For teachers: overview

SEAS is a web-based program open to all middle and high school students studying earth science, life science, oceanography, and related subjects. The program aims to help students learn science through authentic investigations conducted alongside scientists. Participation in SEAS is teacher-directed.

2007—2008 Academic Year Notice

SEAS is currently in transition as we integrate with FLEXE, a new Earth System project of the GLOBE program. As such, we will not be hosting the Ask-a-Scientist and Report Fair components of the program this academic year (2007-2008). You are welcome, however, to use any of the materials on this site in your own classroom, and conduct your own investigations and report fair.

The program is very flexible. Just choose the combination of activities that suits you best:

Curriculum
Classroom-to-sea lab
Updates from sea
Ask-a-scientist (closed at this time)
Report writing and report fair (closed at this time)
Background research

Curriculum

Do one or more background activities from the SEAS curriculum. These can help introduce your kids to deep-sea systems and environments.

You can use these activities to help your students understand the context for classroom-to-sea lab results. Or they can be stand-alone. It's up to you.

Classroom-to-sea lab

Get your students to carry out the classroom-to-sea mussel lab. You will need to:

Obtain shallow-water mussels for classroom dissections
Download and copy the lab procedures and data sheets (details in the mussel lab section)
Download a data set containing similar measurements for deep-sea mussels and ask the students to compare their results with those from the deep-sea.
Discuss possible reasons for the differences. Read our field notes to learn more about how the deep-sea data were collected, and explore the additional reading in our reference library.

Updates from sea

Help your students understand the deep-sea environment by having them read about the study site where deep-sea mussels were collected. Researchers will be revisiting the site in January 2007, following eruptions there in 2006. We will post news from sea on this website in January 2007.

Ask-a-scientist (closed at this time)

If, having done the classroom-to-sea lab, your class has a question that the background reference library can't provide the answer for, you can send the question to us. Your question will be answered by a professional deep-sea scientist. (You need to be registered with SEAS to send us a question: register now).

Report writing and report fair (closed at this time)

Ask your students to write a report on the comparison between their data and the deep sea data. A report rubric (27KB pdf download) is provided.

Enter one report from your class in our report fair. Prizes are awarded in various categories. You need to be registered to send us a report. » More about the report fair

Background research

Articles in our online reference library are a great resource for you and your students to read up on deep-sea science. For example, our scientist spotlights showcase deep-sea research related to the classroom-to-sea mussel lab.