The Blue Planet Live! Education online resources
Packs 1 through 4 are primary, 5 through 8 are secondary.

 

This activity uses excerpts from Liz Kessler’s Emily Windsnap books to stimulate creative writing in a primary audience, alongside a short history of mermaids, mermen, and selkies. Years 4-6. ASSOCIATED WORKSHOP

 

This activity is about seeing music in the sea. The composer of the score of Blue Planet, George Fenton, has described how he wrote his music in response to the beautiful moving images in the film footage. Children in the primary curriculum are often asked to think about to represent water, and music, in art; this activity turns this around, encouraging children to develop sets of sounds or even whole pieces of music in response to images of sea water and what lives and moves in it. Years 4-6.

 

This activity teaches the concept of a food chain and explores the impact humans have on sea life through use of the sea as a source of food. Children are encouraged to imagine that they are stranded on the tropical island Sipadan and that they can only eat what they can find or catch and what they will not exhaust through over-use. Recipes are provided. Years 4-6.

 

This activity uses collage and mosaic techniques to introduce information about the diversity of life in coral reefs, and the fragility of the reef ecosystem. In the national curriculum, one aim is that children be encouraged to consider the role of art and design in the creation of sustainable environments. In this context, children will be asked to use ‘recycled’ materials for producing their mosaics – old damaged pots to smash, shells, pebbles and sea glass. Years 4-6. ASSOCIATED WORKSHOP.

 

This creative writing activity invites children to write lyrics or blog entries after watching clips of waves from the show, and reading lyrics from an assortment of modern music spanning rock, indie, and rap. Years 7-9.

 

This resource introduces key stage 3 children to alternative notation techniques for recording musical composition, specifically graphic scores. Years 7-9. ASSOCIATED WORKSHOP.

 

This resource is for key stage 3 and helps students bring together what they’ve learned in biology, chemistry, and geology, by looking at the effect of climate change on the ocean. The resource focuses on 3 areas: deep sea vents, the life around them, and how climate change alters oceanic circulation and warms of bottom waters. Years 7-9. ASSOCIATED WORKSHOP.

 

This resource introduces A-level students to taxonomy through a shell-sorting exercise. Students will also consider the value of shells, as token of economic exchange and as aesthetic objects. The juxtaposition of different systems, principles, or functions by which shells are classified and accorded value will give students an appreciation of the place of science within culture and culture within science. The associated workshop additionally explores the contexts of how and why shells exist in the constructed environment of a Museum as opposed to their 'natural' environment. Post 16. ASSOCIATED WORKSHOP.