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
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.
Siphonophore
DEEPEND
A coloring book sheet of a siphonophore, a jelly-like sea creature.
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.
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.
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.
Teaching Physical Science Through Oceanography
COSEE-Ocean Systems
This supplement was developed for university level students, but can be adapted for middle and high school students. This supplement to Oceanography Magazine focuses on educational approaches to help engage students in learning and offers a collection of hands-on/minds-on activities for teaching physical concepts that are fundamental in oceanography. These key concepts include density, pressure, buoyancy, heat and temperature, and gravity waves.
The Adventures of Zack and Molly Learning Guide
ECOGIG
The Adventures of Zack and Molly is a new, four-part video series about an unlikely duo exploring the deep ocean produced by ECOGIG in collaboration with Sherman's Lagoon creator and filmmaker Jim Toomey.
The Learning Guide provides discussion points, connections to Next Generation Science Standards, hands-on activities, and further resources. Spanish version available here.
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.
The Great Plankton Race
DEEP-C
Students use a variety of materials to construct various models of plankton to gain an understanding of neutral buoyancy.