Educator Resource Portal
Our mission is to bring the Marine Science Center directly to you and your students: from the unique beauty of the rocky shore ecosystems at the Center’s Nahant Campus, to the innovative research in our faculty’s labs.
Resource Pack #1: Rocky Intertidal Classroom
Educators can use these resources to prepare/debrief for a trip to the Marine Science Center or another coastal location, or simply to complement in-class curricula and explorations of the rocky shore intertidal habitat. Please review and download the Rocky Intertidal resources below.
Download: Intertidal Species ID Guides
Download: Presentations Introducing the Rocky Intertidal
Resource Pack #2: Boston Harbor Habitat Posters
These educational posters of local habitats have been developed by the Outreach Program via a partnership with artist Tanya L. Rogers, and The MassBays National Estuary Program as part of the Boston Harbor Habitat Atlas Project. Each poster package includes color posters with and without keys, as well as a coloring sheet version.
Download: Posters of Boston Harbor
Resource Pack #3: Grades K-5
Print and color the illustrations in this guide, or draw your own, and then use the information here to help you determine where in the tidepool your critters could live.
Take this one-page rocky shore & beach scavenger hunt with you to the shore and circle or color in the biofacts you find!
What do the animals in the tidepool eat? Build a food web and explore the interactions between predators and prey.
Explore the shells on New England’s beaches with the shell matching game created by MSC’s Lotterhos Lab based on shells found around Nahant beaches.
Students will practice graphing skills to discover how the beach changes between seasons. Activity geared for upper elementary level.
For upper elementary or middle school students; cut out and transform a simple sea star template into other sea animals, showing how members of the phylum Echinodermata are morphologically related, then learn about one of our research scientists who works with these animals!
Resource Pack #3: Grades 6-12
Educators and students can explore Marine Science Center research through case studies and activities developed using real scientific data and principles. These resources can be used to complement independent classroom lessons (see MA State and NGSS standards listed) and/or field trips to the MSC. Teacher keys available (email to request).
What are the vulnerabilities and solutions to sea level rise in the urban coastal city of Boston?
What is the impact on fear and the predator-prey relationship on food chains in an ecosystem?
What is the impact of climate change and ocean acidification on marine species?
What factors influence the distribution and abundance of marine organisms?
How will the unique evolutionary traits of the icefish serve in a changing climate?
How do microscopic ocean critters impact the carbon cycle? Science Journal for Kids article and activities by MSC’s Aron Stubbins.
What is causing changes to snail shells in the intertidal?
What is happening to sea stars in the New England intertidal habitat? Explore the work by the Ocean Genome Legacy Center to examine this phenomenon.
