Beyond the in-class activities we did in our month-long water unit, we could have used some of the great resources for learning about water online. NOAA (The National Oceanaic Atmospheric Administration) created an interactive WaterLife Game which teaches about estuaries through activities like cleaning rivers, answering trivia questions, and watching an animated story. Even more closely related to our shipwrecks, Mr. Nautical Chart, another NOAA game, creates a (safe) nautical chart for boaters. Mr. Nautical Chart would be great to do after studying the paths of both the Fitzgerald and the Titanic.
The USGS (Dept of the Interior’s US Geological Survey) has a great website with water resources, interactive maps, ground water information, coloring books for younger children, and more. The USGS also has available online water posters which could be incorporated into Animoto or Remix America projects too. The EPA has a kids page focusing on safe water, and even more water education ideas, statistics and a game teaching about water pollution are available through the Water Education Foundation.
And if we just wanted to have fun? How about a some free online water games? (True, an ad or two will play). Definitely a unit that would be more engaging now than it was then!
No Time to Sleep 