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 Thunder Bay 2010: Cutting Edge Tech & the Hunt for Lake Huron’s Lost Ships 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 Thunder Bay 2010: Cutting Edge Tech & the Hunt for Lake Huron’s Lost Ships 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: Marine
Archaeology
Students draw inferences about a shipwreck given information on the location and characteristics of artifacts from the wreck, and explain at least three types of evidence that could support inferences about the use of maritime technology in ancient cultures.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus: Energy
conversions (Physical Science)
Students learn the basic operation of a steam engine and identify and describe the energy conversions involved in the operation of a steam engine.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus: Marine
Archaeology (Earth Science/Physical Science/Social Science)
Students draw inferences about a shipwreck given information on the location and characteristics of artifacts from the wreck; use a grid system to document the location of artifacts recovered from a model shipwreck site; and identify and explain types of evidence and expertise that can help verify the nature and historical content of artifacts recovered from shipwrecks.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus: Energy
conversions and simple machines (Physical Science)
Students will explain the basic operation of a steam engine, identify and describe the energy conversions involved in the operation of a steam engine, and identify at least three simple machines in a steam engine and explain their functions.
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
Archaeology (Earth Science/Mathematics)
Students plot the position of a vessel given two bearings on appropriate landmarks, draw inferences about a shipwreck given information on the location and characteristics of artifacts from the wreck, and explain how the debris field associated with a shipwreck gives clues about the circumstances of the sinking ship.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Early
humans in the Great Lakes region (Anthropology/Earth Science)
Students describe alternative theories for how the first humans came to the Americas and explain the evidence that supports or contradicts these theories, explain how exploration of a submerged portion of the Lake Huron coastline may provide additional insights about early human inhabitants of the Great Lakes region, and describe the role of skepticism in scientific inquiry
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Cold
seep communities on Hydrate Ridge (Life Science)
Students will define methane hydrates, explain how they are formed, describe biological communities associated with Hydrate Ridge, and discuss some of the adaptations found among organisms that inhabit these communities.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus: Marine
Archaeology (Physical Science)
(from the Aegean and Black Sea 2006
Expedition)
In this activity, students create a model of a Bronze Age shipwreck site, use a grid system to document the location of artifacts recovered from a model shipwreck site, use data about the location and types of artifacts recovered from a model shipwreck site to draw inferences about the sunken ship and the people who were aboard, and identify and explain types of evidence and expertise that can help verify the nature and historical context of artifacts recovered from shipwrecks.
Grade Level: 5-6
Focus:
Maritime History/Physical Science/Social Science
(from AUVfest 2008)
In this activity, students will be able to describe general characteristics and technologies used in 18th century naval ships; draw inferences about daily life aboard these ships; and explain at least three ways in which simple machines were used on these vessels.
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)
(from the Aegean and Black Sea
2006 Expedition)
In this activity, 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: Ancient
and Prehistoric Shipwrecks
(from the PHAEDRA 2006 Expedition)
In this activity, students will be able to describe at least three types of artifacts that are typically recovered from ancient shipwrecks, explain the types of information that may be obtained from at least three types of artifacts that are typically recovered from ancient shipwrecks, and compare and contrast, in general terms, technological features of Neolithic, Bronze Age, Hellenistic, and Byzantine period ships.
Grade Level: 7-8
Focus:
Underwater Archaeology of Sinkholes (Physical Science/Archaeology)
(from the
Exploring the Submerged New World 2009 expedition)
In this activity, students will be able to explain how sinkholes are formed, why they may be associated with paleoamerican settlements, and how artifacts retrieved from sinkholes may be interpreted.
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: 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:
Watercraft in Paleoamerican Migrations
(from the Exploring the Submerged New
World 2009 Expedition)
In this activity, students will describe evidence that supports the idea that the initial settlement of North and South America involved watercraft, discuss types of watercraft that might have been involved in new world settlement, and explain at least three advantages and three disadvantages of coastal settlements compared to inland settlements.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles/Marine Navigation
(from the INSPIRE: Chile
Margin 2010 expedition)
Students will explain a three-phase strategy that uses an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to locate, map, and photograph previously-undiscovered hydrothermal vents, design a survey program to provide a photo mosaic of a hypothetical hydrothermal vent field, and calculate the expected position of the AUV based on speed and direction of travel.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus:
Extreme Storms (Earth Science)
(from the 2003 Steamship Portland
Expedition)
In this activity, students identify and explain three factors that contributed to extreme storm conditions during the Halloween Nor’easter of 1991, discover how to obtain real-time and historical meteorological data, and compare and contrast extra-tropical cyclones, tropical cyclones, and hybrid storms.
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.
