Outreach and Education

Outreach and Education

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Resources for educators

Pacific Halibut and the Ocean Ecosystem is a unit of curriculum focused on the Pacific halibut fishery. Developed by former port sampler, and current educator, Ms. Renee O'Neill, this unit is designed for grades 5-8, but can be adapted for high school.

Each of the four lessons builds on the last and students are able to take on the various roles and perspectives of ocean organisms, fishers, biologists, and managers. Students make tough decisions about the ocean ecosystem and recognize the difficulties that managers face in maintaining a balanced ecosystem.

The concepts embedded in learning about sustainable fisheries are transferable to many aspects of the ocean ecosystem and by focusing on just one species, the Pacific halibut, many key ideas are learned. In addition to meeting many core understandings in science, this unit integrates math, economics, technology, geography, and civics into the lessons.

This unit has been aligned to the relevant National and Ocean Literacy Standards. The Ocean Literacy Standards were developed by scientists and science educators as a tool to increase ocean education in the classroom in order to create ocean literate students. A lack of ocean literacy was identified by over 100 ocean experts who worked to create the ocean literacy principals, definition, and concepts and align these principals to the National Science Standards as part of addressing this issue. The definition of ocean literacy is the ability to understand the ocean's influence on you and your influence on the ocean.

To learn more about the Ocean Literacy Standards, see:

Complete package (zip file, 24 M) includes:

  • Lesson plan (pdf)
  • Four PowerPoint slideshows
  • Slideshow notes (pdf)
  • Flat or Fiction - A publication for younger people by Lauri Sadorus and Birgit Soderlund (pdf, 3.1 M)

For more information, please contact the IPHC: secretariat@iphc.int.