Using candy, students mimic the effects of advanced fishing methods on the population sizes of fish.
KELP
Growing the next generation of ocean stewards
Kids Environmental Lesson Plans (KELP) are fun, easy to use and help students understand the ocean’s influence on them and their influence on the ocean.
The future of the ocean rests not only in our actions, but also in those of the generations that follow in our footsteps. Encourage curiosity in kids and help them explore their surroundings with KELP.
Sailors for the Sea collaborates with leading marine research and education institutions to create these dynamic and relevant lesson plans designed to foster a better understanding of the marine world. With simple materials and minimal preparation, the activities are ideal for any educator to implement. Use the kits when weather conditions aren’t suitable or in educational settings to promote awareness of ocean health issues.
We want our children to flourish, to become truly empowered as the next generation of ocean stewards. Sailors for the Sea’s KELP program will inspire them to know and love the ocean before we ask them to save it.
Catching Fish
Category:
Catching Fish
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
The Pew Environment Group
Category:
Catching Fish
Age Group:
Ages 6 to 9
Contributed By:
The Pew Environment Group
A creative game that shows the effects of longline fishing on the health of the ocean ecosystem.
Category:
Catching Fish
Age Group:
Ages 9 and up
Contributed By:
Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch
A simple matching game for visually identifying fish and gaining an understanding of which can be sustainably harvested.
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
Birch Aquarium/The Scripps Institute of Oceanography
A fun scavenger hunt that gives students understanding of what can be found on beaches, giving an introduction to beach ecology and the role of manmade objects.
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
Students create mini-coastal environments and introduce nutrients to see what happens in the estuaries where fresh and salt water meet.
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
New England Aquarium
Students learn about the water cycle and the principles of filtering water by designing and building their own filters, then testing them with "dirty water."
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
Birch Aquarium/The Scripps Institute of Oceanography
A hands on activity that illustrates the different sources of sand including biological, geological and man-made.
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
This activity demonstrates Thermohaline Circulation throughout the world's oceans and the relative densities of cold and warm waters.
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
Plymouth University
Students create a simple scientific instrument and learn about the role of sediment in their local waters.
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
California Academy of Sciences
A fun board game designed to learn the three ways rocks can form.
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Students create a watershed model using a plastic shower curtain, a spray bottle and themselves!
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Students construct a beach in a pan and investigate the effects of wind and waves on beach shape
Category:
Beaches, Bays & Rivers
Age Group:
Ages 6 to 12
Contributed By:
Marine Biological Association
Using materials and sand found on the beach, kids can create pieces of art
Living Underwater
Category:
Living Underwater
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
University of Miami's R. J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program
An activity that plays with light at different depths of the ocean and discusses adaptations organisms have made for different light conditions.
Category:
Living Underwater
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
SEA Semester
A hands on activity that illustrates how marine creatures have adapted to survive the extreme conditions between the rocky shoreline tide marks
Category:
Living Underwater
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
SEA Semester
A fun game teaching students how fish and other ocean creatures camouflage into their surroundings.
Category:
Living Underwater
Age Group:
Ages 6 to 9
Contributed By:
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Students create a "blubber glove" to mimic the importance of blubber to whales living in frigid water.
Category:
Living Underwater
Age Group:
Ages 6 to 9
Contributed By:
New Bedford Whaling Museum
An activity that demonstrates how baleen whales, such as Right Whales, use skim feeding to capture their prey.
Category:
Living Underwater
Age Group:
Ages 6 to 9
Contributed By:
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Students build monoculars to view their surroundings from the prespectivie of a whale.
Aquatic Animals
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
Sailors for the Sea
A game of freeze tag that gives an understanding of the interaction of oyster reefs and toxic waste (pollution) in the water.
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
WaterFront Center
Students learn about the variation of size and type of marine organisms in the local marine and freshwater environments by building dip and plankton nets.
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies
Students create a cutout model of a clam to investigate the anatomy and physiology of these animals.
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
California Academy of Sciences
Students will learn about the anatomy of coral and the unique symbiotic relationship between corals and zooxanthellae by building an edible coral polyp.
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries - Flower Garden Banks
Students build a globe to demonstrate a mass coral spawning event.
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
SEA Semester
Students create plankton with craft materials and race them in a large container of water. Slowest plankton wins!
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
Tabor Academy
Students will learn about the importance of oysters to estuarine ecosystems and to the community with live oysters.
Category:
Aquatic Animals
Age Group:
Ages 6 to 9
Contributed By:
Marine Biological Association
Through a "musical chairs"-like game, learn about hermit crabs and the challenges they face when they need to find a new shell home
Pollution & Marine Debris
Category:
Pollution & Marine Debris
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
The Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean
A tag inspired game that demonstrates how plastics and the chemicals in plastics are biomagnified to reach our dinner plates.
Category:
Pollution & Marine Debris
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
New England Aquarium
Students illustrate the effects of the land use in a watershed by simulating development of their own riverfront property.
Category:
Pollution & Marine Debris
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
New England Aquarium
This activity uses an interactive narrative to illustrate the different sources of pollution, historic and modern, to a body of water.
Category:
Pollution & Marine Debris
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
5 Gyres Institute
Students carry out a beach transect, learning about the prevalence and sources of plastic pollution in the oceans.
Category:
Pollution & Marine Debris
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
Monterey Bay Aquarium
In this simulation, students are challenged to find and remove a baking soda contaminant from a plastic shoebox filled with damp sand
Food Chains
Category:
Food Chains
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
NOAA
A game of Jenga that demonstrates the marine food web and the impacts humans have on the food web.
Category:
Food Chains
Age Group:
All ages
Contributed By:
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Students identify what kind of consumer their marine animal is by examining the prey items they find in a Jell-O filled "stomach".
Climate Change
Category:
Climate Change
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
Rutgers University
An interactive game where students cycle as carbon between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem.
Category:
Climate Change
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
Rutgers University
Students figure out what season it is based on maps of sea surface temperature and phytoplankton growth.
Category:
Climate Change
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
California Academy of Sciences
Which type of ice causes a rise in sea level when it melts: formations on land, like glaciers, or formations in the water, like icebergs?
Chemistry of the Sea
Category:
Chemistry of the Sea
Age Group:
Ages 9 to 12
Contributed By:
NOAA
An interactive activity demonstrating the effects of ocean acidification on shelled marine organisms, the ocean food web and to humans.
Category:
Chemistry of the Sea
Age Group:
Ages 12 and up
Contributed By:
NOAA
Students use thier own exhaled breath and a red cabbage pH indicator to visualize how our oceans are becoming more acidic.
Ocean Fun Packs
Category:
Ocean Fun Packs
Age Group:
All Ages
Contributed By:
NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries - Flower Garden Banks and Sailors for the Sea
Through word searches, matching and other fun games learn about these bustling cities of marine life and how to protect them.
Category:
Ocean Fun Packs
Age Group:
All Ages
Contributed By:
NOAA and Sailors for the Sea
Learn about our polar regions' unique habitat and wildlife through crossword puzzles, word searches and other fun activities.
