Free ocean science curriculum
Teach ocean awareness in the classroom and fuel a love of learning — whether or not your classroom is anywhere near the coast.
Everything here started as material I wrote for a one-room school programme in the Philippines and then kept rewriting for classrooms in California. It is free, it is aligned to what kids actually find interesting, and it uses the same plates that hang in the portfolio.
please use it, that is what it is for
What is in the curriculum
Four units, each with a lesson plan, printable plates and a short assessment.
Coral reef ecology
The unit I originally wrote for the Tagbanua school programme, adapted for a classroom that is nowhere near a reef. Reef zones, who eats whom, and why bleaching happens.
Kelp forest food webs
Giant kelp, urchins, otters and the whole argument between them. Includes printable plates of every species in the web so students can build it on the wall.
Rockfish identification
A real dichotomous key, simplified but not falsified. Students key out six Central Coast rockfishes from the illustrations and check their work.
Drawing from a specimen
How scientific illustration actually works: counting fin rays, measuring proportions, and why the drawing is sometimes more useful than the photograph.
Ask me and I will send it over
The download is not automated yet. Send me a note with your school or group and roughly what age the students are, and I will email the units back — plus print-resolution plates if you want them on the wall.
Bulk orders of the coloring books for a classroom also go through the same form.
