3rd Grade Teachers

Students learn the importance of the rocky seashore ecosystem, explore how animals and humans utilize this ecosystem, and learn how they can help protect the rocky seashore.

During Explore Day at La Jolla Cove, students are introduced to and investigate the rocky seashore and the animals that live there.  They will identify the types and numbers of animals that live there and investigate how humans’ impact on this environment, while building their belief that they can recognize and do science and math.

During the Make a Difference Day at the Living Lab, students learn how they can help protect the rocky seashore today and in the future. Students learn how their community is connected to the rocky seashore through storm drains and investigate how human impacts might harm animals. Students dive deeper into the rocky seashore by exploring how animals are adapted to life in this special habitat. Students also meet a science leader who shares their career pathway, and challenges and obstacles they have faced along the way to becoming a science leader. Collectively, these experiences build students’ belief that science is important and relevant, that challenges can be opportunities to learn and grow, and that they can make a difference in the world.

Students love becoming science leaders, exploring the rocky seashore, using the science discovery process, getting to know science leaders, and making a difference in the world!

NGSS Alignment: 

Performance Expectations: 3-LS3-2: Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment; 3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat, some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

DCI LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits ; LS3.B: Variations of Traits ; LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience ; LS4.C: Adaptation

Cross-Cutting Concepts: Cause and Effect – cause and effect relationships are routinely identified and used to explain change.  Systems and systems models – students understand that a system is a group of related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot. They can also describe a system in terms of its components and their interactions.

Classroom Media: 

Rocky Seashore Video

Rocky Seashore Animal ID Cards

• Adams Elementary
• Central Elementary
• Cherokee Point Elementary
• Edison Elementary
• Euclid Elementary
• Franklin Elementary
• Hamilton Elementary
• Joyner Elementary
• Normal Heights Elementary
• Rosa Parks Elementary
• Rowan Elementary

• Tide Pool Information
  • What is a tide pool? (NOAA National Ocean Service)
  • What is the intertidal zone? (NOAA National Ocean Service)
  • The Rocky Shore (Monterey Bay Aquarium)
• Lesson Plans and Activities
  • Post Program Reflection Sheets – Example 1 ;  Example 2
  • Marine Debris Activities (NOAA Marine Debris Program)
  • Climate Science Alliance Educator Resources – Explorer Backpacks, Book Club, Traveling Trunks & Digital Resources
    • Check out materials for your students on various topics, including: Oceans, Pollinators, Chemistry, Food Systems, Carnivores, & more!
  • Traveling Trunks (Cabrillo National Monument)
    • “See Life – Understanding Biodiversity in Marine Ecosystems”
• Free Field Trip Opportunity with Forever Balboa Park
  • Two 45-minute lesson plan options focused on connecting literacy with environmental literacy in an outside space at Balboa Park.
  • Interested? Book here!
• Science Careers
  • Skype a Scientist