Activities Grades 5-8

Classroom Activities Grades 5-8: (in alphabetical order) Note: Activites are in Adobe PDF format. Looking for our Activities of the Month? Click here.

A “Bit” of Engineering Activity of the Month: June 2009 Grades 5-12 Student teams test three different drilling tools on a variety of ocean bottom substrates to discover which type of drill allows them to retrieve the most intact core for study

A Rocky Timescale I Grades 5-12 Students use articles describing climate change research done by the Ocean Drilling Program to summarize how cores can help us learn about the past climate.

A Tale of Two Teeth: A Hands-On Discussion about Climate Change Grades 5-8 Using real fossils or plastic models of shark teeth and mammoth teeth, teachers use a story line and the Socratic question-and-answer method to discuss climate change as revealed by changing sea level resulting from glacial and interglacial periods.

An Expedition to the Seafloor Grades 5-12 Students will be able to: Use Google Earth to evaluate real data collected from the Deep Sea Drilling Project to discover evidence of seafloor spreading. Use the data you collect to create a graph showing the relationship between distance from the spreading center and age of the sediments (Distance vs. Age). Explain a historical perspective of science research.

Blast from the Past Grades 5-12 Using the Blast from the Past poster, students create their own miniature crater and examine the resulting impact; compare the size of the Chicxulub crater to the size of their own communities; and study a model of the oceanic core retrieved from Leg 171B.

Changes Over Time – Microfossils in Blake’s Nose Grades 5-12 This activity allows students to access online data and generate graphs that illustrate distribution changes in marine microfossils preserved in ocean sediment cores.

Citizen Scientists and Decision Making – A Case Study IODP Expedition 312 What Lies Beneath the Upper Crust? Grades 5-12 Students will be able to: Determine whether or not information about science is reliable. Describe the kinds of questions they should ask to discover the accuracy of science news articles.

Exploring Ocean Science Careers Activity of the Month: October, 2008 Grades 5-12 Students explore the Deep Earth Academy’s Career Mosaic and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) OceanAge Careers web pages to learn about the diversity of careers necessary to conduct research on a scientific drilling ship or other ocean vessel.

Get Onboard the JR Using the JOIDES Resolution Website Grades 5-12 Students explore the adventures of current scientific ocean drilling research taking place onboard the JOIDES Resolution (JR) using the variety of resources available on the ship’s website.

HardCORE Writing – Leg 171 Pencil Grades 5-12 Get background information about cores and the particular core depicted on our Leg 171 pencil, which was recovered by the Ocean Drilling Program and records the cataclysmic event that changed life on Earth 65 million years ago.

It’s Sedimentary, My Dear Watson Activity of the Month: September 2008 Grades 5-8 In this introductory activity, students analyze core sample data and use Google Earth to make their own qualitative observations that help them determine of the types of sediments that make up the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Legacy of Scientific Ocean Drilling Poster Activities Activity of the Month: February 2009 Grades 5-8 In this activity, students use the ship mosaic on the Legacy of Scientific Ocean Drilling poster in a variety of ways to learn about scientific ocean drilling and to practice science and math skills.

Measure for Measure Activity of the Month: November 2008 Grades 5-8 Students compare the size of the JOIDES Resolution to their classroom and use ratios and fractions to draw a scale model of the ship.

Modeling Plate Tectonics Activity of the Month: June 2008 Grades 5-8 In this activity, students will use actual data from historic oceanographic cruises to examine sea floor spreading. They will also model sea floor spreading at a spreading center such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Mohawk Guy and his Band of Neogene Planktic Foraminifer Friends Grades 5-12 Students Bio Cards with authentic fossil data from forams to unlock ancient history stored within sediment cores from the western equatorial Pacific.

Nannofossils Reveal Seafloor Spreading Truth Grades 5-8 Students interpret data from an early leg of the scientific ocean drilling program to determine how scientists solidified their understanding of seafloor spreading.

Secrets of the Sediments Grades 5-12 During this activity, students will graph and analyze data from sediments collected off the coast of Santa Barbara, California to determine whether this information can be used to study historical climate change.

Sediment Deposition Supports Seafloor Spreading Grades 5-12 Students will be able to: Evaluate sonar and core data collected by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) that support seafloor spreading. Use the data to create a graph showing the relationship between distance from the spreading center, depth to the ocean floor, and thickness of the sediments. Explain a historical perspective of science research.

Sedimentation Rates on Shatsky Rise Activity of the Month: December 2007 Grades 5-8 Students use Shatsky Rise core data to calculate sediment rates at different sites on the ocean floor to explore a real-life application of rate calculation and see what really counts as “fast” in geologic time.

Tagging a Microbe Grades 7-12 In this activity, students use Lego blocks to learn one method microbiologists use, called Fluorescence In-Situ Hybridization (FISH), to “tag,” identify, and study microbial diversity found deep below the sea floor. Students use the Lego pieces to build genetic strands of different bacteria and the probes that will tag them. This activity can be used with very little student background knowledge if pre-activity explanation is simple and vocabulary is kept to a minimum. It can also be used concurrently or after material on RNA base paring is taught.

Tracking the JOIDES Resolution Around the Globe *Activity of the Month: March 2009* Grades K-4 \| Grades 5-12 Students use the JR website and a beach ball globes to track the JR, locate important drill sites, and learn more about the current crew. We are currently out of stock on our own globes, but watch this space to know when we get more!

What You See is What You Get Grades K-4 \| Grades 5-12 Students will be able to practice simple visual and geological observation through activities using core photos available through the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program web site.

Where in the World? *Activity of the Month: March 2008* Grades 4-8 In this introductory activity on scientific ocean drilling sites, students expand their knowledge of latitude and longitude in relation to global position. Students record and utilize metadata to find additional information.