Research

Research-based role-playing activity where students identify and investigate stakeholders on the issue of abandoned and derelict vessels.

In this lesson, students analyze the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup data to make inferences about which countries documented the most amount of marine debris and the types of debris found/collected. Students also answer prompts about why some states or countries had much higher amounts of marine debris reported than others.

Students learn about community organizations and what actions they are taking to reduce marine debris. Students then can organize a cleanup of the school campus, a local waterway or beach, or join another community cleanup project. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12, within the "Solutions" unit. 

Students use scientific models as a tool to evaluate the many kinds of risk tsunami marine debris poses. They then explore the risk posed by live organisms that have colonized tsunami marine debris.

Plastic pellets (also called “nurdles”) are small pre-production pieces that are shipped around the world to factories that melt them to produce a variety of products. Pellets are often lost during transit, and because they float can be found throughout the ocean and on beaches everywhere.

Students construct models of ocean surface currents and winds to explain the dispersal of Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD). Then they compare their model to those generated by researchers.

This activity will serve as a catalyst for students to derive connections between their actions and the impact on the environment. Students will observe marine debris from around the world, collect their own trash data around school, and use technology to further research. Once the data can be compared, students will communicate their findings in a group setting.

In this lesson, students follow a scientific data collection procedure to collect and analyze debris at their school campus. They compare their results to a larger existing marine debris database in California, and make connections between campus debris and marine debris using the concept of watersheds. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, within the "Sources and Transport" unit. 

There is a great deal of information and misinformation about how much marine debris exists in the open ocean and how it is distributed. We often hear that “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas”, but what exactly does that mean? Students will read and discuss the article “Pacific Ocean 'garbage patch' exaggerated, new analysis asserts”.

Use scientific data to craft a way to reduce microplastics. Students will talk about the costs and benefits of their solutions to the marine environment and the people who use it.

Utilizing field work and in-class activities, students will learn to identify, sort and classify marine debris in the Virgin Islands.

The goal of this lesson is to demonstrate what happens when natural disasters collide with inhabited areas. Students have the ability to interact with scientific models to learn about weather/natural disasters.

The goal of this lesson is to demonstrate what happens to animals that get trapped by some kinds of marine debris. Students will experience similar effects to those that happen to animals that get trapped. This activity works well as an engagement activity.

Students will learn about what happens to floating marine debris (surface, near surface, and in the water column) that doesn’t get collected during beach cleanups. They will apply knowledge of oceanic water movement to understand why trash gets trapped in specific areas in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Students will interpret maps published in news articles.

Have you ever found litter on the beach and wondered what it is and where it came from? In this project, organized by Oregon Sea Grant and supported through funding by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, students focus on one particular item of marine debris and try to learn about the item's story. What was the item originally used for?