Seagul on Skomer Island Wales John Archer-Thompson

Our lessons are designed to inspire exploration of our seas and to help students discover the importance of the ocean for all life on Earth

All of our lessons are activity focused, linked to key areas of the curriculum, and include cross-curricula activities. We aim to foster a sense of care for the environment, and many of the lessons explore how humans are connected to the environment.

Each of our teachers' packs include everything you need to teach the lesson, including:

  • A lesson overview highlighting key information like relevant ages, curriculum and subject links, UN Sustainable Development Goals and ocean literacy principle links, as well as learning objectives and resources required
  • lesson plan broken into simple steps designed to make the lesson plans easy to deliver. Steps include overview information, set-the-scene activities, a series of themed activities with approximate timings, reflection questions and suggested follow-up activities
  • A fact file containing background information for teachers
  • Worksheets for students

We have four themes:

  • Amazing Ocean
  • Sustainable Seafood
  • Marine Litter
  • Protect the Ocean.

The lessons in each theme can be run standalone or in the suggested order to form a larger, cross-curricula project. You could complete the plan across one or two lessons, or simply pick relevant activities from the plan that suit your needs.

Teachers' packs and their associated resources can be displayed on interactive whiteboards or downloaded and printed out.

Ocean Superheroes live lesson at Woodmansterne School Misaki Nambu

Credit: Misaki Nambu

Ocean literacy

Ocean literacy is all about understanding our influence on the ocean, and the ocean's influence on us. All of our resources are connected to at least one of the 7 Ocean Literacy Principles:

  1. The Earth has one big ocean with many features
  2. The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth
  3. The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate
  4. The ocean made the Earth habitable
  5. The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems
  6. The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected
  7. The ocean is largely unexplored.
Snakelocks Anemone on Seagrass Georgie Bull

Credit: Georgie Bull

Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals designed to be a blueprint to achieving a better and more sustainable future globally. The goals provide a great framework to learn more about global issues and solutions. All of our lesson plans connect to at least one of the development goals.

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) icons

You can find all of our teaching resources for 4-7, and 7-11 freely available to download from our website.