M.A.R.E. Ocean Immersion

Coastline, bays, tidepools, and wetlands surround students at Good Shepherd Lutheran School. Our faculty understands that children learn best when they are connected to the things they already know. At GSLS science is part of the child’s world. Children learn about their environment by exploring it, by conducting laboratory experiments in the classroom, going out into the field, and by reading and writing about their experiences.

The K-8 MARE curriculum focuses each grade on a different aquatic habitat. Primary grades focus on near shore, more familiar habitats (pond, rocky seashore, sandy beach, and wetlands). As students progress to their upper elementary years, they explore offshore marine habitats that are more conceptually abstract (kelp forest, and open ocean). Finally, middle school students explore islands, coral reefs and the polar seas.
The curriculum addresses standards in Earth, physical and life science, as well as inquiry ("investigation and experimentation" in California); language arts, environmental issues, art, and music. As students progress through the years, they build upon concepts and processes learned in previous years. Classroom assessments within the curriculum activities allow teachers to evaluate student performance.

PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN

The Ponds Curriculum explores the concepts of habitats, water as a home, properties of water, adaptations, and food chains/interrelationships. The MARE Preschool and Kindergarten curriculum includes themes of animal homes and animal adaptations. Just like tidepools, pond life is living "on the edge." Ponds are pockets of water bounded by land. Lots of pond dwellers spend their time entirely in the water, but quite a diversity of life can be found along the boundaries between water and air and water and land. Each living thing — fish, snail, lily pad, frog, water strider, or turtle — is interconnected and makes a unique living in this freshwater habitat.

1st GRADE

First grade’s focus is on scientific exploration of the rocky shore. Utilizing the natural resources of the local tide pools as well as the incredible resources available to us in the classroom science lab, we engage in learning opportunities that require us to think, act and report like real marine scientists. We record our observations. We use the data to increase our understanding of marine animals, the rocky shore, and how we can help ensure that it remains a beautiful part of our local coastline community.

The First Grade MARE curriculum explores what a habitat is, how animals and plants use adaptations to live in extreme environments, and some of the different forms of rocks that make a seashore. Students study live crayfish and become familiar with common rocky seashore life.

Environments don't get much more extreme than the Rocky Seashore. Imagine a world pounded by thousands of crashing waves each day. Competition for a place to live is fierce between the daily coming and going of the tides. Yet life not only survives... it thrives!

2nd GRADE

Second graders learn about the sandy beach community. They study about the animal and plant life found in the sandy beach environment and the effect of the tides on our beaches. The 2nd grade MARE curriculum includes themes of the rock cycle and invertebrates.

It takes some detective work to "read" a sandy beach. Evidence of life is everywhere, but the actual life may be hard to find. Footprints, feathers, seaweed, shells, garbage, and oil may tell a story of who has visited a sandy beach. Even the shifting sands tell a story of formation, erosion and seasonal cycles of this coastal ecosystem.

3rd GRADE

With the study of Wetlands as its theme, the third grade marine science curriculum includes themes of organism diversity, habitat edges, and animal adaptations. Coastal wetlands — bays, estuaries, salt marshes, and lagoons — are special places where freshwater meets the salty ocean. There are many different ways to think of wetlands: as ocean nurseries, storm sponges, water filters, and rest stops for birds. But it's also true that wetlands are sensitive and rapidly vanishing coastal ecosystems.

Special attention is given to wetlands as a critical habitat which houses an enormous diversity of plant and animal life.

4th GRADE

The Fourth Grade MARE curriculum includes themes of Light and Color Underwater, Fish Adaptations, Sea Otters, Seaweed, and Human Uses of Seaweed.

Gazing from shore at the gently swaying surface of a kelp forest canopy, it's difficult to imagine the activity below. But from holdfast to blade this algal forest is home to bizarre invertebrates and fish of every imaginable color, size, and form. It's also the unique home of the endangered, yet recovering, sea otter.

Students learn about light refraction through water, and experiment with color, light, and rainbows. They search for camouflaged fish during a "scuba diving" experience while wearing blue cellophane goggles to simulate underwater light conditions.

5th GRADE

he Fifth Grade MARE curriculum includes themes of global interconnectedness of the oceans and the productivity that supports large animals of the seas.

Far from shore, where the ocean horizon touches the sky is the vast region called open ocean. Equally home to microscopic plankton and titanic whales, this single, global ocean covers almost three quarters of Earth's surface. Never still, winds and ocean currents move food, nutrients, animals, algae, ships, garbage... anything. Movement of ocean water also creates pockets of amazing productivity that can be depleted from over-fishing.

Students work in pairs, using an apple and a circle graph to represent the planet. They carefully section the apple and the graph into wedges representing various critical resources on the planet.

Cooperative student groups examine the relationship between temperature, salinity, and density as rotate through three different activities and experiments set up as stations.

6th GRADE

The 6th grade MARE curriculum includes themes of sharks, geology, adaptation, and resource management.

Isolated from the mainland, islands can be considered living laboratories for evolution. Competition for limited resources can result in unique (and often endangered) species. Islands can also be resting and breeding places for birds and pinnipeds.

PARENT PARTNERS

The MARE Program is a school-wide celebration of our marine environment. Students, teachers, administrators and parents work together to transform an entire school into a laboratory for the discovery and exploration of the ocean. To compliment and extend learning beyond the classroom, the MARE curriculum has a broad selection of home-based, Parent Partner activities.

Your students will bring home their overflowing enthusiasm and new-found interest in the ocean and the creatures that live there. Parents can share their skills and resources both at home and at school to help students extend and apply the knowledge they gain throughout the program.