This video features the remarkable discovery Jonathan made in 1998 about Basking sharks, the second largest fish on Earth. While diving with Basking sharks in the frigid waters of the Bay of Fundy, Jonathan saw parasitic lampreys on the backs of the sharks. This had never before been documented, so he returned the next year with a shark biologist and a lamprey biologist to attempt to recover living lampreys from the backs of Basking sharks. They didn't think Jonathan could do it. Wait until you see what happens! Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

In the warm and blue waters off Hawaii, Oceanic White Tip sharks often follow behind pods of Pilot whales. For the longest time, biologists have had no idea what is going on. Are they eating the whales? Are they stealing food from the whales? In this video of an expedition to follow the sharks and observe them, Jonathan finally figured out what is going on, and you won‰ŰŞt believe the disgusting truth! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

This video features the Thresher shark, which may very well be the strangest looking shark in the world, with a tail almost as long as its body. This shark is very rare, almost never seen by divers...until now. Using advanced diving technology, Jonathan visits a remote reef in the Philippines where Thresher sharks show up every morning to be cleaned by small fish. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this video, filmed thirty miles off the coast of North Carolina, there is a shipwreck on the bottom, 130 feet down. Swarming around the wreck are dozens of Sand Tiger sharks. They look menacing, but they seem to be very docile. What are they all doing there, in one spot? That's what Jonathan wants to find out. Using a variety of filming techniques, Jonathan attempts to discover the secrets of the Sand Tiger shark gatherings at the wrecks, and does the first ever night dive with these shark..talk about scary! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

Using simple, inexpensive items, students build and test submarine models in a single class period. They gain insight into the engineering that's required to make these machines ascend, descend, and hover safely in extreme environments. The printable eight-page handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions that get students thinking about the complex engineering required for submersibles, illustrated experiment directions, and a worksheet that includes thought-provoking questions along with areas for recording experiment data.

In this activity, students will use hot and cold water to see how fluids at different temperatures move around in convection currents.

Light is our usual method for observing on land, but water quickly absorbs light making it less useful in the ocean. On the other hand, sound in water can travel long distances before it is absorbed to the point where it becomes inaudible. For this reason sound is frequently used to "see" in the ocean, as when scientists map the sea floor.
In this activity students work with sound and light data. In the process they come to appreciate that several factors affect the speed of sound --salinity, temperature and pressure -- and learn how to calculate sound intensity at a distance from the source. By plotting sunlight intensity versus depth in the ocean students learn that light is quickly absorbed in water.
Students also read graphs, make calculations, and interpret both. They view two videos and may listen to underwater sounds (see reference section below for a link to a sound gallery). They read a short article on the changing soundscape in the ocean in modern times. These activities provide an engaging, varied look at sound and light in the ocean.

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This site provides fun activities for children to do and make, while they learn about space and Earth science, and the technology that enables science. The Teachers Corner on the WWW site contains curriculum supplements originally published in the ITEA (International Technology Education Association) Technology Transfer Teacher magazine.

For more than twenty years, people have been feeding a large group of friendly stingrays at a place in the Cayman Islands. In this video, Jonathan travels to Grand Cayman to meet up with the famous marine artist and researcher Dr. Guy Harvey who is studying the relationship between humans and stingrays. He even shows Jonathan how to hold a stingray safely in his arms. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this activity, students research various topics about ocean health, e.g. overfishing, habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, pollution, and ocean acidification. An optional extension activity has them creating an aquatic biosphere in a bottle experiment in which they can manipulate variables.

Perhaps best known for its role as the antagonist in the film Jaws, the Great White shark is probably the world‰ŰŞs most feared animal, and easily the most fearsome of the sharks. In this video, Jonathan travels to Mexico to meet a Great White up close and personal. Nothing can prepare him for the sheer size and strength of a fully grown Great White shark! He learns how white sharks are being studied and how they react to both people and sea lions. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

When manatees were first seen by Columbus, he thought they were mermaids..but he had been at sea for a long time! Today these gentle marine mammals are threatened by loss of habitat and collisions with boats. This video segment explores the endangered manatees of Florida and their struggle to survive, as well as some of the people who are working to save them. Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

This video presents a brief introduction to an alternative energy source - ocean thermal temperature conversion (OTEC).

In this activity, student teams create a knowledge map of the essential characteristics or factors of a planet with a habitable climate, identifying range of inputs, outputs and variables of a planetary environmental system. Identified characteristics are compared to extreme environments on Earth, such as the Antarctic or the Sahara desert, and are used to consider the real life challenge of searching for life in extreme environments. The resource includes a student data sheet, questions, teacher's guide and scoring rubric. This is Activity B of two activities in the first module, titled "Temperature variations and habitability," of the resource, Earth Climate Course: What Determines a Planet's Climate? The course aims to help students to develop an understanding of our environment as a system of human and natural processes that result in changes that occur over various space and time scales.

In this hands-on OLogy activity, kids learn what happens when the rush of freshwater from a river collides with the gush of the ocean's tides. The activity begins with introductions to estuaries, salinity, and density. The illustrated, step-by-step directions show how to test the density of water at different levels of salinity and then investigate how a liquid's density affects the objects placed in it. It includes a fun look at the Dead Sea (Super Salty Sea) and why you can float effortlessly in it.

This activity allows students to demonstrate the thermal expansion of water for themselves using water bottles and straws. The discussion allows them to explore the connection between this concept and sea level rise due to climate change.

In this short but effective demonstration/experiment, students investigate how thermal expansion of water might affect sea level.

This is a short experiment to demonstrate the concept of thermal expansion of water when heated, as an analogy to thermal expansion of oceans due to global warming.

Learners will read or listen to a story about two sisters, Marisol and Sofia, as they explore the Sun's role in the water cycle. Additionally, numerous extension resources are included in the accompanying educator guide, such as suggestions for no-cost language arts activities, links to further science activities, a book walk cue chart to guide classroom discussion before, during, and after the story, a graphic organizer, and alignments to the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site answers questions about irregularities in the tides.