Classroom Materials

The Floating Classroom Program provides supplemental materials designed to make participants’ experiences aboard the Karma more meaningful. It is strongly recommended that teachers review these materials with their students before the trip — members of your group will absorb more information from the activities aboard if they are familiar with the concepts before their arrival.

Teachers and group leaders are also required to administer a short test to participants both before and after their Floating Classroom trip.

A Karma Primer:
Activities Aboard the R/V Karma (text or pdf version) (The text version is a MS Word document that will automatically download to your computer.)

Classroom Activities:
Heat Capacity and the Hydrological Cycle (text or pdf version)
Salinity Solutions (text or pdf version)
Barges and Other Floating Objects (text or pdf version)
Don’t Pressure Me!: Air and Water Pressure (text or pdf version)

Onboard Activities:
Plankton (text or pdf version)

Pre-/Post-Test:
Grades 4-7 (text or pdf version)
Grades 8-12 (text or pdf version)

The curriculum materials above include a TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) correlation at the end of each for your lesson plans. The discovery cruise may meet additional TEKS that are not cited. Please contact the Floating Classroom if you discover any TEKS that should be added to the list. In addition, slight modifications, including extensions to the activities, may address other TEKS. TEKS are provided by the Texas Education Agency.