TEACHERS

The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary offers a variety of free resources for educators. For additional information about specific products, or to request copies of products not available on this web site, please contact flowergarden@noaa.gov. When requesting hard copies, please remember to include your physical mailing address.

Downloadable Resources: For downloadable classroom activities and lesson plans, visit our Document Library.

Education List Serve: This digest format list serve provides regular updates on sanctuary activities, the latest in information on coral reefs and important marine science issues, educational resources, useful web sites, career and job opportunities in marine science, and more. To subscribe, send an email to flowergarden@noaa.gov with "subscribe" in the subject line.

Adaptations from the Depths Curriculum Kit: This curriculum based on the 5E model takes elementary students through a variety of exploratory activities to learn more about animal adaptations, especially those of the octopus. Teachers can use this as a stand alone curriculum or incorporate elements into their existing program of study. The kit consists of the written curriculum, several small posters for use in the introductory activity and a video segment of an octopus moving around on the reef in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. You can download the curriculum and a separate set of handouts from our Document Library. But, please contact flowergarden@noaa.gov to request the activity posters and video (specificy DVD or VHS). Be sure to give your physical mailing address.

NMSP Brochure: This full-color brochure provides an overview of the entire National Marine Sanctuary Program, including images and descriptions of each site within the system.

FGBNMS Brochure: This full-color brochures includes information about the sanctuary's location, flora and fauna, management, etc. Due to the reading level and some technical content, this brochure is probably best used with upper middle or high school level students. Classroom sets of 25 brochures may also be requested.

Flower Garden Banks NMS Video: This highlights video contains two separate segments: 11.5 minutes of narrated general information about the sanctuary, plus 7 minutes of unnarrated "favorite video shots" of the flora and fauna of the sanctuary. The first segment works well as an informative introduction to a unit about the Flower Garden Banks or as a supplement to a unit about coral reefs in general. The second segment is a great attention grabber for any ocean unit and provides wonderful examples of ocean life for very young children. Please specify VHS or DVD.

Posters: Single copies of various posters are available while supplies last. To find out which posters are currently available, please contact flowergarden@noaa.gov.

Critter Collage: This letter-sized 'poster' is available in our Documents Library. However, if you do not have access to a color printer, feel free to request a hard copy. The collage is a good starting point to have students familiarize themselves with the wildlife of the sanctuary. Students can also use this as a starting point to select a specific animal as the topic for a report.