Over 5-12 days, students synthesize their learning about ocean circulation, including the global thermohaline conveyor belt, through discussions, videos, and a culminating project. They analyze real or hypothetical ocean events, design an action project, and revisit their initial investigation to apply new concepts.
Students take a field trip to investigate some of the phenomena that they have been studying. They inventory debris along a shoreline or riverbank and study local water movement patterns to develop ideas about where the debris might have come from.
Students discuss stewardship actions and develop an action plan that they will carry out as a class. They host a “Friends of the Sea” party to involve the school and community in their stewardship efforts and to share the results of their investigations.
Students plan and carry out a survey of human impacts to a local aquatic environment. They analyze their findings and prepare to share them with the community.
Students read a true story about bath toys lost at sea. Using a world map, they track where and when the toys washed ashore, then write a hypothesis explaining how the toys traveled to those global locations.