Each Teacher Guide includes:

• Lesson Plans
• Paperback copy of the storybook Despina Makes a Splash
• Teacher Background Information
• Assessment Tools
• English Language Learner suggestions

---

This unit and storybook introduce students to the field of ocean engineering and the concept of density. In the storybook, Despina and her cousin Chrisanthy are faced with a problem. While sailing off the coast of their hometown of Santorini, Greece, Chrisanthy drops her goggles. A chance encounter with a piece of "treasure" floating in the ocean leads the girls to speak with ocean engineers who are designing instruments used on ocean submersibles. Inspired by what they learn, Despina and Chrisanthy design their own submersible to retrieve the lost goggles.

Students will have the chance to map a section of ocean floor using sounding pole technology, and will review images of the ocean floor gathered with sonar technology. Challenged to design their own submersibles, which need to float unassisted, students will test the floating and sinking behaviors of instruments that they could include in their submersible designs. Along with the floating criterion, students will need to consider the volume of their submersibles and the number of instruments they are able to take on board. After creating their submersible designs, groups will attempt to retrieve packages off of a model ocean floor.

• GEMS Connection: Only One Ocean, Ocean Currents
• FOSS Connection: Water, Matter and Energy
• STC Connection: Floating and Sinking, Solids and Liquids Insights Connection: Liquids