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. 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
Tale of a Whale
NOAA
Students exercise their observation skills to do some of the actual work of marine biologists who study the humpback whale. They identify an individual whale by examining photographs taken at sea.
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.
WebQuest: Sensory Biology and the Plight of the Right Whales
University of Maine Lindsey Lab
This lesson introduces high school students (grades 9-12) to the topic of sensory perception in the marine environment. The WebQuest introduces the role of acoustic cues in ocean ecology and challenges students to determine if acoustic warning devices are useful tools to prevent right whale fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes in the Gulf of Maine.
Collision Course
Massachusetts Marine Educators
Students analyze maps of shipping lanes and whale sightings to devise a new shipping lane through the Stellwagon Bank National Marine Sanctuary to minimize ship strikes on whales.
How do Humpback Whales Feed?
NOAA
The activity covers feeding behaviors of humpback whales. It also teaches how baleen whales differ from toothed whales.
Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Activity Book
NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program/State of Hawaii
This book is filled with activities about the humpback whales of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback National Marine Sanctuary, with information about whale identification, migration, behavior, and information on cetaceans in general.
Splash – Monitoring Humpback Whales
NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Program/National Geographic
Students learn the importance of monitoring endangered marine mammals like humpback whales and how monitoring can help marine conservation efforts.
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.
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.
Sea Surface Temperature and Coral Bleaching
NASA
Students will learn about how ocean temperature increase can be a cause of coral bleaching.