Teacher Resources
Here at Save Our Shores, we believe that education should be fun and interactive!
We offer free educational resources to teachers to make it easier for you to teach your students about marine-related issues:
Synthetic Seas Video: An in-depth, visually stimulating video about marine debris, developed by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. Topics include: plastics, voyages to the Pacific Gyre, and endocrine disruptions in the marine environment. This is a great resource when coupled with SOS classroom presentations on marine debris. The vieo is appropriate for middle and high school students, although can be used for supplemental interpretation in elementary schools. Approx. 30 minutes.
Save Our Shores Education Manual: SOS offers over 20 various interactive activities touching on aspects of marine conservation and ecology, including food webs, decomposition times, and impacts of plastic pollution. The Manual also includes a field component for conducting beach and river cleanups. Activities are broken down by grade level and include procedures, material lists, and general instructions. Teachers are welcome to borrow our material kits.
Sea Studios Foundation DVD "Strange Days on Planet Earth Season 2": Appropriate for middle and high school students, narrated by Ed Norton, and details the consequences of our actions and focuses on the state of our oceans today. This 2 hour series includes "Dangerous Catch" and "Dirty Secrets." In addition to these, "Plastic Plague" and "Dangers of Plastic", are also appropriate for middle and high school students. For younger learners, "Once Upon a Tide" is appropriate for elementary students. For more information visit Sea Studios Foundation...
EnviroScapes Watershed Model: This is a great tool designed to simulate a watershed and demonstrates in a visual manner what happens to all of the by-products we use in our everyday lives when rains come to the watershed. Students are able to watch as all the materials are drained into the ocean. A follow-up discussion on what a watershed encompasses, and how our actions on land still have a big impact on our oceans is encouraged.
California Coastal Commission’s “Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds” Activity Guide: This is a classroom-based hands-on activity guide that integrates California Coastal Commission areas of critical concern (wetlands, coastal processes, marine debris and pollution, and endangered species) with California Science Content Standards for grades 3-8.
Cleanup Kit: SOS can supply a cleanup kit containing all the necessities for a successful cleanup. A cleanup experience is more in-depth when SOS provides a cleanup leader, so Cleanup Kits are only recommended as a backup. Kit includes: trash and recycle bags, gloves, data cards, marine debris information, a scale, and trash pickers. SOS will coordinate garbage pickup. All participants must sign a waiver form and kit contents must be returned within one week.
Activity Kit: When it’s not possible to schedule an SOS educator to come into the classroom, teachers can check out instructions and supplies for some of our most popular activities. Kits are available for the following activities: Food Web, Mistaking Plastic for Food, Perils of Plastic, Getting Out of a Bind, Living Downstream & Habitat Board.
For information please contact education@saveourshores.org.
