Dates

Content Topics

Essential Questions/Concepts

Activities/
Assessments

Supplies

January
2 weeks

1 week

Principles of Marine Science

Chemical and physical features of seawater

• What is marine science?
• What is oceanography?
• History of marine biology
• What does modern day marine biology look like?
• How do marine biologist use the scientific method?
• What are the structural features of the ocean floor and how has it changed over time?

• The nature of seawater
• What are the factors that affect ocean circulation?

February
1 week

1 1/2 weeks

1 ½ weeks

Fundamental review of biology as related to the ocean

Microbes in the sea

Plants and seaweeds

• What are cells and how are they organized?
• What are challenges to life in the sea?
• Modes of reproduction in the sea
• Diversity of life in the sea

• Bacteria
• Algae
• Protazoa
• Fungi

• Seaweeds:  type, structure, life cycle, & importance

March
2 weeks

3 weeks

Animals of the sea

• Invertebrates
  
  

• Vertebrates

April
1 week

3 weeks

Structure and function of marine ecosystems

• Organization of communities
• Marine lifestyles
• Flow of energy through the ecosystem

• Life between the tides
• Estuaries
• Life on the continental shelf
• Coral reefs
• Life near the surfaces
• Life in the ocean depths

May
3 weeks

Humans and the sea

• Resources from the sea
• Pollution
• Threatened and endangered species
• Conservation
• Cultures, recreation
• Prospects for the future
• Research