What is the big deal? How large is the ocean, anyway?
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/7/5/12753486/1833699.jpg?378)
An assembly for the 6th grade will be held in order to introduce the unit. Students will begin the assembly with their scheduled class at one of four stations around the room. At each location students will form a circle, leaving little space between each other. A teacher will toss them a beach ball globe and they are to catch it with both hands, then freeze. It is important that they not move their hands once they have caught the ball. Students will announce what location on the globe is under their right thumb. Land or water? The teacher or official score keeper will tally the results as students toss the globe. At the end, students calculate the percentage of times their fingers landed in the ocean/ a body of water. After everyone has taken a seat, a spokes person for each group will share the percentages. We will reveal how much of the globe is actually covered by the sea.
Students will then view a clip from Bill Nye’s Ocean Exploration Video. Afterward, students will be presented with the following questions to get them thinking about how vast and important the ocean is:
1. Is what happens in the ocean important to us on land?
2. How significant is it that the solid sea floor makes up about 60 percent of the Earth’s solid surface?
3. Why do you think we know more about outer space than the ocean?
Students will then view a clip from Bill Nye’s Ocean Exploration Video. Afterward, students will be presented with the following questions to get them thinking about how vast and important the ocean is:
1. Is what happens in the ocean important to us on land?
2. How significant is it that the solid sea floor makes up about 60 percent of the Earth’s solid surface?
3. Why do you think we know more about outer space than the ocean?
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