Teacher PLD

Seaweek resources

Seaweek is New Zealand’s annual national week about the sea. It is coordinated by the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education and Recreation Centre (MERC) and includes a wide range of events, activities, competitions and opportunities for action. It usually runs for a week from the end of February – early March.

Find out more about the next event Seaweek – Kaupapa Moana 2024.

With 75% of New Zealanders living within 10 km of the coast, marine science need not be limited to just 1 week, marine contexts can link to many different science concepts. This resource provides a sample of the Hub's marine resources. Use the Related topics & Concepts tab at the top of a page to find an even wider variety of teaching resources.

Below is a selection of unit plans and other teacher support materials that we have grouped under possible teaching topics.

Healthy Seas – Healthy People

A  red tide algal bloom at Leigh, near Cape Rodney,  New Zealand

Red tide

A spectacular red tide (non-toxic) of Noctiluca scintillans at Leigh, near Cape Rodney in New Zealand.

Rights: NIWA, Chang et al. (2005) and Miriam Godfrey

Articles:

Activities:

Human impacts on the sea

Diagram showing impact of overfishing on marine ecosystems.

Ecosystem overfishing

Large-scale fishing operations resulting in overfishing disturb the ecological balance of marine ecosystems.

‘Fishing down the food web’ means fishing for smaller and smaller fish because the larger ones are fished out.

Rights: University of Waikato. All Rights Reserved.

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Videos:

Activities:

Citizen science project: Marine Metre Squared

Habitats and ecosystems

New Zealand’s marine environment

In this video, Dr Candida Savage, from the University of Otago, talks about how New Zealand’s pristine habitats are like ‘natural laboratories’. This is because they offer good opportunities to study naturally functioning systems and to learn more about what different habitats may have been like before human impact.

Rights: The University of Waikato

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Interactive: Marine ecosystem

Activities:

Mātauranga Māori and the moana

Articles:

Activities:

Sea creatures

Articles:

Before and after shot of work on new seabed mussel reefs.

Before and after

This before and after shot of the work of the Mussel Reef Restoration Trust to create new seabed mussel reefs shows very promising results.

Rights: Revive Our Gulf/ Mussel Reef Restoration Trust

The ocean’s chemical and physical processes

Diagram of relationship Ocean salinity, temperature & density.

Ocean salinity, temperature and density

Salinity and temperature of the ocean rise or fall (indicated by arrows) in response to rainfall, evaporation and solar radiation. These properties affect seawater density, causing water to sink or rise (indicated by arrows).

Rights: The University of Waikato

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Activities:

The ocean and climate change

Data from cruises around New Zealand map: CO2 in surface waters

Ocean carbon dioxide around New Zealand

Data from cruises around New Zealand has been used to map CO2 in surface waters. This will be combined with satellite data to create a more accurate picture.

Rights: Kim Currie

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Student activity: Ocean acidification and eggshells

Ecosystem services

Mussels includes the videos: Revive our Gulf and Mussels filtering water

Aquaculture

Articles:

Department of Conservation marine infographics

The Department of Conservation and the Science Learning Hub have collaborated to create a series of interactives that feature many of DOC’s marine infographics.

Building Science Concepts

Building Science Concepts: Life between the tides is a partial replication of Building Science Concepts Book 21:

Building Science Concepts: Tidal communities is a partial replication of Building Science Concepts Book 22:

Teacher support materials

Find out more about marine education and Seaweek in these resources below

Online professional development

Are you planning for Seaweek or a marine topic? We have it covered in our recorded professional development webinars:

Unit plans

Topic planners: Marine resources – food webs, adaptation, marine habitats, marine biodiversity.

Education research and classroom experiences

Articles:

They’ll have it now

Gail Thomson, Associate Principal at Swanson School, and her students use resources from across the Hub to explore the effects of temperature and salinity on ocean currents and water density. Gail advocates the use of hands-on activities as a means of deepening science understanding.

The resources Gail used with her students are: Big ocean currents video and the Density, Floating eggs, Investigating sea water and Water temperature activities. The science ideas and concepts associated with these resources are highlighted in the articles Icy ecosystems - introduction and The ocean in action - introduction.

This video shows footage from the legacy Science Learning Hub, however all the content referenced in it are still available on our new-look Science Learning Hub site.

Rights: University of Waikato. All Rights Reserved.

Literacy links

These Connected articles provide a brief synopsis of the original jounal article, associated teacher support material and links to the digital resources on TKI. They also provide a wealth of related Hub content and activity ideas – wrap-around resources to deepen or extend student thinking and learning, practise content vocabulary or prompt inquiry.

Citizen science

Using online citizen science opportunities as a way to deepen student learning and engagement is easier than you think.

Image illustrating potential difficulties with classifying fish

Observing fish

This image illustrates the potential difficulties with classifying fish. 

The two fish at the top left are both blue cod but they are at different stages in their lifespan. Some species, such as the banded wrasse (the two images at the top right) can vary in colour. Observation is also impacted by factors such as lighting as shown in the bottom two images, which are both of a scarlet wrasse.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

Useful links

Visit the Seaweek website to find local events, competitions and more.

Visit one or more of the Hub’s Pinterest boards below for more resources:

This classroom module for marine biosecurity is designed for years 5-8 to help them understand the role they play in protecting our coastlines. It is provided in both Google Docs and as printable PDFs so that it's easy for teachers to use. Part 3 uses the Marine Metre Squared project.

Listen to this podcast collaboration between RNZ’s science and environment podcast Our Changing World and New Zealand GeographicVoice of Tangaroa that explores the state of our oceans.

Published:04 February 2016