OCEAN AWARENESS WEEK

Ocean Awareness Week is a one week educational program directed towards teaching the youth about ocean conservation. The participants in this program will include children and teens from grades K-12. Activities and topics of conversation will be based upon the maturity levels, grade, and cognitive development of the participants. At the end of the week, the participants will be able to apply knowledge gained from activities, presentations, and field trips on the following topics: recycling, ocean advocacy, oceanic marine life, and oceanic ecosystems into their everyday lives. Schools will be able to obtain an ocean/environmentally friendly school certificate and work towards the title of becoming a nationally accredited “B.L.U.E” Certified school signifying their focus on limiting waste and recycling. The children will also be given an ocean awareness ribbon upon completion of the program.

Program Goals

Our program goals are to teach students about the importance of protecting our oceans and teaching them tools to do so.

Ocean Awareness Week is centered on the following:


Environment:
 Creating a safe and supportive learning environment for students.
Planning:
 Planning, engaging and providing learning experiences for student and teacher satisfaction.
Excellent Learning Experiences:
 Providing meaningful learning experiences that enhance student learning capabilities.
Feedback:
 Using assessments to show the student how they can apply what they have learned.
Collaboration:
 Collaborating with Faculty to support the education of the students.
Learning Tools:
 Working with a variety of resources to maximize the education the students receive.
Professionalism:
 Maintaining professionalism throughout the program to support student development.

Grades K­2

• Healthy beaches
• Our give and take relationship with the Sea
• “Make your own waves” Art Project
• Dive into the Ocean
• Superheroes of the Ocean

Grades 3­-5

• Earths Water Cycle
• Bioluminescence
• The importance of sharks in an ecosystem
• Blue whale “size me up”
• The history of people and whales

Grades 6-­8

• Animal adaptations and Ocean habitats
• The Mariana Trench
• How to reduce plastic waste
• Commercial Fishing
• Ecosystem imbalance

Grades 9­-12

• Annual decrease in shark populations
• Methylmercury and bioaccumulation
• The Ross Sea
• Hypoxic Zones
• Human impact on marine species

Please contact Tiffany at Tiffany@trato.org for information on how to get Ocean Awareness Week implemented into your school.