The Ocean School toolkit has been created for teachers, particularly middle school grades, to help educators bring the ocean into their classroom and provide students with the knowledge and tools to understand their influence on the ocean and the ocean’s influence on them.
This toolkit was curated by Ocean School and represents a small inventory of fun, innovative, inquiry-based learning experiences that incorporate powerful storytelling techniques, immersive technologies, and interactive media. These resources can be implemented using high tech or low tech approaches. The 360˚ videos and interactives can be viewed using VR headsets, on a projector, or on individual screens and tablets. All media and activities are customizable to fit your purpose and available technology.
Read and use the Ocean Week Canada key messages to help guide your learning journey.
Through stunning original animation and storytelling, you can:
Each piece of media includes customizable activities and guiding questions for the teacher.
Told through animation, “Netukulimk” presents a history of cod as inspired by Mi’kmaw storytelling tradition. Little Fish learns the history of cod through Grandmother’s tales: from creation, through thousands of years of Netukulimk (harmony with nature), to modern industrial devastation. Little Fish continues the oral tradition with a renewed hope for the future… and for the return of Netukulimk.
There are 2 parts to this activity. First, as an inquiry tool, learners participate in a sharing circle to discuss Netukulimk and its connection to Mi’kmaw culture, traditions, and relationship to the environment. Then students participate in building a shelter and planning how to survive by only taking from the land what is needed.
GET STARTEDWhat are the connections between land, sea, and people? Lush temperate rainforests in the mountains, tangled kelp gardens beneath the waves, and a frothing river to connect the two of them together. Discover these environments in 360 degrees!
Students are given a series of photos to build their own tour. They demonstrate what they’ve learned by adding information points or narration to the tour.
GET STARTEDHolly dissects two cod, searching for a deeper understanding of the species. At a traditional fishing shack, Holly fillets a cod for eating. At the Marine Institute in St. John’s, Holly helps conduct a scientific “fish autopsy,” discovering secrets about the cod’s eggs, ears, and more.
Learners will create a CSI case file to showcase what we can learn from dissecting a cod.
GET STARTEDSharpen your virtual knives! During this interactive experience, students will dissect a cod, discovering its deeper anatomy and the secrets of its health.
Students are given a data set from a cod dissection and are led through a variety of data analysis tasks which explore the relationship between a fish’s health, reproduction, and sustainability.
GET STARTEDStudents will navigate their way through a series of pictures and animated texts, discovering the incredible life-cycle of the salmon. This cycle includes moving from their freshwater beginnings, to their mature lives in the greater ocean, then all the way back upstream to the same rivers of their birth, where they come to spawn and die.
Students choose a stage of the salmon life cycle and create a short animated video to show some of the threats that salmon face. A few animations are provided to help with this creative process.
GET STARTEDFollow ocean scientist, Dr. Boris Worm, beneath the waves, and float inside a beautiful kelp forest. No matter where you turn your head, you’ll be surrounded by cool blue water and lush, undulating algae.
Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for a bobbing pod of seals!
Mindfulness activity:
Students participate in a breathing activity and write about their experience in a reflective journal.
Ocean School aims to support learners in applying their knowledge to make change, one small step at a time. Through taking action, students develop a sense of empowerment and confidence in their ability to influence change.
Activity:
The planner enables students to identify a problem and take a stand for the ocean by describing 1) goals for change, 2) what activities are required, and 3) what resources are needed to make the plan a success.
Share your Take Action plans and creations with us @oceanschoolnow.
Follow ocean scientist, Dr. Boris Worm, beneath the waves, and float inside a beautiful kelp forest. No matter where you turn your head, you’ll be surrounded by cool blue water and lush, undulating algae.
Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for a bobbing pod of seals!
Mindfulness activity:
Students participate in a breathing activity and write about their experience in a reflective journal.
Ocean School aims to support learners in applying their knowledge to make change, one small step at a time. Through taking action, students develop a sense of empowerment and confidence in their ability to influence change.
Activity:
The planner enables students to identify a problem and take a stand for the ocean by describing 1) goals for change, 2) what activities are required, and 3) what resources are needed to make the plan a success.
Share your Take Action plans and creations with us @oceanschoolnow.
