TOOLKITS

Ocean School Toolkit

Introduction

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.

Learning Objectives

Through stunning original animation and storytelling, you can:

explore relationships between the land and sea with virtual reality
dissect a virtual cod
learn about the history of cod through the eyes of an Indigenous artist
follow salmon throughout their life cycle

Each piece of media includes customizable activities and guiding questions for the teacher.

Learning Activities

Netukulimk

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.

Activity:

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.

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Land and Sea 360°

What 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!

Photo Tour Activity:

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.

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Atlantic Cod: Cod Stock Investigation (CSI)

Holly 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.

Activity Challenge:

Learners will create a CSI case file to showcase what we can learn from dissecting a cod.

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Atlantic Cod: Anatomy of a Cod

Sharpen your virtual knives! During this interactive experience, students will dissect a cod, discovering its deeper anatomy and the secrets of its health.

Activity:

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.

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Salmon Survival

Students 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.

Video mash-up:

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.

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Connect & Share

Moments of Mindfulness 360˚

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.

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Take Action for Ocean Conservation!

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.

Photo credit: Ocean School

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Moments of Mindfulness 360˚

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.

Take Action for Ocean Conservation!

Activity:

Share your Take Action plans and creations with us @oceanschoolnow.

Photo credit: Ocean School

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Loop back into other Ocean Week Canada activities

FIND AN EVENT

EXPLORE THE MAP

TAKE ACTION

FIND AN EVENT

EXPLORE THE MAP

TAKE ACTION