Educators' Corner
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.
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
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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.
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Paper Plate Fish Lesson
Moorea Coral Reef LTER Education
This activity is a fun, basic craft, but can be adapted to incorporate structure and function lessons in a classroom setting. Students will build their own fish from a paper plate, decorate it, and learn about the function of each of their fish’s fins in the process.
Wreck Detectives
NOAA Ocean Explorer
Students utilize a grid system to document the location of artifacts recovered from a model shipwreck site. Students use data about the location and types of artifacts recovered from a model shipwreck site to draw inferences about the sunken ship and the people who were aboard. Students identify and explain types of evidence and expertise that can help verify the nature and historical content of artifacts recovered from shipwrecks.
Shark!
Sea World Education
Students explore the natural history of sharks and recognize that humans are an interconnected part of sharks’ ecosystems.
Sharks: Setting the Record Straight
NOAA
Often mislabeled as man-eaters, sharks prefer to eat creatures in the sea. Students learn about how different sharks play different roles in a food web.
Coral Conservation
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
Students will learn about the natural and human threats to coral reefs including destructive fishing practices.
Sea Surface Temperature and Coral Bleaching
NASA
Students will learn about how ocean temperature increase can be a cause of coral bleaching.
Symbiosis and Coral Anatomy
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
Students read and then present to the class about different types of symbiosis. They are then introduced through a PowerPoint presentation to the coral-zooxanthellae relationship.
Introduction to Coral Reefs
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
In this lesson, students will get a basic understanding of corals and coral reefs. Students will learn about common coral species that live in the reefs of Hawaii.
How do Humpback Whales Feed?
NOAA
The activity covers feeding behaviors of humpback whales. It also teaches how baleen whales differ from toothed whales.
The Best Hope for Northern Right Whales
University of Florida
Students engage in a simulation to see how whales can have trouble avoiding ships. They then explore different ways to decrease ship strikes.