Ocean Education Activities

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Ocean Inventory: Gifts from the sea

This activity deepens your appreciation of the benefits you receive from the sea. Research these gifts by identifying and classifying them. Create a mural, and report your findings to your class.

Start by brainstorming all the ways in which Canadians in general, and you in particular, depend on the sea. Categorize your suggestions under these headings:

• Nourishment
  
• Minerals
  
• Inspiration
  
• Medicine
  
• Recreation
  
• Wildlife
  
• Climate
  
• Economy
  
• Transportation
  
• Heritage
  
• Other

Examples under the heading "Nourishment" could include fish and lobster, but the sea supplies many other edible products, like carrageenan from red algae, used to thicken milk shakes and to make peanut butter spreadable. Under the heading "Medicine," include such examples as sharks, which researchers are investigating because of their immunity to diseases like cancer. Examples under the heading "Climate" may include the oxygen we breathe and the water we drink. Under "Transportation," list such benefits as world trade (80 per cent of cargo is carried on ships) and immigration (maybe your ancestors came to Canada by sea). Under "Minerals," list things like oil and natural gas. Swimming, scuba diving, and angling could be listed under "Recreation," and fisheries and aquaculture (seafood farming) under "Economy." List under "Heritage" such benefits as the spiritual significance of a coastline to Aboriginal peoples or the cultural value of an old port or estuary. Such books as Moby Dick and films like Titanic provide "Inspiration." "Wildlife" benefits would involve habitat, migration routes, biodiversity, and much more. Under "Other" benefits, list miscellaneous gifts from the sea, such as diatom shells used in swimming pool filters and sea bird guano sometimes used to fertilize crops.

Divide into groups of three or four students. Choose one of the categories shown above and research as many benefits under that heading as possible. Read labels on packaged foods and household products. Check out ocean sites on the Internet and library resources on the sea.

Once the research is done, each group will summarize its findings as a list of ocean benefits and in visual form on a large sheet of paper.

Groups then take turns displaying their artwork and reporting their findings.

Arrange the artwork to produce one large mural of gifts from the sea.

Follow up with a class discussion. Consider what the world would be like without oceans and their riches. Explore the idea that our acceptance of these gifts carries with it the responsibility to conserve them and use them wisely.