Educators and scientists working with NOAA developed two lesson plans for students in Grades 6-8 and 9-12 that are tied to the science behind the Lophelia II 2010: Oil Seeps and Deep Reefs Expedition. These lesson plans are targeted toward performance expectations specified by the Next Generation Science Standards in the context of cutting-edge ocean exploration and research using state-of-the-art technologies. Activities are also correlated with the Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts, and include focus questions, background information for teachers, links to interesting Internet sites, and extensions. Web logs that document the latest discoveries and complement the lesson plans, complete with compelling images and video, will be sent back each day from sea. Teachers are encouraged to use the background essays, logs, and other resources from the Lophelia II 2010: Oil Seeps and Deep Reefs Expedition posted on this site to supplement the lesson plans.
Additional lesson plans that have been developed for prior expeditions to explore mesophotic coral ecosystems are also listed, as well as other relevant lessons from the Ocean Explorer Program.
Read a description of each lesson plan and/or download them to your computer. All of the lesson plans are available in a PDF format, and may be viewed and printed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download a lesson plan, 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.)
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus:
Hardbottom Biotopes in the Gulf of Mexico (Life Science)
Students will define and contrast the terms “biotope,” “habitat,” and “ecosystem;” explain what “hardgrounds” are; describe major biotopes associated with hardgrounds in the Gulf of Mexico; and give examples of at least three species associated with each biotope.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus:
Properties of oil in water (Physical Science)
Students will define the property of density, and explain how this property applies to the behavior of oil and water; compare and contrast solutions, mixtures, and emulsions, and explain how these properties apply when oil and water are combined; define dispersant and discuss how dispersants may influence the impacts of oil on biological organisms.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus: Benthic
communities on continental slopes in the Gulf of Mexico (Life Science)
Students will describe benthic communities found at selected sites on continental slopes in the Gulf of Mexico, and explain the possible ecological role of at least three species that are characteristic of these communities.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus: Biology
and ecology of Lophelia corals (Life Science)
Students will describe the general biology and morphology of Lophelia corals, explain how these corals contribute to the development of complex communities, identify ways in which these corals are threatened by human activities, and discuss ways in which Lophelia communities are important to humans.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Relationship of hardground communities in the Gulf of Mexico to physical and
chemical environmental features (Life Science/Chemistry)
Students will define hardgrounds and explain how they are formed in the Gulf of Mexico, and discuss the relationships between hydrocarbon seeps, chemosynthetic communities, and deep-water coral communities in the Gulf of Mexico.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Dissolved oxygen in the deep ocean (Chemistry/Life Science)
Students will discuss the influence of salinity and temperature on dissolved oxygen in seawater, identify and discuss at least three factors that may affect the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the ocean, and analyze dissolved oxygen measurements to prepare a profile of dissolved oxygen concentration in a water column.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Change
detection in biological communities (Life Science/Mathematics)
Students will define the concept of a biological community; perform calculations to identify communities from biological surveys; and describe how biological surveys may be used to detect changes in deep-sea communities.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Deep-sea exploration (Life Science/Technology)
Students will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of remotely operated vehicles for ocean exploration, describe the general features of the Jason II robot, obtain data from Jason II missions, and analyze these data.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus: Robotic
Analogues for Human Structures (Distance Estimation) (Life Science/Physical
Science)
(from the Lophelia II 2009 Expedition)
In this activity, students will describe how humans are able to estimate the distance to visible objects, and describe a robotic system with a similar capability.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus: Robotic
Analogues for Human Structures (Physical Science)
(from the Lophelia II 2008
Expedition)
In this activity, students will describe the types of motion found in the human arm, and describe four common robotic arm designs that mimic some or all of these functions.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus:
Deep-sea habitats (Life Science)
(from the Expedition to the Deep Slope
2007)
In this activity, students will be able to describe major features of cold seep communities, list at least five organisms typical of these communities and infer probable trophic relationships within and between major deep-sea habitats. Students will also be able to describe the process of chemosynthesis in general terms, contrast chemosynthesis and photosynthesis, and describe major deep-sea habitats and list at least three organisms typical of each habitat.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus: Methane
hydrate ice worms and hydrate shrimp (Life Science)
(from the Expedition to
the Deep Slope 2007)
