Marine Debris Lesson Plans & Activities | National Marine Sanctuaries

Utilize these interactive and educational lesson plans, including activity books, toolkits for educators, and activities, to educate students about the growing problem of marine debris.

Protect Our Ocean Activity Book: Be An Ocean Guardian

You’ve got questions, and the NOAA Marine Debris Program has answers! Explore some of the most frequently asked questions and topics related to marine debris.

Marine Debris: The Probability of Human Impact

Elementary students discover the detrimental effects of marine debris on ocean ecosystems and discuss how the presence of marine debris in food supplies can increase over time through a probability experiment.

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Activities and Curricula from the NOAA Marine Debris Program

Download an assortment of puzzles, brain-teasers, coloring activities, and formal curricula for Grades 1-12. All curricula and activities are available for download and print!

Turtle Trash Collectors Interactive Program Video

In this interactive video of the Turtle Trash Collectors program, students can virtually participate in a simulated sea turtle necropsy, or animal dissection, learn how trash can get to the ocean and impact sea turtles, and learn how we can all help stop marine debris! Please be aware that the model dissection may upset sensitive viewers, especially younger students (K-2nd grade).

Winged Ambassadors – Ocean Literacy through the Eyes of Albatross

Albatrosses, charismatic and threatened seabirds, are ambassadors for a clean ocean because they traverse vast oceanic regions searching for floating food. Along their journeys, they ingest plastic trash and feed it to their chicks. This inquiry-based curricula aligned to Next Generation Science Standards for grades 6-8 includes lesson plans, powerpoint slideshows and scripts, downloadable videos, images of albatrosses boluses containing plastic, an interactive bolus analysis activity, campus wide debris survey tools and more.

Trash Shouldn’t Splash Toolkit

Here we provide a toolkit with information to help you implement a single-use plastics reduction campaign in your own community. The toolkit includes logos, materials, strategies, lessons from behavioral science, classroom visit plans and more.