Welcome to the Alaska Waters Education Resources High-quality, place-based lessons and activities that engage and inspire Alaskan youth and support informal and formal educators. Search the Lesson Plan Database Text Search Use the Filters to Search Lesson Plan Topic AllBirdsChanging WorldFishHuman RelatedInvertebratesMammalsOceans/CoastPlantsScientific ProcessWatersheds/RiversWeather Locations AllClassroomLarge SpaceOutside Activity Type AllDataField TripGameHands-OnMultimediaProjectWorksheet Grade Levels AllGrade 1Grade 2Grade 3Grade 4Grade 5Grade 6Grade 7Grade 8Kindergarten Technology AllNo Internet RequiredStudent Computer A Salmon’s Life Journey Students investigate salmon life cycle stages and their relationship to parts of the watershed. They use cards to generate questions and ideas, and work cooperatively to research the salmon’s life journey through a watershed, answer the questions and gather evidence for their claims. They share and discuss their findings with the class, and demonstrate their knowledge by making posters. View Lesson Plan Grade 3 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Game, Hands-On, Project Aquatic Habitats Students identify specific traits of a habitat. They start with a familiar local habitat and then focus on aquatic habitats. View Lesson Plan Grade 2 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Project Aquatic Puzzles Children will assemble simple puzzles to learn more about aquatic animals and their life cycles. How do we know living and nonliving things are in the water around us? What do they look like when they are growing? View Lesson Plan Kindergarten Location: Large Space, Outside Activity Type: Hands-On Arctic Sea Ice Data This 5-6 day investigation challenges students to think about how sea ice is changing and the effects of a warming climate on sea level in Alaska. View Lesson Plan Grade 8 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On Bathymetric Mapping This activity will help students understand the lines and colors found on a bathymetric map or chart. It introduces them to contour maps–both bathymetric and topographic–and it introduces them to the geologic features that many explorers study. Bathymetric mapping is a major part of many of the Ocean Explorer expeditions since our understanding of the ocean floor starts with knowing what it looks like. View Lesson Plan Grade 6 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Project Canyons in the Sea In this 5-7 day investigation, students learn about vehicles used to explore the sea. They then learn about two deep sea canyons in the Bering Sea and the variety of life found in these canyons. Finally, students create a mural of one of the canyons, and participate in a sampling simulation to determine life in the canyon. View Lesson Plan Grade 6 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Multimedia, Project Changing Landscape Changing Landscape asks students to analyze “repeat photographs” (taken from the same vantage point at different times) of Alaska glaciers to observe the effects of retreating glaciers on the landscape. View Lesson Plan Grade 8 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Multimedia Density In this 7-9 day investigation, students are engaged in a variety of hands-on demonstrations and experiments that will help them to understand thermohaline circulation in the ocean. They begin with an introductory activity that helps them to review or arrive at a definition of density, then go on to demonstrate the effects of temperature and salinity on density and design their own experiment to simulate ocean mixing. They experiment further with hot and cold water as they consider the effects of tropical and polar climates on ocean currents, and end by writing conclusions to summarize their learning. View Lesson Plan Grade 7 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Multimedia Drawing from Description Changing Landscape asks students to analyze “repeat photographs” (taken from the same vantage point at different times) of Alaska glaciers to observe the effects of retreating glaciers on the landscape. View Lesson Plan Kindergarten Location: Classroom, Large Space, Outside Activity Type: Hands-On Field Session Using skills and background information they have developed through classroom experiences and the initial nature walk, students will go into the field to observe and measure local habitats. Students will begin by exploring the area, then do “timed counts” to get an idea of the observable organisms in the local environment. They will then focus individually on one small area to study. View Lesson Plan Grade 2 Location: Outside Activity Type: Hands-On Field Trip to a Local Habitat Children go outdoors to explore a local habitat. They see, feel, and think about the living and nonliving things in the water. Science notebooks are used to gather information about what they find. Students use their background knowledge from prior classroom experiences, the initial field trip, classroom investigations, and other observations to notice and observe the living and nonliving things in their environment. Students have plenty of time to explore and discover before being asked to write and draw in their science notebooks. View Lesson Plan