Classroom Activities

Gray's Reef education staff works closely with our science team to translate research data and findings into meaningful and useful information specifically for educators. Several education modules, classroom activities and lesson plans are available on our website for you to down load.

In some cases education modules may be requested as hard copies free of charge since they contain DVDs, CDs and posters. Please visit our Education Materials section for a list of available materials.

Some of our classroom activities were created by teachers like you who have been through our Rivers to Reefs Educators Workshops. Their classroom activities have been developed for various grade levels, based on their experiences in these week-long, intense field experience rich workshops. They are engaging lessons with hands-on activities that will excite your students; and help you bring Gray's Reef and the watershed that most directly influences it to your classroom.

Please the follow links below for access to all of our Classroom Activities.

Rivers to Reefs Educator Workshop

Each summer 16-32 educators selected in a highly competitive process experience the Altamaha River Watershed in a completely immersive field experience. They receive several Professional Learning Units, but must first complete one of the requirements, which is to develop a lesson plan based on any part of their experience. These links grouped by grade level are designed to help you bring Gray's Reef and the watershed that most directly influences it, the Altamaha River Watershed to your students.

    Elementary Grades

    Middle School Grades

    High School Grades

Ocean Science Technology

Hands-on activities are always engaging and get students jazzed about learning in practical ways. These tactile activities help explain often difficult concepts of physics. Materials are easy to find and / or relatively inexpensive.

Geographic Information Systems

Data from research projects can often be accessed from various websites and can be very effective for use in the classroom. These lessons were developed by the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries to compare data sets from the sanctuaries in the Southeast, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Region: Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

Acoustic Fish Tagging

Gray's Reef education staff work closely with our science team to translate research data and findings into meaningful and useful information specifically for educators. Our current project involves tracking tagged fish. These lessons help students understand the challenges researchers encounter with their study subjects and how they deal with those challenges.

You will find Acoustic Fish Tagging classroom activities for elementary, middle and high school students in the Education tab of the Acoustic Fish Tagging section of our website.

For more information about classroom activities, please email or call the sanctuary office at graysreef@noaa.gov or 912-598-2345.