The Ocean Portal from The Smithsonian Institute

http://ocean.si.edu/

 Yesterday I found a new web site that I am really excited about: The Ocean Portal. The Ocean Portal is a brand new web site that has lesson plans for teachers, blogs, photo essay's, fossils, pictures, and videos. View images taken by award winning photographers. Sign up for their newsletter. Learn about Ocean and Ecosystems, Ocean Science, and The Ocean Over Time. 

How can you use this for education? First you would click on the link "For Educators". There are lesson plans available for teachers to use in their classroom. Some of those lesson plans come from another of my favorite sites, Thinkfinity. I have written several times on Thinkfinity and their partner sites. Some of the lessons come from other web sites. One that I looked at "Be A Scientist" takes you to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California and to the lesson plan (by clicking on Be A Scientist). This lesson plan has the national standards for science that it covers, an overview of what the lesson covers, objectives of the lesson, and vocabulary. Pretty much anything you would need to teach that lesson.

CREDIT: © Chris Newbert/Minden Pictures 

If you click on All Lessons and Activities, you can then filter by grade level or subject. Are you studying the Coral Reefs in your classroom? Look at the awesome images. Find out about the ecosystems of the Coral Reefs. There are lesson plans related to the Coral Reefs, web resources, podcasts, and videos. The videos are free for educators to download and use in their lessons. When I was viewing some of the videos, I downloaded them and then opened them with Windows Media Player. 

Want to talk with your students about why they should recycle and how to save the oceans? Show them this music video "Blue Planet". Show in full screen on an IWB. Awesome! I hope this site will become a favorite of yours. It has become one of mine!

http://ocean.si.edu/