Kindergarten Location: Classroom, Large Space, Outside Activity Type: Game, Hands-On Fish Finders In this investigation, students explore the needs of salmon at each stage of their life cycle, and then go into the field to investigate a local aquatic habitat and its potential as salmon habitat. They observe the physical characteristics of a local area and determine whether they think it is sufficient to sustain salmon. NEW! Fish Finders investigation aligned with the NGSS.” and link to the NGSS-aligned Fish Finders. View Lesson Plan Grade 3 Location: Outside Activity Type: Hands-On, Worksheet Fishing for the Future In this activity, students discuss how methods of fishing have changed, then play a game to explore the idea of sustainable fishing practice. They simulate fishery activity using increasingly sophisticated technology, in different ocean areas. As students progress through the fishing seasons, they will likely overfish their part of the ocean and will have to migrate to other places in the ocean to meet their basic needs. View Lesson Plan Grade 5 Location: Classroom, Large Space, Outside Activity Type: Game, Hands-On Glacier Game Review the effects of retreating glaciers and increasing stream flows and erosion on river, coastal, and ocean ecosystems. View Lesson Plan Grade 8 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Game, Hands-On Globe Toss In this activity, students begin their discovery of aquatic environments, and start to notice that water is all around them, in their neighborhoods, backyards, oceans, rivers, ponds, and creeks. They take a first look at “Our Big Blue Planet” with a globe game. View Lesson Plan Kindergarten Location: Classroom, Large Space Activity Type: Game, Hands-On Habitats In this activity, students begin their discovery of aquatic environments, and start to notice that water is all around them, in their neighborhoods, backyards, oceans, rivers, ponds, and creeks. They take a first look at “Our Big Blue Planet” with a globe game. View Lesson Plan Grade 2 Location: Activity Type: High-Tide, Low-Tide Game Children learn more about their special species and others as they explore life cycles and tide-related behaviors. View Lesson Plan Grade 1 Location: Classroom, Large Space, Outside Activity Type: Game, Hands-On How Do Scientists Learn about Ecosystems? In this 3-4 day investigation, students revisit the sea otter mystery story and discuss what scientists did to study sea otters in the Aleutians. They simulate the observation, identification, sampling, and counting methods used by scientists in two different activities, then reflect, discuss, and pose questions about scientific data collection. View Lesson Plan Grade 4 Location: Classroom, Outside Activity Type: Hands-On, Project Interconnections In this 4-5 day investigation, students examine hypotheses and evidence related to the causes of the sea otter decline. They narrow down the hypotheses to one, then play a food web game to help them better understand relationships in the kelp bed ecosystem, and predict the outcome of an experiment to test the killer whale predation hypothesis. They put together some of the big ideas about interactions in ecosystems to come up with plausible explanations for the sea otter mystery. Finally, they evaluate whether the hypothesis has been proven. They reflect on their learning by diagramming the sea otter’s food web and predicting what might happen if parts of the ecosystem changed. View Lesson Plan Grade 4 Location: Large Space Activity Type: Game, Project Life Cycle Wheels Children begin by continuing to learn about the wide variety of aquatic plants and animals in their region. Each child then chooses a special plant or animal to research, depict, and share with the class. View Lesson Plan Grade 1 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Game, Hands-On Mapping the Sea Floor This activity leads students through a process of creating a model of the ocean floor, taking depth “soundings,” entering data into an Excel spreadsheet, and then creating a 3-D map of their ocean floor in Excel. View Lesson Plan Grade 6 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Project Ocean Impacts In this investigation, students will work in small groups to research a current issue related to human interaction with the ocean, using Internet and library resources. They will communicate the facts about their issue on a poster, participate in a poster viewing session, and ask questions about the information presented on the other posters created by members of their class. View Lesson Plan Grade 5 Location: Activity Type: Project Searching for Sounds in the Sea This 3-day investigation begins with students listening to a variety of underwater sounds, and deciding if the sound was made by an animal or something else. They learn about sound and how sound works in water, and about a researcher in the Bering Sea who is using sound to study the North Pacific right whale. Students learn about hydrophones and participate in an activity that simulates the use of hydrophones. Finally, they learn about spectrograms and try to identify animals by looking at the spectrograms and listening to the associated sounds. View Lesson Plan Grade 6 Location: Activity Type: