Lesson Plans
Educators and scientists working with NOAA developed a series of lessons for students in Grades 5 - 12 that are specifically tied to the science behind the the Laser Line Scan Expedition . These lessons focus on cutting-edge ocean exploration and research using state-of-the-art technologies.
The lessons are grouped into the following categories:
Grades 5-6
Grades 7-8
Grades 9-12 (Chemical, Biological, Earth, and Physical Science)
In addition to being tied to the National Science Education Standards and the Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts, the hands-on, inquiry-based activities include focus questions, background information for teachers, links to interesting Internet sites, and extensions. Web logs that document the latest discoveries and complement the lessons, complete with compelling images and video, will be sent back each day from sea. Teachers are encouraged to use the daily logs from the Gulf of Mexico 2006 Expedition, which are posted on this site, to supplement the lessons.
Read a description of each lesson and/or download them to your computer. All of the lessons are available in a PDF format, and may be viewed and printed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download a lesson, click on its title from the listing below. (Note: if you have problems downloading one of these lessons, right-click on the link and save the lesson to your desktop.)
Architects of the Deep Reef (8 pages, 276k)
(adapted from the 2003 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Habitats Expedition)
Focus: Reproduction in Cnidaria (Life Science)
In this activity, students will be able to identify and describe at least five characteristics of Cnidaria coral, compare and contrast the four classes of Cnidaria, and describe typical reproductive strategies used by Cnidaria.
Design a Reef! (8 pages, 280k)
(adapted from the 2003 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Habitats Expedition)
Focus: Niches in coral reef ecosystems (Life Science)
In this activity, students will compare and contrast coral reefs in shallow water and deep water, describe the major functions that organisms must perform in a coral reef ecosystem, and explain how these functions might be provided in a miniature coral reef ecosystem. Students will also be able to explain the importance of three physical factors in coral reef ecosystems and infer the fundamental source of energy in a deep-water coral reef.
Grades 9-12
What's Down There (8 pages, 300k)
Focus: Mapping Coral Reef Habitats
In this activity, students will be able to access data on selected coral reefs and manipulate these data to characterize these reefs, and explain the need for baseline data in coral reef monitoring programs. Students also will be able to identify and explain five ways that coral reefs benefit human beings, and identify and explain three major threats to coral reefs.
Other Relevant Lessons from NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Program
Grades 5-6
Keep Away (5 pages, 424k) (from the 2003 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Habitats Expedition)
Focus: Effects of pollution on diversity in benthic communities (Life Science)
In this activity, students will discuss the meaning of ‘biological diversity’ and compare and contrast the concepts of ‘variety’ and ‘relative abundance’ as they relate to biological diversity. Given information on the number of individuals, number of species, and biological diversity at a series of sites, students will make inferences about the possible effects of oil drilling operations on benthic communities.
Deep Gardens (8 pages, 359k) (from the Florida Coast Deep Corals 2005 Expedition)
Focus: Comparison of deep-sea and shallow-water tropical coral reefs (Life Science)
In this activity, students will compare and contrast deep-sea coral reefs with their shallow-water counterparts, describe three types of coral associated with deep-sea coral reefs, and explain three benefits associated with deep-sea coral reefs. Students will explain why many scientists are concerned about the future of deep-sea coral reefs.
Islands, Reefs, and a Hotspot (8 pages, 484kb) (from the 2002 Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Expedition)
Focus: Formation of the Hawaiian archipelago (Earth Science)
In this activity, students will be able to describe eight stages in the formation of islands in the Hawaiian archipelago and will be able to describe the movement of tectonic plates in the Hawaiian archipelago region. Students will also be able to describe how a combination of hotspot activity and tectonic plate movement could produce the arrangement of seamounts observed in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Forests of the Deep (4 pages, 232k) (from the 2004 Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition)
Focus: Deep-sea coral communities associated with seamounts (Life Science)
In this activity, students will be able to explain at least three ways in which seamounts are important to biological communities, infer at least three ways in which deep-sea corals are important to seamount ecosystems, and explain why many scientists are concerned about the future of seamount ecosystems.
A Piece of Cake (4 pages, 244k) (from the 2003 Charleston Bump Expedition)
Focus: Spatial heterogeneity in deep-water coral communities (Life Science)
In this activity, students will be able to explain what a habitat is, describe at least three functions or benefits that habitats provide, and describe some habitats that are typical of deep-water hard bottom communities. Students will also be able to explain how organisms, such as deep-water corals and sponges, add to the variety of habitats in areas such as the Charleston Bump.
Easy as Pi (4 pages, 252k) (from The Charleston Bump 2003 Expedition)
Focus: Structural complexity in benthic habitats (Life Science/Mathematics)
In this activity, students will be able to describe the importance of structural features that increase surface area in benthic habitats and quantify the relative impact of various structural modifications on surface area in model habitats. Students will also be able to give examples of organisms that increase the structural complexity of their communities.
Grades 7-8
Treasures in Jeopardy (6 pages, 299k) (from the Florida Coast Deep Corals 2005 Expedition)
Focus: Conservation of deep-sea coral reefs (Life Science)
In this activity, students will compare and contrast deep-sea coral reefs with their shallow-water counterparts and explain at least three benefits associated with deep-sea coral reefs. Students will also describe human activities that threaten deep-sea coral reefs and describe actions that should be taken to protect deep-sea coral reef resources.
