Designing Tools for Ocean Exploration

Introduce cradle-to-cradle design thinking. Scholars first discuss the importance of natural laws and rights. They then use a variety of online and print resources to research eco-efficiency and cradle-to-cradle design.

Sure, you may be able to build a better mousetrap, but what about a gum dispenser? In a fun engineering challenge, teams must design and build a working interactive gumball machine with specific constraints and criteria.

What's life like aboard an ocean exploration vessel? Junior oceanographers examine the important role of communication in ocean research in lesson two of a five-part series from NOAA. The materials introduce the class to life on board...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take your class on an underwater adventure. The final installment in a seven-part series involving salt and freshwater bodies takes junior oceanographers below the surface in...

The video clip that comprises the warm up is not available, but the related article from The New York Times and the movie trailer for Aliens of the Deep are, leaving enough material to make this a fascinating lesson on deep-sea...

In this activity, students apply their knowledge of buoyancy and ship stability to design a model ship. They test, evaluate, and refine the design of the model to optimize performance. Background information and other activities are...

Find out what puts the motion in the ocean with a short video about how ocean currents work.  An animated video uses the story of little yellow ducky bathtub toys to show how currents flow through the world's oceans.

Provide your class with the tools they need to design a research project. Groups examine case studies to gain information about the process involved in designing a research project. They use materials provided to brainstorm and develop a...

Green roofs aren't just eco-friendly — they are literally green with trees. Groups learn about the concept of green roofs in order to be able to design one. The groups design a 5,000-square-foot green roof for a fictional apartment row...

As an anticipatory set, young environmental technicians watch a video about how ocean temperatures seem to be changing along with the global climate. They perform a laboratory demonstration with the purpose of observing what happens to...