Compiled by Vicki Burtchell
Summary:
This K-2 module is designed to help children learn how vitally important the ocean is to life on the earth by appreciating its magnitude and diversity.
Connection to the Curriculum:
This module will integrate science, math, language arts, geography, and technology.
Time:
This module will take about two weeks to complete.
Season:
This module may be taught during any season.
Materials:
(See individual activities.)
Objectives:
The student will observe similarities and differences in sand, sea shells, currents, and waves.
The student will compare approximate size of ocean to approximate size of land mass.
The student will describe shells and sand samples.
The student will classify and graph shells.
The student will access information from the internet for drifter buoy data.
The student will observe patterns in ocean currents through data from drifter buoys.
The student will measure temperature.
Procedures:
1. Introduce the ocean as a special habitat by reading Sally and the Limpet by Simon James.
2. Children will cut apples to compare the size of the land mass to the size of the ocean.
3. Children access drifter buoy data to begin maps. Because this is ongoing data, you will need
to collect this information before the children begin to plot the coordinates.
4. Children experiment with waves as different from currents.
5. Begin plotting drifter buoy data.
6. Children compare differences in temperature of water, air and land.
7. Children develop a classifying system to sort shells.
8. Write descriptions of shells.
9. Children create graphs of shells based on bivalves and gastropods.
10. Children write observations of sand samples. Hypothesize regarding the possible sand location.
Evaluation:
Data taken from temperature and buoys.
Graphs from classifying shells.
Buoy maps.
Accurate shell descriptions.
Expanding the Lesson:
1. Alternative way of introducing unit.
Resources:
Books to Read/References:
At the Beach by Anne & Harlow Rockwell
Concise Illustrated Book of Seashells by Solene Morris
Guide Book to Field Identification Seashells of North America by R. Tucker Abbott
Golden Stamp Book of Seashells by John Saunders
Story of Shells A Guidebook for Young Collectors by Curtis Martin
What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Other Sites:
http://ils.unc.edu/~bucks/shells.html
http://blacksci.co.uk/products/fnb/gggif.htm