Below, you will find lessons relevant to the Lost French Fleet expedition. These standards-based lessons include focus questions, background information for teachers, links to interesting Internet sites, and more.
Grade Level: Grades 7-8
Focus: Gas Laws (Physical Science - From the 2007: Exploring the Inner Space of the Celebes Sea Expedition).
Students will be able to define the basic principles state in Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law, Gay-Lussac’s Law, Henry’s Law, and Dalton’s Law and will be able to explain the application of each of these laws to observations or events related to SCUBA diving.
Grade Level: Grades 9-12
Focus: Sonar (Physical Science - From the Cradle of the Earthquake: Exploring the Underwater San Andreas Fault 2010 Expedition and adapted from the Lophelia II 2009 Deepwater Coral Expedition: Reefs, Rigs and Wrecks).
Students will be able to explain the concept of sonar; describe the major components of a sonar system; explain how multibeam and side-scan sonar systems are useful to ocean explorers; and simulate sonar operation using a motion detector and a graphing calculator.
Grade Level: Grades 9-12
Focus: Focus: Physics and physiology of SCUBA diving (Chemistry/Physics/Biology - From the 2007 Cayman Island Twilight Zone Expedition).
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.
