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Celebrate the Year of the Ocean
Eighteen activities for students to practice their math, geography, science, and language skills while learning about the world's oceans!
In a resolution adopted in 1994, the United Nations declared 1998 the Year of the Ocean. In accordance with the year's theme, "Our Common Heritage," the UN resolution noted that:
- the oceans, seas, and coastal areas together form an essential component of the global life-support system.
- oceans represent a significant source of food, energy, minerals, and usage with significant economic potential.
- effective management of the uses and resources of oceans depend on improved access to information, public education, and scientific awareness.
- an international effort to protect the marine environment will require an understanding of the interaction between oceans and people.
The purpose of adopting the resolution was to recognize the importance of Earth's oceans and their resources and to educate and encourage governments and individuals to accept responsibility for sustaining them. The following activities can help your students contribute to that effort.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Math. The United States (48 states and D.C.) has an area of about 3,100,00 square miles. Invite students to find out how large each of the four major oceans are and to determine how much larger each is than the United States. (Answers: Based on numbers from the World Almanac and Book of Facts, The Pacific Ocean is about 64,200,000 square miles in area, or about 21 times larger than the United States. The Atlantic Ocean is about 40,750,000 square miles in area, or about 11 times larger than the U.S. The Indian Ocean is about 28,300,000 square miles in area, or about 9 times larger than the U.S. The Arctic Ocean is about 5,500,000 square miles, or about 1.5 times larger than the U.S.)
More math --number sequence. Provide students with the following figures, which show the area of the world's 20 largest bodies of water. Invite students to put the list in order from largest to smallest. (Adapt list length to suit your grade.)
| Body of water | Square miles | | Body of water | Square miles |
|---|
| Andaman Sea | 218,100 | | Indian Ocean | 28,400,000 |
| Arctic Ocean | 5,100,000 | | Mediterranean Sea | 969,000 |
| Atlantic Ocean | 33,400,000 | | North Sea | 165,000 |
| Baltic Sea | 147,000 | | Pacific Ocean | 64,196,000 |
| Bering Sea | 873,000 | | Persian Gulf | 88,800 |
| Caribbean Sea | 971,000 | | Red Sea | 175,000 |
| East China Sea | 257,000 | | Sea of Okhotsk | 537,000 |
| Gulf of California | 59,000 | | Sea of Japan | 391,000 |
| Gulf of Mexico | 582,000 | | South China Sea | 1,148,000 |
| Hudson Bay | 282,000 | | Yellow Sea | 113,500 |
Geography. On a world map, find and mark with an X the locations of the 20 largest bodies of water on the list in the previous activity. (Or provide a blackline world map and students might color the bodies of water.)
Science (for younger students). The Martin County (Fla.) Schools, Environmental Studies Center provides an explanation of food webs and includes a diagram of a marine food web. Have students visit the site, click on highlighted names to learn more about each organism's role in the web, and study the diagram. Arrange students into groups, provide them with paper, scissors, and crayons, and ask each group to make examples of one part of the food web. Create a bulletin board display of a marine food web and ask students to attach their creations to the appropriate area of the display.
Science (for older students). Have older students visit Life Zones of the Ocean and study the diagram. Help them create a mural showing the life zones of the ocean and attach appropriate representations of the marine food web to each section of the diagram.
Word search. Visit the Columbus Zoo Web site. Students can click "Featured Exhibits" (the star icon) to get to the "Live Coral Reef Exhibit." The exhibit includes "Take the Quiz" and "Solve the Puzzle" activities.
Writing. Write a news story. Invite students to visit the Global Online Adventure Learning Site where they can find information about some current explorers and ongoing expeditions. Students can read about the first woman to solo circumnavigate the world, the first man to circumnavigate the world under oar power, and three young brothers on a two year exploration of the Pacific Ocean. Encourage students to write a newspaper story about one of the explorers featured at the site. Encourage students to include quotes about the motivations of each explorer as well as facts about the explorer and the expedition.
Graphing. Invite students to create a circle graph to illustrate the sources of ocean pollution. Those sources, according to 1990 data from UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) are as follows:
| Runoff and other pollutants from land | 44 percent |
| Airborne pollutants | 33 percent |
| Water transportation | 12 percent |
| Dumping of wastes in the ocean | 10 percent |
| Offshore oil rigs | 1 percent |
Hands-on science. Why doesn't salt water in the ocean freeze like fresh water does? A simple experiment will demonstrate this feature of salt water. Use two paper cups for the experiment. Pour water in each cup to fill it halfway. Measure a tablespoon of salt and add the salt to one of the cups. Label that cup "SALT WATER." Leave both cups in the freezer over night. Observe what happens. Why? Salt prevents (slows) water molecules from joining to form ice crystals. (You might use a third cup of water, like the other two except that you dissolved two tablespoons of salt in it. This will demonstrate that the more salt in the saltwater, the colder it will need to get for the water to freeze.)
Science and art. Have younger students research plants and animals that live in the ocean and create a pictionary of ocean life.
Science and language arts. Have older students write and illustrate a glossary of ocean terms.
Geography --the oceans. Create a trivia game. Arrange students into four groups and assign each group one of the four major oceans. Encourage students to visit The Sea Web site's Oceans Map or to use other resources to find important and interesting facts about that ocean and nearby coastal areas. Then provide each group with several index cards and have students write a trivia fact on each card. Collect and shuffle the cards and play a trivia game in which students must guess which ocean each of the facts is about.
Citizenship. Ask students to research online sites to learn some of the ways in which our oceans are threatened. Then have each student choose one threat and list two or more ways in which the threat can be avoided or minimized. Point out that their lists might include new laws, treaties, programs, or citizen action projects. Then encourage students to write a letter to appropriate politicians, organizations, or individuals outlining a plan for protecting the oceans against that threat.
Language arts. Encourage students to visit the National Geographic Pirates Web site, where they can participate in a pirate adventure, learn about real pirates of long ago, find out what life was like aboard a pirate ship, or attend a piracy trial. Then have students research classroom, library, or online resources to find out about the life of a real pirate. Ask them to write a story about one of the pirate's real or legendary adventures.
Write an Interactive Story. Encourage younger students to visit Theodore Tugboat Online Activity Center to complete an interactive story about a tugboat.
More math. Brainstorm with students a list of plants or animals that live in the ocean. Ask older students to select several plants or animals from the list and graph them according to size or weight. Have younger students categorize the plants, fish, or other sea animals according to size, shape, color, or other criteria.
Write a radio skit. Encourage students to read the script for the Earth and Sky radio show that was broadcast April 6, 1996. Discuss with students what they learned about the ocean food chain from reading the script. Then arrange students into groups and ask each group to write and perform a brief radio skit about another ocean-related topic. For example, students might perform a news report about an historic oil spill, write a weather report featuring El Nino related weather events, interview a marine biologist who saves beached whales, or stage a debate about whether governments should allot more money to space or ocean exploration.
Art. Ask students to visit Wyland's Ocean Art Contest to see pictures of ocean life created by children around the United States. Point out that the theme of the Wyland site is "One person can make a difference." Have each student create a poster to represent "Our Common Heritage," the theme of the Year of the Ocean and then ask them to write a slogan to accompany each poster. Display the posters in the school library or cafeteria.
Article by Linda Starr
Education World®
Copyright © 1998 Education World
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