The honest answer is easily and everywhere! The MARE activities span multiple disciplines including components of writing, reading, art, cooperative learning, math, history, physical education and of course Science! These same activities often spark extension lessons in music, interpersonal skills, vocabulary and spelling, and theater.
For example, our second grade classes study The Sandy Beach in the MARE curriculum. Since we have a bird’s eye view of Old Barney from our shores, the students were very interested in the lighthouse. We often visit the sandy beach at Island Beach State Park or Long Beach Island, NJ as part of our unit. We also contacted the wonderful people at the NJ Lighthouse Society for a school visitation. Now, how did we meet our CCCStandards?
We started with the principles of Understanding By Design (UBD) and identified the “big ideas” that we wanted our students to understand from the lessons. For example, we wanted our students to understand that lighthouses serve a purpose and that purpose is navigation assistance for marine travel. We also wanted the students to understand that lighthouse design follows a few common traits including shape, color and lense choice. Lastly, we wanted the students to understand that lighthouses have both an impact and play an integral part in the sandy beach habitats where they are located. Now, you may be thinking that we are straying very far from the content standards here….. but just wait…. it all comes together! Keep an open mind and know that you can address your CCCStandards easily with this or ANY MARE activity.
Once our “big ideas” or key concepts were identified, we then chose our activities to accomplish these concepts. We matched each activity with cross-curricular connections and with the Content Standards for our grade level. For this example, grades 1 to 2 are the target audiences, but it is adaptable for various grade levels. Below are three of the eight activities we chose and how they fit into the Content Standards.
| Activity | MARE Activity | NJCCCS | Cross-Curricular Connection |
| Students will measure (ft.) and draw Barnegat Lighthouse on the playground using chalk. |
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Sand on Stage |
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Seashore Charades |
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Many of the MARE lessons are correlated with the NJ Core Curricular Content Standards in the document “The Golden Lessons” available at this site: https://marine.rutgers.edu/main/MARE/Getting-Started-with-MARE.html and also on the Cosee site at: https://coseenow.net/mare/getting-started/
The MARE Master Trainers would also be happy to help you identify how your activity fits into the MARE program and the NJCCCS through the forum on this site. Just send out a query and we will be glad to help you!
We realize that justification is often requested or required by your supervisor. When you bring a new idea to your school, such as the MARE club or MARE curriculum, it often falls upon you to be the “salesperson” for the product. Please remember that your COSEE community is here to help you! I can promise you, it is definitely worth it!