Ocean Waves and Tides

Surf's up, big kahunas! How do surfers know when the big waves will appear? They use science! Over the course of five days, dive in to the inner workings of tidal waves and learn to predict sea levels with the moon as your guide.

Students examine the topics of ocean waves, currents, and tides. They locate and label ocean currents on a world map, conduct experiments, analyze key vocabulary, view demonstrations and record the data, and complete handouts.

Imagine an ecosystem without any light or oxygen, where living things convert carbon dioxide into food. This ecosystem is thriving and might just be the largest ecosystem on our planet, yet we know very little about it. The instructional...

Go on a tour of the ocean through the lens of a scientist. Learners read maps of the ocean floor, study tide behavior, examine wave motion, and analyze components of soil. Each lesson incorporates a hands-on component.

Your introductory lesson to oceanography can be outlined with this apropos presentation. It touches on the physical features of the ocean floor, waves, tides, and currents. One small issue is that some of the graphics are not of the...

Except for a few blurry photos that you can leave out, this is a succinct, yet purposeful presentation. It explains what causes ocean waves, the parts of a wave, and how they break against a shore. It details the cause of tides and...

This is not revolutionary, but it is informative. Earth science viewers in grades 7-12 get carried away with wave and wind erosion. They view diagrams of how waves impact ocean shorelines. They see examples of the different types of sand...

What drives the ocean's motion? Get your class moving toward understanding by using this video. Viewers find that thermohaline circulation is caused by the concentration gradients of temperature and salinity. Using adorable animation in...

Sixth graders experiment to understand the ocean's currents.  In this ocean current lesson, 6th graders complete an experiment with two bottles of water and an index card to discover information about the ocean current.  Students...

Young scholars identify the different factors affecting the size and shape of ocean waves. In this math lesson, students calculate wave speed and wavelength given a mathematical formula.