In this activity, students will be able to define and describe methane hydrate ice worms and hydrate shrimp, infer how methane hydrate ice worms and hydrate shrimp obtain their food, and infer how methane hydrate ice worms and hydrate shrimp may interact with other species in the biological communities of which they are part.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus:
Symbiotic relationships in cold-seep communities (Life Science)
(from the
2002 Gulf of Mexico Expedition)
In this activity, students will be able to describe the process of chemosynthesis in general terms, contrast chemosynthesis and photosynthesis, describe major features of cold seep communities, and list at least five organisms typical of these communities. Students will also be able to define symbiosis, describe two examples of symbiosis in cold seep communities, describe the anatomy of vestimentiferans, and explain how these organisms obtain their food.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus:
Underwater Robotic Vehicles for Scientific Exploration (Physical Science/Life
Science)
(from the 2005 Lost City Expedition)
In this activity, students will be able to describe and contrast at least three types of underwater robots used for scientific explorations, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using underwater robots in scientific explorations, and identify robotic vehicles best suited to carry out certain tasks.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus: Side
scan sonar (Earth Science/Physical Science)
Students will describe side-scan sonar, compare and contrast side-scan sonar with other methods used to search for underwater objects, and make inferences about the topography of an unknown and invisible landscape based on systematic discontinuous measurements of surface relief.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus:
Biological organisms in cold seep communities (Life Science)
Students will describe major features of cold seep communities, and list at least five organisms typical of these communities. Students will also infer probable trophic relationships among organisms typical of cold-seep communities and the surrounding deep-sea environment, describe the process of chemosynthesis in general terms, and contrast chemosynthesis and photosynthesis.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Sonar
(Physical Science)
Students will explain the concept of sonar, describe the major components of a sonar system, explain how multibeam and sidescan sonar systems are useful to ocean explorers, and simulate sonar operation using a motion detector and a graphing calculator.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Marine
Archaeology/Marine Navigation (Earth Science/Mathematics)
(from AUVfest
2008)
In this activity, students will design an archaeological survey strategy for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV); calculate expected position of the AUV based on speed and direction of travel; and calculate course correction required to compensate for the set and drift of currents.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Underwater Robotic Vehicles (Earth Science)
Students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using underwater robots in scientific explorations, identify key design requirements for a robotic vehicle that is capable of carrying out specific exploration tasks, describe practical approaches to meet identified design requirements, and (optionally) construct a robotic vehicle capable of carrying out an assigned task.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Marine
navigation and position-finding
(from the 2003 Steamship Portland
Expedition)
In this activity students will be able to identify and explain at least seven different techniques that have been used for marine navigation and position finding, explain the purpose of a marine sextant, and use an astrolabe to solve practical trigonometric problems.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Potential role of methane hydrates in global warming (Earth Science)
(from
the Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007 Expedition)
In this activity, students will be able to describe the overall events that occurred during the Cambrian explosion and Paleocene extinction events and will be able to define methane hydrates and hypothesize how these substances could contribute to global warming. Students will also be able to describe and explain evidence to support the hypothesis that methane hydrates contributed to the Cambrian explosion and Paleocene extinction events.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Physics and physiology of SCUBA diving (Physical Science/Life Science)
(from
the Exploring the Submerged New World 2009 Expedition)
In this activity, students will be able to define Henry’s Law, Boyle’s Law, and Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures, and explain their relevance to SCUBA diving; discuss the causes of air embolism, decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, and oxygen toxicity in SCUBA divers; and explain the advantages of gas mixtures such as Nitrox and Trimix and closed-circuit rebreather systems.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Chemosynthetic bacteria and succession in chemosynthetic communities
(Chemistry/Biology)
(from the 2002 Gulf of Mexico Expedition)
In this activity, students will observe the development of chemosynthetic bacterial communities and will recognize that organisms modify their environment in ways that create opportunities for other organisms to thrive. Students will also be able to explain the process of chemosynthesis and the relevance of chemosynthesis to biological communities in the vicinity of cold seeps.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Methane-based chemosynthetic processes (Physical Science)
(from the 2003
Steamship Portland Expedition)
In this activity, students will be able to define the process of chemosynthesis, and contrast this process with photosynthesis. Students will also explain the process of methane-based chemosynthesis and explain the relevance of chemosynthesis to biological communities in the vicinity of cold seeps.
