“Ocean Motion” Lecture
I prepared an original lecture on “ocean motion” to teach my Junior Lifeguard camp about what causes wind, waves, and tides. Teaching the lecture across three age groups (spanning 8 and 13 years old) gave me the opportunity to tailor the lecture to each age group. I asked the older kids more thought-provoking questions and allowed them to justify their intuitions, while for the younger kids I employed the “think, pair, share” strategy. Preparing and lecturing on a topic which I am so passionate about gave me a better understanding of the topic, improved my presentation skills, and contributed to the worldly knowledge of about 250 junior guards (I hope).
My main goals were:
Simplify the content. I needed to make what I learned in a college class, digestible to the kids in elementary and middle school.
Keep it entertaining. I only taught concepts for which I could make a convincing drawing with audience participation.
Leave the kids and instructors with a better understanding of the ocean environment. A long-term goal is to educate my fellow JG instructors to give my lecture after I am gone.
I begin the wind portion of my lecture with only the ocean and land graphics as shown. As I ask probing questions—“Which gets hotter, sand or water?”—and the kids answer, “sand,” I add the “hot air” to my drawing. This is how I keep my lecture interactive; rather than telling them the way it is, I ask questions that lead kids to the answers. By the end, they’ve proved to themselves the daily onshore wind phenomena which they experience daily.
Everyone knows that the moon causes tides, but far fewer can explain how. By employing “think, pair, share,” I can gauge the class’s individual understanding without putting anyone on the spot. After sharing among themselves, the kids have more confidence in their hypotheses, and are more willing to explain it to me in front of the class.
The lecture went very smoothly and the kids were engaged throughout. Later in the week, I overheard a group discussing wind using the terms I taught them, “density” and “pressure.” Realizing that the junior guards not only listened to my presentation, but were engaged enough that they were still thinking about it days later, validated my efforts and made my week. Overall, this was a wonderful learning experience on both sides of the lecture, and I’ll be back to present again next summer!