Introduction to the study of the oceans, at the lower secondary level

The topic Discovering the oceans and the sea floor in class is an exciting one, but challenging in the context where at the lower secondary level it is quite difficult to achieve, taking into account the previous knowledge of 11-12 year old students. And in accordance with the Romanian school curriculum, time is an obstacle, the topic being contained in a maximum of 4 hours. In 5th grade: Chapter Lithosphere - lesson Relief of ocean basins and joints of the shores, Chapter Lithosphere - lesson Planetary ocean - components and location, part in lesson Hydrosphere - characteristics and importance. And tangentially, the theme is touched on in the 6th grade in the Natural Resources lesson. 

In the didactic activities carried out in the classroom, I follow 4 directions of work with the students: the ocean - atmosphere interface, the relief of the ocean basins, the joints of the shores, the ocean - a primordial resource for mankind.

The ocean – atmosphere interface: the ocean, the largest element of the Earth's surface, comes into direct contact with the atmosphere, the most extensive geosphere. Even if the ocean remains an enormous uninhabited environment, through the complex and permanent interrelationships between water - air - energy, it is a space of resources that conditions life Earth: it is the very field of emergence and support of life, with an essential role in storing and redistributing solar energy, shaping the climate, the basis of the water cycle in nature and precipitation formation, plus a huge source of food and biodiversity.

Relief of ocean basins can be presented as the mirror of the continental relief. The emphasis is placed on the similarities of the surface appearance and geomorphological evolution, between the underwater and the land relief; but also in completely different forms – ocean trenches, hydrothermal springs, hot spots.

Joints of the shores it represents the water - land interface, with a great diversity of forms, being the consequence of complex tectonics and erosion, but also of accumulation processes - deltas, lagoons, beaches and coastal strips, atolls.

The ocean - a primary resource for mankind: currently the continental shelf is the main hydrocarbons exploitation region, but the ocean is also a deposit of dissolved salts, polymetallic nodules, wave and tidal energy, respectively a huge source of food. To these, is added the role of the ocean in facilitating and developing global transport and trade, as well as coastal tourism.

In the process of discovery - study - understanding, didactic methods must vary from passive ones, but necessary for understanding the theoretical basis, to active ones, especially brainstorming, problematization method and interdisciplinary comparisons in the field of STEM (Knowledge of the environment, Biology, Physics, Technological education). An important role is played by the use of maps, photos and suggestive figures, satellite images, but also by practical activity - worksheets.