Marine Biology Unit Study

Tidal pools teeming with life...more starfish and sea stars than we could count, beautiful purple and yellow razor clams and even the occasional crab and jelly! With quick and dramatic tidal changes, the coolest life is found on the seaward side of the rocks where the retreating waves create depressions in the sand that stay full of sea water and support the mini ecosystems there... (description of a tidal pool)
After completing The Good & the Beautiful Marine Biology science unit, the boys set off for a little further exploration.  This involved extra readings, hands-on projects, and videos.  Naturally, all good explorers need costumes!

The boys created a food chain for both land and sea.  I particularly liked the double-arrow, where the humans eat the sharks...and the sharks eat the humans.

Marine Life Resources

Read

• Bob and Shirley : A Lobster Story
• Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep
• First Encyclopedia of Seas & Oceans
• The Wild Whale Watch
• Dolphins at Daybreak & unit study
• Dark Day in the Deep Sea & unit study
• Pagoo & Pagoo unit study
• Night of the Moonjellies & unit study
• The Great Shark Escape & unit study
• Magic School Bus - Food Chain Frenzy & lapbook
• Overfishing info - older kids
• Seabird
• Ocean Animals book - emergent
• Shipwreck

Study

• Complete Marine Biology course
• Marine Biology Study Chart

Watch

• Nim's Island DVD
• Full Marine Biology playlist (subscribe to our channel for more playlists!)

Make / Do

• Marine Biology Coloring Book
• Hands-On Science Kit (pictured aside)
• Shark unit study 
• Sea Turtles unit study 
• Draw 50 Sharks, Whales, and Other Sea Creatures
• Recycled Jar Lid Fish craft
• Recycled Sea Life Creatures craft
• Ocean Mazes
• Notebooking pages
• Sea Stars pages
• Ocean Diorama craft

After getting a taste of Marine Biology through this elementary unit and various field trips, the kids decided that it was a topic they wanted to explore more in-depth.  Thankfully, this is something that's offered with our SchoolhouseTeachers membership, so we were able to pick up two full-length courses - at the middle and high school level - for further exploration in the upper grades!

Marine Biology (6th-12th grade) introduces students to the diverse and incredible world of marine life through videos, slideshows, research projects, online resources, and downloadable materials. From the very small to the very large, students meet marine creatures that boggle the mind and defy imagination.

Red Wagon Marine Biology for High School (11th-12th grade) is taught through online pre-recorded videos. Text instructions along with additional videos, experiments, and online reading teach students about the marine world created by God. Beginning with a discussion of the ocean water and an overview of the types of organisms living in the oceans, this course moves on to discuss in more detail algae, protozoa, plants, and various marine invertebrates and vertebrates. Students are taught about marine ecosystems, tidal zones, estuaries, coral reefs, and more.

Horseshoe Crabs

• Horseshoe Crabs & Shorebirds & free lessons
• High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs
• Crab Moon
• Harry Horseshoe Crab
• The Crab from Yesterday : Life Cycles
• Project Oceanography : Horseshoe Crabs (11 pg PDF)
• Build a Horseshoe Crab (game & activity sheets)
• Origami Horseshoe Crab - page 1 & page 2
• Toy Horseshoe Crab
• Lessons from a Living Fossil plans (secondary)