EXPLORING OCEAN FRONTIERS EDUCATOR RESOURCES – NOW AVAILABLE
We are pleased to announce the release of Exploring Ocean Frontiers Educator Resources, a suite of secondary and post-secondary educator resources for middle, high school and university levels that accompany our 4-part Ocean Frontiers film series. The materials build on real-world science and delve into ocean planning and stewardship, collaborative science, marine biodiversity, ocean data portals and stakeholder engagement. Download these complimentary resources here!
The secondary lessons and post-secondary discussion guides engage students in an inquiry-based educational journey in ocean stewardship. The lessons feature inspiring film clips, research data, local knowledge, place-based stories, role-playing and more — providing educators Next Generation Science Standards-linked tools to incorporate ocean management and conservation perspectives in to a variety of classroom settings.
We worked with a skilled and creative team of educators to develop this tremendous set of resources, providing tools that teachers and professors can use to convey the important messages of collaboration, conservation and stewardship to our next generation of ocean leaders.
Each Ocean Frontiers film now has an accompanying four-lesson set for secondary classrooms. For each lesson, teachers will find essential questions, required materials, learning objectives, step-by-step instructions for suggested activities, extensions and additional resources, as well as learning materials (handouts, worksheets, etc.) to complete the lessons. A background information section is included for each lesson, highlighting additional content for educators.
For the post-secondary discussion guides – one for each film – we partnered with the National Sea Grant Law Center to help college and university educators incorporate the films into their classrooms and facilitate discussions on collaborative ocean planning and the future of our oceans. Each post-secondary guide includes a film overview, discussion questions and recommended resources for further research. Secondary teachers can also use these guides and adapt them for their learning environment.
These resources are available for download from the Ocean Frontiers website. We provide the materials free of charge, as we believe that teaching students about current marine policy decisions and the science-based, solutions-oriented approach of ocean planning is vital for them to become informed ocean stewards.
In addition to these new Ocean Frontiers resources, our Exploring the Great Bear Sea Curriculum Resources are also available for download at no cost. This suite of classroom-based film and print materials was developed in 2016 and focuses on themes of Indigenous Knowledge, collaborative science and sustainable marine planning that are in use by 600+ teachers in British Columbia and beyond.
“Now more than ever we owe it to our students to make sure they see what a difference working together and sharing solutions from around the globe makes for people from all walks of life, from all over the world, like the people introduced in the Ocean Frontiers film series.”
Kimberly Williams, Marine Science Teacher
Smithtown High School, Smithtown, NY
HELP SPREAD THE WORD!
The distribution of these free materials is a grassroots effort and we encourage you to share our new resources with the educators in your life. Ways you can help get the word out are to:
- Forward this newsletter to teachers you know
- Share a post on social media – Facebook | Twitter
- Email us your favorite educator resources websites so we can post our materials there
CURRICULUM DEBUTS AT THE NATIONAL MARINE EDUCATORS CONFERENCE
This summer we hosted a presentation and panel discussion at the National Marine Educators Association Conference in Long Beach, California, where we showcased the Exploring Ocean Frontiers Educator Resources that were in development. Our panelists included Smithtown, New York marine science high school teacher Kimberly Williams, University of Connecticut professor Dr. Syma Ebbin, and Pete Stauffer, Environmental Director at Surfrider Foundation.
In our session, we showed film clips, explored the resources, discussed ocean planning and led the participants in a fun mapping activity from the lessons. The teachers responded enthusiastically, letting us know how impressed they were with the caliber of the materials and the rich combination of film clips, data and engaging activities to help make science and policy more relevant to their students.
OCEAN FRONTIERS DVDS: AVAILABLE UNTIL DECEMBER 1ST ONLY
All of the Ocean Frontiers films can be viewed on the website and on our YouTube channel. As online streaming and downloads have become the standard formats for delivering video, we are phasing out DVD distribution of the Ocean Frontiers films. Until December 1, 2018, DVDs will continue to be available at no cost on the Ocean Frontiers website. If you prefer to have DVDs, order them now! After December 1st, video downloads will be the only way to receive a copy of the films.
Thanks for all you do!
Karen Anspacher-Meyer
Green Fire Productions
Whale photo in header: Florian Graner
