Integrate Projects | Water, Water Everywhere

Water, Water Everywhere

Jeanne Munoz
Curriculum Integration Specialist

This 8-week unit for middle grades meets state standards for science, social studies, language arts, math, and technology and requires 40-60 minutes a day. Standards, teacher-led activities, student-centered activities, resources, and sample student files included.

Students participate in an Internet scavenger hunt to collect background information about the ocean and various aspects of its value. They conduct research and create Venn diagrams comparing two of the major oceans, make flour and water models of the ocean floor, and practice latitude and longitude to locate places on the globe.

After a demonstration of the water cycle created by the teacher, students create diagrams to illustrate the ocean's contribution to the cycle. They label currents and winds that influence weather and brainstorm weather conditions caused by the ocean and its currents.

Students locate cities in a Pacific coast state and analyze the average temperature ranges by entering them on a spreadsheet and applying formulas to calculate the range. Next, they will do the same with cities from an Atlantic coast state. Finally, students contact the State Climate Office by email to gather data about cities in a Gulf coast state to see if the range in these temperatures supports the pattern. All data is entered in a spreadsheet and compared. Students should conclude that the ocean impacts temperatures by limiting the range of cold/warm weather.

Other activities include performing salinity experiments, researching marine animals, reflecting on the ocean's impact on human beings and vice versa, creating presentations, and writing essays.

Note: If you are using Netscape on a Macintosh, you will not be able to open the student activities that use MS Excel. Please use Internet Explorer to open these files.

Lesson Plan (MS Word)

Student Activities
Ocean data collection (MS Excel)
Ocean essay (MS Word)
Fact or Fiction presentation (MS PowerPoint)