Teacher's Guide: Before the Mission

How to Participate

• Overview
• Webcast schedule
• About Aquarius
• Technical requirements

Teacher's Guide

• Overview
• Student field guide
• Before the mission
• During the mission
• After the mission

More science under the sea

• Marine science on the web

Science Under the Sea is produced by a consortium of organizations including the University of North Carolina and EarthEcho International. Credits

Pre-Assessment Quiz

Students take this quiz at the beginning and end of the unit to measure growth.

• Pre/post assessment quiz (PDF)

Introductory Vocabulary Matching Activity

Before the activity, print the Vocabulary Puzzle on cardstock and cut out each puzzle piece.

To begin the activity, hand each student a puzzle piece or two depending on class size. Some students will have vocabulary words and others will have definitions. Students should circulate the room until they find the puzzle piece that matches the term and definition together. These puzzle pieces should stay together laid out on desks around the room. Students will then rotate around the room with their field guide and complete the Marine Ecology Glossary (page 2 of the Student Field Guide) by writing a definition for each term.

See the answer key for a complete list of terms with their definitions.

Materials

Middle/high school

• Vocabulary Puzzle (PDF)
• Marine Ecology Glossary Answer Key (PDF)

Elementary school

• Vocabulary Puzzle (PDF)
• Marine Ecology Glossary Answer Key (PDF)

Vocabulary Extension

After the students have worked with the vocabulary and generated their personal glossary, put students in groups of two to four to organize the marine ecology vocabulary into categories. The students can present their categories to the class. See the Marine Ecology Vocabulary Categories for an example of how terms may be grouped.

Materials

• Marine Ecology Vocabulary Categories (PDF)

Predator/Prey Matching Activity

This activity is a twist to the one above. Instead of students matching words with definitions, they will match coral reef prey with their predators. Print and cut out the Predator Prey Puzzle on card stock. This game could be done with younger students as an alternative to the vocabulary activity. It could also be done in addition to the vocabulary activity but may work better as a "During Aquarius" activity during videoconferencing wait times. As a follow up, discuss the importance of each component of the food web. What happens to the ecosystem when one part of the food web is missing?

Materials

• Predator Prey Puzzle (PDF)