Jacques Cousteau Lesson Plans

Students explore Jacques Cousteau and his inventions. In this oceanography lesson, students read the book Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea. Students are given a piece of paper and write a short passage about the types of creatures that live in the sea.

Students role play that they are on an ocean voyage with Jacques Cousteau as they study plant, and animal species and adaptation. They write a five page journal, create artwork of the expedition.

Students explore and research life of Jacques Cousteau, identify oceans and seas of world, and discuss efforts to conserve and protect valuable and often precarious balance among earth's ecosystems. Students then create posters illustrating characteristic or looming problem about oceans.

Young scholars interpret spoken and written information from a website and other sources in French. They study the work of Jacques Cousteau, the marine ecosystem, and the human actions which affect the environment.

Fourth graders read a National Geographic article about the life and contributions of Jacques Cousteau and then complete a reading tool as a group. They share their answers orally with their classmates.

Students consider the limitations of deep water oceanography and design an underwater habitat to support scientists while they complete long term studies under the ocean. For this engineering lesson, students are introduced to the difficulties encountered in creating a functional underwater habitat.

Students research a historic American.  In this American history lesson, students research one specific member of history in America and complete a paper on him or her. Students will present their information in an "American Idol" style.

Students view examples of songs that have the ocean and its life as their themes. After hearing and reading them, students write their own, having done research on the social and political issues of the ocean's environment.

Students, after listening to a selection of Gulliver's Travels, complete a worksheet about basic terms associated with boats, ships, and sailing. They create flag after researching semaphore flagging systems.

Students examine the economic and ecological benefits of forest canopies. They read and discuss an article, answer questions, conduct research, draw field sketches of a canopy ecosystem, conduct a feasibility study, or prepare tourist information.