Activities, lessons & resources

Activities

• Ridge 2000 Data Tips are individual student lessons built around real mid-ocean ridge datasets to help students develop analytical skills. Each Data Tip consists of: a dataset; a description of how data were collected and why; guidance on how to analyze and interpret data. Data Tips are developed by scientists working closely with educators.
• Diversity of the Deep. Examine the diversity of organisms living near deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean.
• The Seafloor Below. Use oceanographic data to create a 3D plot of a volcano submerged off the coast of Oregon.
• Discovering plate boundaries. A data-rich exercise from Rice University, for grades 5-12.
• A variety of activities are outlined in the Teachers Guides accompanying each of two IMAX films about the deep ocean. Download the pdfs (each about 2MB) from the “Educators” section of the Volcanoes of the Deep Sea website, and the "Educational Materials" section of the Aliens of the Deep website.

Lessons

• SEAS. A Ridge 2000 program for middle and high school students offering your choice of curriculum, laboratory activities, and student competitions.
• Dive and Discover from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Includes “Infomods,” stand-alone modules on a range of topics, including plate tectonics, hydrothermal vents and mid-ocean ridges.
• NEMO. Curriculum for middle and high school students, from the NEMO project of the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration (NOAA).
• Lesson plans and curriculum from NOAA’s Ocean Explorer.
• American Museum of Natural History’s Resources for Learning: Deep Sea Vents. Two units, “Explore the Deep Oceans” and “Journey to the Deep Sea Vents” provide activities that help students understand the deep sea environment and the technologies that allow scientific discoveries to be made there.
• Puna Ridge. An activity developed in 1998, but still relevant for “science factoids” and lessons (on the scientific method and understanding maps).

Resources

• Venture Deep Ocean: Find out more about the extraordinary deep-sea creatures and landscapes investigated by Ridge 2000 researchers
• Video footage of the seafloor and animals around hydrothermal vents, from
• the NEPTUNE Project, based at the University of Washington
• the NEMO project of the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration (NOAA)
• MARVE (The Marine Virtual Explorer) is a simulation of a research dive in the Alvin submersible to a hydrothermal vent field on the East Pacific Rise.