This unit includes 10 lessons that culminate in a student created final product presentation on the factors that influence climate change through the lens of chemistry and oceanography using literacy strategies to conduct inquiry level research.

Using inquiry-based reading, student will examine an anchor text to formulate a question to guide their research and development of student driven projects. Throughout the unit, students will use a variety of texts, websites, and other resources to develop a product and presentation that exhibits their literacy and inquiry skills. Using inquiry-based reading, students will explore an anchor text and then develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research. Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of cellular organelles and in their ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research.

In this lesson, students learn about major landforms (e.g., mountains, rivers, plains, valleys, canyons and plateaus) and how they occur on the Earth's surface. They learn about the civil and geotechnical engineering applications of geology and landforms, including the design of transportation systems, mining, mapping and measuring natural hazards.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbial mats are windows to our past of the earliest ecosystems to evolve on earth, especially those found in Shark Bay, Australia. Here, these lush mats are shedding light into the lives of microbes that are yet to be cultured in the lab, an untapped resource of biological information known as “microbial dark matter”. In a new study, researchers reconstructed 115 genomes belonging to members of this microbial dark matter. The researchers detected entirely new microorganisms that may participate in sulfate reduction, microbes capable of fermenting and degrading organic carbon, and microbes with a high capacity for producing hydrogen. Overall, the results suggest that microbial dark matter could play critical roles in nutrient cycling across the planet. Further genomics studies could place novel microorganisms found in microbial mats into their proper ecological and environmental context and offer clues on how to cultivate these microbes in the lab for closer examination..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In our new Species at Risk (SAR) education kit, each lesson addresses a species at risk through an Ocean Wise conservation initiative. Students will learn about the humpback whale and climate change, the killer whale and ocean pollution, the great white shark and bycatch, the hawksbills sea turtle and plastic pollution, and the sea otter and loss of kelp habitat, plus ways to take action to protect them! Equipped with the proper knowledge and tools, students will acquire an impactful learning experience to empower them to become ocean champions and stewards for species at risk.

The Earth’s ocean and its interconnected systems depend on marine species to maintain the efficiency and balance of the functioning of their ecosystems. Their role in the ocean has a direct impact on its health and our own. And yet, every day, thousands of animals fall victim to anthropogenic threats imposed on the ocean by human activity. It is going to take a deep, transformational change in humanity’s consciousness and behaviours regarding our oceans to ensure the protection of species. We believe this is possible by providing climate and conservation education to our youth to raise awareness on the interconnectedness between our lives and the ocean, and the importance of the role that each species holds on our planet.

Some of the most unusual and versatile of all the mammals are the groups that live, feed and reproduce underwater. In this unit we will see how these formerly land-based mammals adapted to a return to the water, discussing such challenges as breathing, mo

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Sponges are key ecosystem engineers in many aquatic habitats. Their unrivalled ability as filter feeders allows them to capture and transform organic and inorganic nutrients, and their rich microbial communities have a metabolic repertoire that helps them transform habitats. To better understand how sponge hosts and their microbial symbionts work together to eat and drink particulate and dissolved food, researchers used specialized imaging techniques to visualize the uptake and translocation of isotope-labeled dissolved and particulate organic matter. Using two different sponge species with high vs. low microbial abundance, they found that both sponges showed enrichment of the labeled food over time. Sponge-associated microbes were actively involved in processing dissolved organic matter, but host filtering cells were the primary site of nutrient uptake – dissolved matter via pinocytosis and particulate matter via phagocytosis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The deep sea is an incredibly harsh environment. The freezing cold and crushing pressure make operations in the deep sea difficult and expensive. However, as we build more deep-sea infrastructure, the need to understand the corrosion of these installments grows too. To close this gap, researchers recently examined 10-year-old deep-sea mooring chains and the surrounding environment. The rate of corrosion was much higher than expected from abiotic factors alone, and the corrosion type, localized deep pitting, also indicated microbial corrosion. Compared to the surrounding sediment, the chains had a distinct microbiome dominated by sulfur-cycling bacteria. Modeling the metabolism of the chain microbiome suggests it is generating energy from the reaction between metallic iron and elemental sulfur. Such metabolic strategies may be particularly important in low-energy environments like this..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students use a table-top-sized tsunami generator to observe the formation and devastation of a tsunami. They see how a tsunami moves across the ocean and what happens when it reaches the continental shelf. Students make villages of model houses and buildings to test how different material types are impacted by the huge waves. They further discuss how engineers design buildings to survive tsunamis. Much of this activity setup is the same as for the Mini-Landscape activity in Lesson 4 of the Natural Disasters unit.

Students learn about tsunamis, discovering what causes them and what makes them so dangerous. They learn that engineers design detection and warning equipment, as well as structures that that can survive the strong wave forces. In a hands-on activity, students use a table-top-sized tsunami generator to observe the formation and devastation of a tsunami. They see how a tsunami moves across the ocean and what happens when it reaches a coastline. They make villages of model houses to test how different material types are impacted by the huge waves.

