The education and editorial staff at MBARI have gathered some educational resources that may be useful to parents and students while sheltering in place. This page lists a small collection of activities and lesson plans from MBARI and various other organizations that can be used at home. 

Education and Research: Testing Hypotheses (EARTH) is a professional development workshop where educators create activities based on real data. Lessons are cross-linked to both the Next Generation Science Standards and the Ocean Literacy Standards.

Check out all of the great videos on MBARI’s YouTube channel to see some incredible deep-sea life and learn more about the science and technology behind these discoveries. Or, just watch and enjoy!

MBARI’s Animals of the Deep links to some of the fascinating creatures that MBARI has seen over the years – and it represents the first series of deep-sea stickers that MBARI has created. Follow us on social media for information on how to win one or more of these!

The Deep-Sea Guide, created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), provides easy access to the institute’s database of millions of records of deep-sea animals, seafloor habitats, geological features, and research tools.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a variety of standards-based curricula and activities to enrich learning at home. Some of the activities are exhibit-focused, but you can modify them to reflect the habitat in your backyard or somewhere else in your neighborhood. There are also coloring activities and games available for download. All of these are designed for preK-12 grade levels. 

 

Ocean Trilogy, merging dance and science to inspire the next generation of ocean stewardship

SpectorDance and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have partnered for over a decade to explore ways that dance might communicate the challenges confronting our ocean and how cutting-edge ocean science research might inspire hope and change. In fall of 2020, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Fran Spector Atkins, artistic director and founder of SpectorDance and William Roden, media artist and filmmaker, created this new socially distanced, film-version of their work, Ocean Trilogy, featuring young dancers (14-16 years old). Our vision is to bring together youth passion for dance with youth passion for ocean health. This work aims to “amplify youth voices for climate action”. Along with this 21-minute performance film, they offer filmed science-dance classes exploring the Ocean Trilogy themes with science content and creative movement exploration. Themes will include ocean acidification, plastic pollution, the food web, extinction of species, climate change, the power of human imagination, engineering, bioluminescence, and cross-disciplinary partnership. For more information contact franspector5@gmail.com.

The Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project (SOCCOM) is a multi-institutional program focused on unlocking the mysteries of the Southern Ocean and determining its influence on climate. The SOCCOM team produced six educational videos on Southern Ocean phenomena called “Southern Ocean Deep Dives.” The videos feature helpful animations as well as interviews with SOCCOM researchers. Feel free to download them and use them in your online or at-home teaching. There are also accompanying learning modules here.

 
 

Shape of Life offers classroom media and resources depicting the evolution of the animal kingdom on planet earth. Explore animal adaptation, animations, and behaviors along with the amazing scientists who bring their stories to life. Discover a rich selection of Next Generation Science Standards materials including lesson plans, readings, illustrations, and activities that inspire a deeper dive into animal phyla.

Shape of Life content is free to students and educators all over the world. The videos are amazing and you can search them by phyla, behavior, taxonomy, genetics, paleontology, and many more. There are interviews with researchers as well as some beautiful animations. There are lesson plans provided and everything is cross-linked to the Next Generation Science Standards. Highlights include a full unit on the climate crisis and a blog that covers a variety of current topics.

Students are invited to interact live with California State Parks interpretive rangers broadcasting from across the state. Many of their Home Learning Programs take place in coastal California State Parks and include marine topics such as:

  • How marine protected areas (MPAs) preserve marine ecosystems
  • Tide pool ecology and adaptations
  • Kelp forest habitat
  • Deep-sea habitat
  • Sea birds
  • Watersheds and estuaries
  • Plus many other non-marine topics!

You can visit the website to view their calendar and register for one (or all!) of the free Home Learning Programs. These engaging educational experiences will be offered Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for grades Kindergarten through 12.

They also provide a variety of free online content for teachers and students to explore in California State Parks though the Flipgrid Disco Library, Smithsonian Digital Learning Lab, and Google Treks. Students with interest in the ocean can also explore California’s Marine Protected Areas through the MPA Online Learning Modules.

The Smithsonian Learning Lab is an amazing portal providing links to over 1.7 million online tools geared specifically to students and educators. There are STEM webcasts, history podcasts, and many lesson plans. There are 2.8 million high-resolution images from its collection, live webcasts by museum staff (next one scheduled for April 9), and over 50 additional recorded webcasts on a variety of topics. Check it out!

 

  • Some great articles just posted in a scientific journal for students! Recent paper on bioluminescence (The Dark Ocean is Full of Lights) published in a collection of ocean papers for students.
  • Moss Landing Marine Laboratories will be streaming weekly seminars on a wide variety of topics on Thursday afternoons at 4 pm PST.
  • OkGo is an amazing musical group and lately they have been working with Dr. Ann Marie Thomas’s lab group. They just released a great video on optical illusions and included some challenges and activities by grade level. The Writing on the Wall is the name of the video – do yourself a favor and watch it!
  • Lost Cities is an amazing interactive video story about coral reefs that was produced by Ruth Gates (before her passing) and the @GatesCoralLab
  • Want your students/children to learn some programming? or maybe you want to learn some? Check out the MIT scratch website and get started creating stories, games, and animations.
  • Here’s a quick roundup of NOAA’s most popular educational resources to help you safely hunker down while learning about the ocean and atmosphere.
  • Do you want to be an Astronaut? Interested in space? check out the online material from Rachel Brachman, a Jet Propulsion Lab researcher who has posted some great educational material.
  • Skype a Scientist Live offers an existing schedule of live and recorded web chats as well as an opportunity for you to schedule your own session. Coordinated by a scientist, this site is maintained by donations and all scientists participate without charge. It’s a great opportunity to enrich your students on a wide variety of topics.
  • Every Monday and Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PST, the Virtual Marine Biology Camp is running a Q&A featuring guest speakers and an opportunity to ask questions about marine mammals. They are based in Seattle and running their camp on Facebook and Instagram (@oceansinitiative) Live. You can email questions to team@oceansinitiative.org. They will choose 10 to talk about. No ticket or registration necessary. 
 
  • Common Sense Media provides an overview of digital resources for parents who might want to get a little more information before letting their children download and/or start interacting with different programs.
  • Google Teach from Home provides a lot of resources and information for those faced with the challenge of interacting remotely with students.
  • If you are looking for climate change content, Climate Central has an amazing number and variety of content types: from videos and images to interactive sea level change maps. Take a few minutes to browse this site!
  • And, don’t stress too much about trying to run a school in your home—NYTimes published an interesting opinion piece on March 19 (apologies if you hit a paywall).