Advancing Knowledge of Methane in the Arctic

AKMA

The Ocean Senses Activities Book

 

This booklet consists of 16 interdisciplinary lesson plans and ideas that inspire to learn about the ocean and connect to it via their senses. Teachers from kindergarten to high school- are the primary audience, but this is not only for teachers. We hope people of all ages can be inspired. Parents can try some of the ideas out with their children at home. Some ideas could be tried in homes, and local youth groups for older adults. For example, some of the lessons can be used by older pupils as guides for younger pupils at school or science fairs.

All the lesson plans were developed within the AKMA2 Ocean Senses Research expedition  endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade and by the Challenger 150 programme which is a global scientific cooperative developed to respond to the needs of the UN Ocean Decade. The lessons are inspired by an idea to connect the ocean and the ocean floor to students and schools via the “senses”.

Ocean Senses Activities Book cover image 
The Ocean Senses Activities Book in English

The Ocean Senses Activities Book in Chinese

The Ocean Senses Activities Book in Greek (coming soon) 

The Ocean Senses Activities Book in Italian (coming soon)



About


Scientists and researcher working together during the AKMA Ocean Senses Research expedition 2022. 
During the AKMA2 Ocean Senses expedition, different groups of us co-created different lesson plans. These smaller groups comprised people from very different backgrounds. There were teachers, natural scientists, social scientists, humanities scholars, education practitioners, and artists. The diversity within and between these smaller working groups is reflected in the variety of the resulting lesson plans.

Some lesson plans are shorter, inspirational texts, whereas others are much longer and more detailed.The lesson plans are meant as inspiration. It will be up to you, the teacher, to see how you can adapt these ideas to your class and curriculum. You will find lesson plans that inspire pupils to feel and think about the different aspects of the ocean and ocean floor.

Some lesson plans involve artistic activities, whilst others encourage pupils to get outside and experience the world in different ways. Some lesson plans bring the ocean floor to life through smell and sound, whilst others will inspire through activities that involve maps and detective work. The activities can be used as they are for younger children, or they can be used to encourage discussion about more complex issues for older pupils.

Some of the lesson plans have been tested in classrooms in Norway, Italy, and Brazil, but not all of them. If you test out some of them, we would love to hear from you.

This booklet results from the exciting and rewarding interdisciplinary collaboration during the AKMA project. We hope that you will find the lesson plans useful, and we hope they will help to inspire learners of all ages to have a closer relationship to the environments on the ocean floor and far beyond. The vision of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is to develop the “science we need for the ocean we want”. We can all be inspired to protect the natural world for future generations.