Suggestions for:

• pre-field trip activities
• post-field trip activities

Suggestions for pre-field trip activities:

Assist students in activating and gaining prior knowledge of marine organisms:

• View the Marine Discovery Slide Show and Slide Show Overview (available from link in right sidebar)
  • Discuss marine organisms, share experiences, and peruse ToL pages on organisms in the show.
• Assign students web research on marine organisms
  • Students can do further research on the organisms shown in the Marine Discovery slide show. Each student, or small groups of students can become and "expert biologists" and briefly present information to the class. You can also extend the activity into a more involved oral report where students must display a poster or model. See below for a list of questions to guide the research, and refer to the Slide Show Overview for a list of organisms and links to ToL pages.
• View movies of students in the Marine Discovery lab (available from link in right sidebar).
  • Use the video of students in the lab to review what makes a good scientist. A scientist:
    • has a lot of curiosity
    • asks questions and offers opinions
    • has good listening skills
    • cooperates
    • is an astute observer
    • balances open mindedness with skepticism
    • provides information to back up his or her ideas
  • Review some of the questions and big ideas students will be learning about. If you would like, go over the questions and big ideas in each section (print a PDF file of Questions and Big Ideas).
  • Have students create individual KWL (what we know, what we want to know and what we learned) charts, then create a classroom KWL chart reflecting the collective knowledge and questions of the class.

Suggestions for after you go on the field trip:

Assist students in reviewing and evaluating their knowledge and ideas:

• Revisit the Marine Discovery slide show (available from link in right sidebar).
  • Ask students if they learned about or saw any of the organisms in the slide show during the field trip. Discuss what students learned, as well as questions that they have. Refer to the questions and big ideas of from each lab station (print a PDF file of Questions and Big Ideas or view on the Marine Discovery lab page). Ask students if they can answer any of their questions by reviewing the slide show information and visiting ToL pages on organisms in the show.
  • Challenge students to a "name that organism" game. Break the class into two teams. View the slide show as a class but hide the organism information below each image. Have teams compete to see who can name the most organisms. You can add to the difficulty by asking teams to only use scientific names or to also state facts about the organism. (You may play this game as "Jeopardy" as well, where students must phrase their answers as a question).
• Assign students web research on marine organisms
  • Students can do further research on the organisms shown in the Marine Discovery slide show. Each student, or small groups of students can become and "expert biologists" and briefly present information to the class. You can also extend the activity into a more involved oral report where students must display a poster or model. See below for a list of questions to guide the research, and refer to the Slide Show Overview for a list of organisms and links to ToL pages.
• View movies of students in the Marine Discovery lab
  (available from link in right sidebar).
  • Let students discuss in small groups what they learned and fill out their KWL charts. Let students refer to the questions and big ideas (print a PDF file of Questions and Big Ideas or view on the Marine Discovery lab page). Use the questions and big ideas for each lab station to guide discussion and complete the class KWL chart. This is a good moment to ask students to come up with additional questions that they might want to explore further.
• Create a treehouse
  • Students are welcome to create a treehouse about a marine organism. They can create treehouse investigations, poems, art and culture pieces, games or teacher resources. See Building Activities and Web research on marine organisms below.

Web research on marine organisms

Students can do further research on the organisms shown in the Marine Discovery slide show. Each student, or small groups of students can become and "expert biologists" and briefly present information to the class. You can also extend the activity into a more involved oral report where students must display a poster or model. Refer to the Slide Show Overview for a list of organisms and links to ToL pages.

Questions to guide research:

• Where are they found?
• What do they eat?
• How are they specifically adapted to their environment?
• How does form work with function in this organism?
• Who are their predators?
• Who are their prey?
• Find two interesting or unusual facts (what makes this organism unique?).
• Tell us what you like about this organism.

Learning Information

• ToL Learner Level:
  • Beginner; Intermediate; Advanced
• Target Grade/Age Level:
  • All Grade/Age levels.
• Additional Treehouse Type:
  • Fun and Games;
  • Investigation