Marine Biology Resource Guide: K-12 Educational Resources

An ocean of free teacher-approved marine education resources

A large focus of COSEE NOW was broadening the awareness and understanding of the ocean and our connections to the ocean as well as the organisms within and ecosystems of the ocean. Therefore many of the projects sought to provide background materials on general marine biology topics.

Global access to knowledge about life on Earth, as well as lesson plans for students in K-12.

JASON is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert D. Ballard. JASON provides curriculum and learning experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for K-12 students, and high-quality professional development for teachers. JASON has been used successfully in a wide variety of formal and informal education environments.

The MEEC offers educational programming for elementary school-level children. These programs are tailored to utilize science practices from the Next Generation Science Standards Framework. Each program includes a sea turtle feeding with Captain, our green sea turtle at the center. During the feeding, students will hear Captain's Tale and learn about sea turtle husbandry. Additionally, our site features an interactive Interpretive Center with displays on topics ranging from satellite tracking to invasive species. We can allow time for students to explore this area.

Through immersive experiences, interactive lesson plans, maps, and other free resources – there are endless ways to learn with National Geographic.

An interdisciplinary ocean science education program of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, the NOSB tests students’ knowledge of ocean-related topics, including cross-disciplines of biology, chemistry, policy, physics, and geology.

Various biology education resources that include some marine biology resources

Lesson plans, ocean facts, education modules, and much more!

Science we can do together!

Our Ocean Portal Educators’ Corner provides you with activities, lessons and educational resources to bring the ocean to life for your students. We have collected top resources from our collaborators to provide you with teacher-tested, ocean science materials for your classroom. We hope these resources, along with the rich experience of the Ocean Portal, will help you inspire the next generation of ocean stewards.

Entertaining and informative resources for teaching k-12

Teachers and students can use TED Studies: Marine Biology to enhance existing curricula in undergraduate education courses. Educators and students will find activities and multimedia resources which link the study of Marine Biology to the real world, plus expanded academic content such as key terms, related journal articles and major debates in this highly topical area. For an abridged, interactive version of this content, subscribe to the TED Studies: Marine Biology course via the iTunesU course app for iPad

LearnOutLoud.com has over 50,000 free audio visual resources to use in the classroom, including audiobooks, podcasts, and videos.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain and have been released under an open license that permits access, use, repurposing, reuse and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions (Atkins, Brown & Hammond, 2007). OER are not just textbooks. Examples include case studies, assignments, assessment tools,
software, simulations, videos, workshops, lab manuals, test banks.