Game, Hands-On, Project The Excitement of Exploration Students begin this 3-4 day investigation with a discussion and activity centered around seven traditional reasons that people explore. Then they go on an imaginary journey to the unknown. Once the journey is over, the students are given clues to discover that their trip was in a manned submersible in the Bering Sea. They learn about a researcher who is actually studying the Bering Sea in a submarine, then watch and discuss a video featuring underwater explorer Robert Ballard. As a final activity in this investigation, students research past and present ocean explorers and share their discoveries, inventions, or research. View Lesson Plan Grade 6 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Multimedia, Project The Legend of the Bidarki Students develop an understanding of interconnections among the ocean, humans, and other living things through a case study of harvesting bidarki (katy chitons) in the Alaska Native villages of Port Graham and Nanwalek. They reflect on their own connections to the ocean. View Lesson Plan Grade 5 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Project The Missing Sea Otters In this 4-5 day investigation, students begin by reading a mystery story about sea otters in the Aleutian Islands, and examining an accompanying population graph. They identify information that they will need to help them solve the missing sea otter mystery, and explore ecological relationships in the sea otter environment using Web sites, video clips, and readings. Information is shared with the class and/or summarized on clue cards, and students then create murals showing the sea otter/kelp bed ecosystem. View Lesson Plan Grade 4 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Multimedia, Project Transparency/Turbidity Students construct a mini Secchi disk to investigate transparency and the effects of increased turbidity from the increased flows as glaciers melt on aquatic and marine ecosystems. View Lesson Plan Grade 8 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On Water Detectives In this activity, students begin their discovery of aquatic environments, and start to notice that water is all around them, in their neighborhoods, backyards, oceans, rivers, ponds, and creeks. They act as outdoor “Water Detectives” to explore and map water on a walk near their school. View Lesson Plan Kindergarten Location: Outside Activity Type: Hands-On Waves in the Water In this 7-10 day investigation, students develop an understanding of waves and tides and their motion through discussion, demonstration, and hands-on investigation. They demonstrate wave motion in containers, and create marigrams to show local tide data and to compare tide patterns from different parts of the world. They use their knowledge to consider whether waves or tides could account for the movement of the bath toys to their final locations. View Lesson Plan Grade 7 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Project, Worksheet We Search Students select an animal to research from a list of teacher-chosen freshwater animals, tide pool creatures, or ocean mammals. They learn that an animal lives within a specific habitat because it is able to meet its needs for food, water, and shelter. Students will develop the understanding that they can find information about specific animals and habitats in books, on the Internet, and from their own local environment and that they can learn from scientists and other experts. View Lesson Plan Grade 2 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Project Weather and Circulation Systems In this 5-day investigation, students develop an understanding that the large ocean circulations affecting Alaska mimic major weather patterns. They begin by creating and observing wave and riffle patterns and motions of objects in a tub. They plot possible current patterns on their map and organize meteorological data to determine how well wind patterns match their predictions. View Lesson Plan Grade 7 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On, Project Where Did the Rubber Bath Toys Go? This is an introductory investigation to be done in one class period. Students read a true story about bath toys that fell off a container ship and washed up on beaches around the world. Using a world map, they identify, locate, and record the dates and places where the toys were found. Finally, they write a hypothesis about how the rubber toys made their way to the various locations identified. View Lesson Plan Grade 7 Location: Classroom Activity Type: Hands-On Where does my water come from? After listening to a story about a river, students are introduced to watersheds by simulating a watershed with crumpled paper, ink, and water. They investigate the sources of home drinking water in their community, through home inquiry and an actual or virtual field trip. They discuss their experiences and ask questions to help them understand the interconnections in their local watershed. The big ideas and concepts for this lesson are: Water from the tap comes from the watershed. Science questions may be created by observation and reflection and answered through investigation. View Lesson Plan Location: Classroom, Outside Activity Type: Hands-On