Let's Go to the Video Tape! (7 pages, 552k) (from the 2003 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Habitats Expedition)
Focus: Characteristics of biological communities on deep-water reef habitats (Life Science)
In this activity, students will recognize and identify some of the fauna groups found in deep-sea coral reef communities, infer possible reasons for observed distribution of groups of animals in deep-sea coral reef communities, and discuss the meaning of ‘biological diversity.’ Students will compare and contrast the concepts of ‘variety’ and ‘relative abundance’ as they relate to biological diversity, and given abundance and distribution data of species, will be able to calculate an appropriate numeric indicator that describes the biological diversity of a community.
Mapping Deep-sea Habitats in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (7 pages, 80kb) (from the 2002 Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Expedition)
Focus: Bathymetric mapping of deep-sea habitats (Earth Science - This activity can be easily modified for Grades 5-6)
In this activity, students will be able to create a two-dimensional topographic map given bathymetric survey data, will create a three-dimensional model of landforms from a two-dimensional topographic map, and will be able to interpret two- and three-dimensional topographic data.
Climate, Corals, and Change (14 pages, 441k) (from the North Atlantic Stepping Stones 2005 Expedition)
Focus (Physical Science) - Paleoclimatology
In this activity, students will be able to explain the concept of "paleoclimatological proxies" and describe at least two examples, describe how oxygen isotope ratios are related to water temperature, and interpret data on oxygen isotope ratios to make inferences about the growth rate of deep-sea corals. Students will also be able to define "forcing factor" and will be able to describe at least three forcing factors for climate change and discuss at least three potential consequences of a warmer world climate.
Deep Sea Coral Biodiversity (3 pages, 152k) (from the 2001 Deep East Expedition)
Focus: George’s Bank
In this activity, students will research life found on tropical coral reefs to develop an understanding of the biodiversity of the ecosystem; students will research life found in deep-sea coral beds to develop an understanding of the biodiversity of the ecosystem; and students will compare the diversity and adaptations of tropical corals to deep-sea corals.
Grades 9-12
Mapping the Canyon (pages 1-4 of 10 page document, 72k) (from the 2001 Deep East Expedition)
Focus: Hudson Canyon Bathymetry (Earth Science)
In this activity, students will be able to compare and contrast a topographic map to a bathymetric map; students will investigate the various ways in which bathymetric maps are made; students will learn how to interpret a bathymetric map.
Keep It Complex! (5 pages, 272k) (from the 2003 Charleston Bump Expedition)
Focus: Effects of habitat complexity on biological diversity (Life Science)
In this activity, students will be able to describe the significance of complexity in benthic habitats to organisms that live in these habitats and will describe at least three attributes of benthic habitats that can increase the physical complexity of these habitats. Students will also be able to give examples of organisms that increase the structural complexity of their communities and infer and explain relationships between species diversity and habitat complexity in benthic communities.
Currents: Bad for Divers, Good for Corals (6 pages, 464kb) (from the 2002 Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Expedition)
Focus: The effect of bottom topography on deep-sea currents; the effect of currents on precious coral communities (Earth Science)
In this activity, students will be able to describe, compare, and contrast major forces that drive ocean currents and discuss the general effects of topography on current velocity. Students will also be able to discuss how velocity affects the ability of a current to transport sand and explain why deep-sea precious corals are more frequently found in areas having strong currents.
Are You Related? (11 pages, 465k) (from the Florida Coast Deep Corals 2005 Expedition)
Focus: Molecular genetics of deepwater corals (Life Science)
In this activity, students will define "microsatellite markers" and explain how they may be used to identify different populations and species, explain two definitions of "species," and describe processes that result in speciation. Students will also use microsatellite data to make inferences about populations of deep sea corals.
C.S.I. on the Deep Reef (Chemotrophic Species Investigations, That Is) (6 pages, 444k) (from the 2003 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Habitats Expedition)
Focus: Chemotrophic organisms (Life Science/Chemistry)
In this activity, students will describe at least three chemotrophic symbioses known from deep-sea habitats and will identify and explain at least three indicators of chemotropic nutrition.
Gellin (4 pages, 372k) (from the 2003 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Habitats Expedition)
Focus: DNA analysis
In this activity, students will explain and carry out a simple process for separating DNA from tissue samples, explain and carry out a simple process for separating complex mixtures, and explain the process of restriction enzyme analysis.
How Does Your (Coral) Garden Grow? (6 pages, 456k) (from the 2003 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Habitats Expedition)
Focus: Growth rate estimates based on isotope ratios (Life Science/Chemistry)
In this activity, students will identify and briefly explain two methods for estimating the age of hard corals, learn how oxygen isotope ratios are related to water temperature, and interpret data on oxygen isotope ratios to make inferences about the growth rate of deep-sea corals.
Cool Corals (7 pages, 476k) (from the 2003 Life on the Edge Expedition)
Focus: Biology and ecology of Lophelia corals (Life Science)
In this activity, students will describe the basic morphology of Lophelia corals and explain the significance of these organisms, interpret preliminary observations on the behavior of Lophelia polyps, and infer possible explanations for these observations. Students will also discuss why biological communities associated with Lophelia corals are the focus of major worldwide conservation efforts.
