in research, organizing information and presenting it to others.
- Argue from evidence why their explorer’s work is important and how it relates to the idea that “the ocean is largely unexplored.”
The people below are helping to change our understanding of the ocean. Check off those you would most like to learn more about.
Use this evaluation rubric to assess your student’s project.