The Ocean Wise Howe Sound Education Kit Is available in multiple grade editions, all in French and English and include both a student work book and teacher accompanying guidebook. Each kit features several lessons on the unique UNESCO heritage site of the Howe Sound environment.

Átl’ḵa7tsem/Txwnéwu7ts/ Howe Sound is a coastal fjord ecosystem in the Salish Sea. It is a vital area to First Nation communities, providing natural resources that allowed Indigenous peoples to thrive for generations before colonization. Following colonization and years of destructive human activity, such as industrial and coastal development, efforts are currently underway by government, industry groups, and local communities to transition the Sound’s marine ecosystem from crisis to recovery. Indigenous communities, in particular, are working hard to restore life and traditional practices for generations to come.

Using Átl’ḵa7tsem/ Txwnéwu7ts/ Howe Sound as a case study, students can recognize how ecosystems, species, human impact, and climate change are interconnected. This work is essential for students to make informed decisions as the future stewards of our planet.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Coral reefs are critical to the survival of ocean species. These richly diverse habitats support almost one-third of the world’s marine coastal species. But in addition to environmental concerns, they can also be affected by predators. One such predator is the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), which threatens Indo-Pacific coral reef ecosystem integrity and biodiversity. While some aspects of the species’ biology have been studied intensively, little is known about its associated microbiota. In a recent study, researchers evaluated bacteria associated with 205 COTS samples from 17 locations in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Using DNA sequencing, they determined that one bacterial species – which they termed COTS27 – dominates. The bacterium forms a biofilm-like structure in the subcuticular space, between the cuticle and epidermis and its genome includes traits related to adaptation to marine environments and evolution as a symbiont in subcuticular spaces..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Oceans connect all life and affect climate worldwide, and interestingly, the ocean’s smallest residents have a huge role in this process. The ocean microbiota modulates global biogeochemical cycles, which influences energy balance in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the underlying factors structuring the ocean microbiota are unclear, and better understanding is needed to help combat the effects of global climate change. A recent study examined the ecological mechanisms shaping the smallest surface-ocean microbiota: prokaryotes and picoeukaryotes. Researchers identified patterns in DNA sequencing data collected by two global ocean expeditions, Malaspina-2010 and Tara Oceans. Their results showed that different ecological mechanisms affect prokaryotes vs. picoeukaryotes. While picoeukaryotes were largely structured by dispersal limitation, displaying higher differentiation between communities, prokaryotes were structured by a combination of temperature-driven selection, dispersal limitation and random drift..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students use a thermal process approach to design, build and test a small-scale desalination plant that is capable of significantly removing the salt content from a saltwater solution. Students use a saltwater circuit to test the efficiency of their model desalination plant and learn how the water cycle is the basis for the thermal processes that drive their desalination plant.

This course is an introduction to basic ideas of geophysical wave motion in rotating, stratified, and rotating-stratified fluids. Subject begins with general wave concepts of phase and group velocity. It also covers the dynamics and kinematics of gravity waves with a focus on dispersion, energy flux, initial value problems, etc.

Through an adult-led field trip, students organized into investigation teams catalogue the incidence of plastic debris in different environments. They investigate these plastics according to their type, age, location and other characteristics that might indicate what potential they have for becoming part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Students collect qualitative and quantitative data that may be used to create a Google Earth layer as part of a separate activity that can be completed at a computer lab at school or as homework. The activity is designed as a step on the way to student's creation of their own GIS Google Earth layer. It is, however, possible for the field trip to be a useful learning experience unto itself that does not require this last GIS step.

In a student-led and fairly independent fashion, data collected in the associated field trip activity are organized by student groups to create useful and informative Google Earth maps. Each team creates a map, uses that map to analyze the results, adjusts the map to include the analysis results, and then writes a brief summary of findings. Primarily, questions of fate-and-transport of plastics are are explored. If data was gathered in the field trip but the teacher does not desire to do the mapping activity, then alternative data presentation and analysis methods are suggested.

In this lesson, students create explaining videos focusing on different aspects of communication among wales. 

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Coral reefs are especially sensitive to environmental changes, which is evident from mass “bleaching” events, where corals expel the microalgae living in their cells. Reefs have suffered during both climate change and oil contamination, and chemical remediation efforts can harm corals further. A recent study sought to evaluate the impacts of oil contamination and find potential alternatives to chemical dispersants. Using a mesocosm experiment with the fire coral Millepora alcicornis, which is sensitive to environmental changes, researchers constructed a realistic oil-spill scenario and compared the effects of a chemical dispersant, Corexit 9500, to those of bioremediators. They found that bioremediators – bacteria, filamentous fungi, and yeast – helped to mitigate the effects of the oil and maintain the integrity of the coral. In contrast, the chemical dispersant negatively affected host physiology and altered the coral-associated microbial community..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This is a lesson plan to help kindergartners learn about the ocean life and how to save it! It includes an experiment and then a group project which includes technology!