Play a classic guessing game with unique ocean animals, then identify animals in photo data from dives via a mobile game or online database.

Students play a guessing game to learn about less famous ocean animals, using images from Okeanos and MBARI dives. Students will connect and compare anatomy within phylum and between phyla. Students then use explore and share with the class photo data from MBARI dives or the FathomVerse mobile game. At the end of the lesson, students take a quiz to identify a selection of animals from dive images, and use their information from the lesson to explain their reasoning.

Cover Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Mountains in the Deep: Exploring the Central Pacific Basin.

Topics

Deep Sea

Authors

Elizabeth Corvi and Isabel Shinnick-Gordon

Teacher Resources

Student Resources

Additional Resources

  • FathomVerse Game – an app-based community science game that enables players to interact with real ocean images collected by researchers and contribute to the process of teaching AI how to classify marine animals. Within the FathomVerse app, the animal library describes how to visually identify 50+ different morphological animal groups. 

  • FathomNet Website – an online database for expert-labeled ocean imagery. Users can browse imagery from around the world and see where they were taken. 

  • Berkeley Evolution Tree Primer Room – a website with a walk-through in how to read evolutionary trees. Helpful background information for a teacher or a usable resource for secondary students in understanding phylogenetic trees. This website also has many resources about the evolution of animal groups or certain organs (like the eye)

  • NOAA Ocean Exploration Media – Images and videos from NOAA ocean dives.

  • MBARI Ocean Animals of the Deep – Media about select ocean animals from MBARI

Enrichment

Next Generation Science Standards

Crosscutting Concepts
  • Patterns
  • Structure and function 
Core Ideas
  • LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
  • LS3.B: Variation of Traits
  • LS4.C: Adaptation
Practices
  • Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information
  • Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Ocean Literacy Fundamental Concepts

  • 5: The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.