Looking for some fun tides activities for your middle school science classroom? I got you!
Luckily, I don’t live too far away from the coast. What about you? I love going to the beach, sitting in my beach chair, and reading a book. You know though, there are times when I just have to continue pulling my chair and belongings, back and back, and then back again. Why? The tide is coming in!
Tides are the rising and falling of the sea. They happen all over the world. They are also very predictable, having high tides and low tides. Tides occur as a result of the gravitational pull on the Earth from the Moon (mainly) and the Sun. The greatest effect is on whatever side is closest to the Moon.
It’s pretty neat how this all works, and you get to share this coolness with your students. Why not do it using the WOW Factor? In this post, I share how you can bring the “WONDER” and help your students become curious about tides. Second, I share an interactive lesson that will help your students “OVERCOME the OVERWHELM” of all of the science content. Finally, I share some “WIDEN” strategies to help your students take a deeper dive into tides and extend their knowledge.
Which tides activities will you add to your lesson plan?
Tides Activities for Middle School – WONDER Strategies
The key to getting your students internally motivated to learn is to allow them to become curious about a topic before you teach it. We all know that just reading the objective for the day does not motivate a student to learn. You have to get their buy-in. Here are two WONDER strategies you can learn when teaching your students about tides. I love these tides activities!
Explore Tide Data
Ok, I admit, data can be a little dry and boring for some students, but it can be very engaging. One thing that you can do is show your students tide data from either Tideschart or NOAA. A good tide’s data activity will never hurt anyone!
Give your students the following instructions.
- Go to the website (Teachers should set a timer for about 10-20 minutes.)
- Search for a location.
- Explore the data on your own. Observe the height, plot the data, compare predictions with actual water levels, and explore more data. You have the reigns!
If students do not have their own individual computer, you can pull it up on a screen and ask the class what they’d like to explore.
Here are some guiding questions if they explore on their own or in groups:
- Where was the tide data collected?
- In what time frame does the data represent?
- Identify the times of high tide and low tide. Are there any patterns?
- Are there any local geological features that may influence the data?
- Can you use the data to make predictions about future high tides and low tides?
By looking at this data, they will have more insight into how tides work before diving into the lesson!
Tides Video Discussion
Depending on where you live, your students may or may not have an experience at a beach and with tides.
Give them the best experience you can. Bring in all the themes you want. You can have students bring sunglasses, snacks, and enjoy the sound of the ocean.
Pull up a video such as this, where students can see the tide from a beach point-of-view. Tell them to make some observations as they enjoy their time on the beach!
Have a discussion using the questions:
- What did you observe?
- What do you think caused the changes in water levels?
- How long do you think it took for these changes to occur in this time lapse video?
- What do you think tides are affected by?
- What questions do you still have?
Tides Interactive Lesson
Of course I’m a little biased, but interactive lessons are the best! They are created with the student in mind. They are designed to help reduce the overwhelm of all of the information that a science lesson can have.
Research shows that if students have been given too much information at a time, this overwhelms their cognitive load, and they end up not learning anything at all. Interactive lessons incorporate the 7 steps to help students retain information by reducing cognitive load.
Some of the strategies used include highlighting important information, leaving out unnecessary information, and segmenting the content.
Why do tides rise and fall? How often do tides occur? How many tides occur in a day? In this tides interactive lesson, students learn about what causes the tides to go in and out, why tides happen, high tides, low tides, spring tides, neap tides, and more!
Inside of the lesson, there are embedded and interactive activities that help students process the information. These include a KWL, drag-and-drop activities, type-in-text box activities, and more! Skip the tides activity worksheet and try it out!
You can find this in the Bright in the Middle Shop.
You can also find this on TPT.
Ocean Tides Activities to WIDEN Knowledge
Students learn a lot about tides during WONDER activities and a lesson, but as with any good lesson plan, you want to elaborate on the topic and evaluate student knowledge. WIDEN activities are the perfect idea! Here are two ideas that you can use in your classroom.
What Do Tides Have to Do With It?
I found this neat activity by NOAA. In this activity, student make a “human size” graph of tides! They also investigate different estuary reserves. It’s a great tides lab activity.
All instructions are in the link. Check it out!
Tides RAFT
Many of my posts include a RAFT. I love them! It’s great to incorporate writing in the science classroom to give your students a creative way to discuss a topic. Also, there are SO many other skills that it helps them to build.
A RAFT writing activity engages students in writing by giving them specific R – Roles, A – Audience, F – Format, and T – Topic.
After explaining what a RAFT is to your students, give them their assignment!
Here is an example:
R – tides
A – coastal inhabitants (people, plants, and animals living near the coast)
F – a short story
T – “A Day in the Life”
Of course, you can come up with your own. Something engaging can really bring the creativity out of your students!
Help your students master science content!
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