LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Lighting up the sea

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/08/g35/
seaslighting.html

A lesson plan for Grade 4 Science and English Language Arts

Provider: National Geographic

About this resource

Appropriate grades
4
Subjects
science (biology and life science, oceanography), thinking skills (information literacy, research skills, visual literacy), education technology (integrating technology), teaching methods (discussions, online learning)
Provider
National Geographic

Legal

Creative Commons License

This catalog record is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license applies to the content of this page only and does not apply to the referenced website.

In this Xpeditions lesson, students explore the three light zones in the ocean and reasons for bioluminescence by conducting a simulation and viewing pictures of bioluminescent marine animals on the Web. Activities in this lesson engage students in development of visual literacy skills and whole class discussion.

Students will:

  • view pictures of camouflaged animals, and discuss other types of animal adaptations;
  • hypothesize what it's like in the deep ocean;
  • look at pictures of bioluminescent marine animals;
  • do a simulation with flashlights, trying to identify other bioluminescent animals of the same species;
  • identify and list the reasons that many marine animals are bioluminescent; and
  • write journal entries pretending to be divers encountering bioluminescent animals for the first time.

Xpeditions provides detailed instructions for completing the lesson, assessment and extension activities, and links to helpful web resources.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 4

  • Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
    • Objective 4.09: Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres (e.g., personal and imaginative narrative, research reports, learning logs, letters of request, letters of complaint).

Science (2005)

Grade 4

  • Goal 1: The learner will make observations and conduct investigations to build an understanding of animal behavior and adaptation.
    • Objective 1.01: Observe and describe how all living and nonliving things affect the life of a particular animal including:
      • Other animals.
      • Plants.
      • Weather.
      • Climate.
    • Objective 1.02: Observe and record how animals of the same kind differ in some of their characteristics and discuss possible advantages and disadvantages of this variation.
    • Objective 1.03: Observe and discuss how behaviors and body structures help animals survive in a particular habitat.
    • Objective 1.04: Explain and discuss how humans and other animals can adapt their behavior to live in changing habitats.