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The exploration of deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities provides a wonderful opportunity to educate about cutting edge technology, and the incredible and remote places it can take us.
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Education
Read a description of each lesson plan and/or download them to your computer.
With the establishment of the Ocean Exploration Program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there exists an unprecedented opportunity to focus millions of eyes on our essentially unexplored world of water---a world that may hold clues to the origins of life on Earth, novel energy sources, as yet undiscovered cures for human diseases, and previously unknown metabolic pathways. Specifically, the Galapagos Rift Expedition has great potential for generating exciting outreach and education opportunities as part of NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Program education efforts.
Through the Galapagos Rift Expedition, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the historic discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the Galápagos Rift, as a team of scientists/explorers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and several universities, revisit the Galapagos Rift. During this expedition, we will retell the astonishing and often dramatic story of how the vents and their spectacular animal communities were discovered and how these discoveries continue to revolutionize scientific thinking today.
Classroom teachers working with NOAA during April 2002 developed a series of lesson plans for students in Grades 5 – 12 that are specifically tied to the Galapagos Rift Expedition. These lesson plans focus on cutting-edge ocean exploration and research, using state-of-the-art technology, aboard one of the nation’s most sophisticated research vessels, the R/V Atlantis and its submersible Alvin, which are owned and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The lesson plans focus specific all on the importance of ocean exploration and the research taking place during the Galapagos Rift Expedition, and feature such topics as how hydrothermal vents form, how scientists find and sample hydrothermal vents, and the biodiversity of vent communities.
The lesson plans are grouped into the following categories:
Grades 5-6
Grades 7-8
Grades 9-12 (chemical, biological, earth, and physical science).
Each grade-level grouping includes one activity that introduces students to ocean exploration in general, and additional activities that focus on the exploration and research being conducted as part of the Galapagos Rift Expedition. In addition to being tied to the National Science Education Standards, the hands-on, inquiry-based activities include focus questions, background information for teachers, links to interesting Internet sites, and extensions. Another significant component for each activity is a section that includes adaptations for deaf students. Web logs that document the latest discoveries and complement the lesson plans, complete with compelling images and video, will be sent back each day from sea. Teachers are encouraged to use the daily logs from the Galapagos Rift Expedition, which are posted on this site, to supplement the lesson plans.
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