Our Ocean Portal Educators’ Corner provides you with activities, lessons and educational resources to bring the ocean to life for your students. We have collected top resources from our collaborators to provide you with teacher-tested, ocean science materials for your classroom. We hope these resources, along with the rich experience of the Ocean Portal, will help you inspire the next generation of ocean stewards.
Featured Lesson Plans
Keeping Watch on Coral Reefs
Students learn why coral reefs are important, and what can be done to protect them from major threats.
Long Live the Sharks and Rays
Students will learn about adaptations that have helped sharks and rays survive. Students will explore similarities and differences between sharks, rays and other fish and that different types of sharks and rays have different temperaments and diets and that some of the largest sharks and rays are the most gentle.
Focus on Farmer Fish
In this two part lesson, students gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between environmental factors and organism adaptations through a focused study on a specific coral reef denizen—the personable farmerfish. Students first take part in an interactive PowerPoint presentation to gain background knowledge and then apply learned concepts by participating in a board game.
Search Lesson Plans
Find lessons/activities by topic, title or grade levels. Sort by newest or alphabetically. Lessons were developed by ocean science and education organizations like NOAA, COSEE, and NMEA to help you bring the ocean to your classroom.
Grade Level
Lesson Subject
Build Your Own Ecosystem
NOAA Ocean Explorer
Students identify key functions that are present in healthy ocean ecosystems. Students will discuss how these functions are met by biotic and abiotic components in a model aquatic ecosystem.
Oil, Oil Everywhere
DEEP-C
Students will demonstrate the different methods used to clean up after an oil spill and gain an understanding of the difficulties that are encountered.
Alaska Sea Grant Fishing for the Future
Alaska Sea Grant
In an interactive game, students simulate fishery activity to demonstrate the effect of new technology and overfishing. They then rewrite the rules of the game in an effort to establish a sustainable practice.
Benthic Drug Store
NOAA Ocean Explorer
Students identify three chemicals that are pharmacologically active and are derived from marine invertebrates. Students describe disease-fighting action of these chemicals. Students infer why sessile marine invertebrates appear to be promising sources of new drugs.
Climate Change Metaphors
Wild BC
Students will use and describe how a variety of objects provide metaphors for why climate change is occurring and the impacts resulting from it. Students will demonstrate the ability to interpret metaphors, describe the factors contributing to climate change and make connections between human behavior and environmental changes.
Connected Ecosystems
Moorea Coral Reef Education LTER
Students will play a game as a class to learn about living and non-living components of an ecosystem and natural cycles. By exploring the relationship between a coral reef seastar and the resources in its environment, students will begin to understand an animal’s reliance on its ecosystem and all its parts. A follow-up PowerPoint lesson is available on the MCR LTER education website to emphasize the concepts introduced in this lesson in a more formal format and bring in more ecosystem state standards.
Coral Conservation
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
Students will learn about the natural and human threats to coral reefs including destructive fishing practices.
Deep Dive into Ocean Portal Website
National Museum of Natural History
Join Ocean Portal Editor-in-Chief Emily Frost and museum educators from the National Museum of Natural History as they guide you through the Ocean Portal website, exploring a multitude of digital assets including vetted scientific information, interactive content, and education resources.
Fish and Kids
Marine Stewardship Council
A package containing lessons, worksheets, and activities to teach young students about sustainable seafood. Each subject has two levels: one for grades K-2 (key stage 1) and another for grades 3-5 (key stage 2).
Food Chain Hide and Seek
Moorea Coral Reef LTER Education
Students will play a game in order to learn about predator-prey relationships, a simple food chain, and the coral reef ecosystem. Students will act the parts of various reef fishes, to explore the relationship between predators and their prey. When the lights are on, damselfish emerge from hiding in the reef to forage for food. At night, however, individual damselfish race against one another to find shelter in the reef. Damselfish that do not successfully find refuge at night may be eaten by nocturnally feeding squirrelfish. Squirrelfish do not come out to eat during the day for fear of being eaten by their predators, large emperors. These predator-prey relationships are altered as the coral reef habitat is damaged by pollution throughout the game. A follow-up PowerPoint is available on the MCR LTER education website to emphasize the concepts introduced in this lesson in a more formal format. Download the supplementary PowerPoint.