STANDARD - NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE


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Ocean Exploration through Time - COSEE Coastal Trends


Lesson Plan 

Summary
Students research the history of ocean exploration and create a timeline of important events indicating advances in technology and our scientific understanding of the ocean.

Concept: Ocean exploration
Less than 5% of the ocean has been explored; however, the ocean is a great resource, so in order to better understand the ocean we need to employ inquiry and investigation. Emphasis is placed on history of ocean exploration and on changing technology.

Education Standards




Coral Cores: Ocean Timeline - NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries


Lesson Plan 

Summary
Using x-ray images of actual coral cores taken from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, students learn how corals generate calcium carbonate skeletons in layers and what those layers can tell us. Students also relate sections of these cores to the history of ocean exploration.

Concept: Ocean exploration
Less than 5% of the ocean has been explored; however, the ocean is a great resource, so in order to better understand the ocean we need to employ inquiry and investigation. Emphasis is placed on history of ocean exploration and on changing technology.

Education Standards




Designing Tools for Ocean Exploration - NOAA Ocean Exploration


Lesson Plan 

Summary
Students design instruments that could potentially collect water, sediments, and infauna from the deep ocean, demonstrating the concept that new technologies allow us to learn more about the ocean.

Concept: New technologies
New technologies are expanding our ability to explore the ocean.

Education Standards




Where is My Bot? Dead Reckoning and Navigation with Nautical Charts - NOAA Ocean Explorer


Lesson Plan 

Summary
Students interpret authentic data to establish the position of an underwater robot conducting a survey of coral reefs off the coast of Bonaire. The activity demonstrates how technology (GPS), mathematics (geometry), and geography are all used to investigate a biological system (coral reefs).

Concept: Interdisciplinary approach
Ocean exploration is interdisciplinary.

Education Standards




A Watered Down Topographic Map - NOAA Ocean Explorer


Lesson Plan 

Summary
Students create scaled models of the sea-floor features and then generate bathymetric maps based on their models. This activity helps illustrate various sea floor topographic features and shows students how these features are translated into two-dimensional bathymetric maps.

Concept: Basins and features
There is one ocean with many basins and features shaped by the movement of the earth

Education Standards