X-Oceans Activities for Schools & Camps

Interested in booking X-Oceans for your classroom or summer camp? Contact us at xoceans@stfx.ca 

2025 X-Oceans Activity Description Guide
Ocean-Based STEM Activities 

Climate Change and the Ocean – Brine Shrimp Experiment (Grades 7-12, science, math, biology, environment)

Activity Time: 40 minutes 

Students will complete an experiment to explore the impact of climate change using live brine shrimp (sea monkeys). This hands-on experiment will illustrate the dangers of ocean warming and how this phenomenon can impact the food web. 

Climate Change and the Ocean – Brine Shrimp Game (Grades 1-4, science, math, biology, environment, phys. ed.) 

Activity Time: 30 minutes 

Similar to the brine shrimp experiment, this interactive game has the participants take the role of a brine shrimp foraging for food in a changing ocean climate. Through this game, participants will learn about how our food webs are being impacted by a climate change and ocean warming.

Climate change and Coastal Hazards Engineering Design Challenge (Grades 6-12, science, math, biology, environment, geology, engineering)

Activity Time: 30-50 minutes 
This engineering design challenge will introduce students to coastal hazards (beach erosion, tsunami, earthquake, flooding, marine debris), their impact on coastlines, and the role of engineers in offering solutions that help coastal communities. Students will participate in the engineering process, explore the use of natural and human-made items in engineering solutions, and build a model that offers a solution to a coastal hazard that will help a specific user/audience.
This activity was provided by the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory Oregon State University, a state-of-the-art research facility that focuses on coastal hazards and nearshore processes.

Fish Camouflage & Marine Adaptations (Grades 1-4, art, math, biology, environment)

Activity Time: 20 minutes

Participants will learn about how marine species (including octopus, sea horses, stonefish, squid, cuttlefish, and various invertebrates) have changed through evolutionary adaptations, natural selection, and evolution. We will discuss the diversity of survival strategies and the importance of the marine biodiversity. Using art supplies, students will then be challenged to design and camouflage a fish within their classroom environment. 

Ocean and the Arts - Gyotaku Art (Grades 1-4, art, biology, environment) 

Activity Time: 20 minutes 

Gyotaku is the traditional Japanese method of printing fish. Students will make their own art pieces using our silicon fish molds to stamp paint onto a surface.  

Marine Biodiversity – Live Marine Animal Touch-tanks (All grades, biology, environment) 

Activity Time: 15-20 minutes 

Through hands-on learning, students will learn about various marine organisms housed in the X-Oceans touch-tanks. Anatomy, physiology, habitat, and evolutionary adaptations will be discussed.

Marine Fossils (Grades P-4, science, archeology, biology, environment) 

Activity time: 20 minutes 

This display will allow participants to explore different marine skeletons and fossils from creatures of the past. Participants can use clay to make an imprint of a fossil to take home.  

Microscopy – The Tiniest Wonders (Grades 3-12, science, microbiology, environment) 

Activity Time: 30 minutes
Using a plankton tow net, youth will collect their own water samples from a nearby pond and learn to identify the various microorganisms. Students will observe, identify, and discuss these microscopic organisms, their importance to our food systems, and how they will be affected by climate change. 

Watershed Models Activity (Grades 1-6, science, biology, environment, climate change) 

Activity Time: 20 minutes 

Using our interactive watershed model, participants will learn how our waterways are connected, and what happens to our watersheds when we pollute our environment and don’t manage water properly in a human landscape.

DNA extractions and eDNA (Grades 5-12, molecular biology, chemistry, math, environment)

Activity Time: 20-30 minutes 

Students will be guided through a simple DNA extraction process using fruit. They will be able to see a layer of DNA in their beakers which they can place in a petri dish to weigh and compare how much DNA they extracted with their peers. This is used as a segway to explain what DNA is, what environmental DNA (eDNA) is, and how scientists use it to study what lives in the ocean. 

eDNA simulation (Grades 5-12, molecular biology, chemistry, math, environment)

Activity Time: 30 minutes 

Students will be guided through a hands-on eDNA simulation. They will learn how eDNA is collected, sequenced, and analysed to reveal the presence of various species in an ecosystem, e.g. fish species in different regions.

Ocean Acidification (Grades 7-12, chemistry, math, biology, environment, climate change)

Activity Time: 25 minutes

Through this hands-on experiment participants will learn how excess environmental carbon dioxide can alter the pH of the ocean, and how this harms marine life. Participants will monitor real-time data readings, using lab probes, and visualize the relationship between carbon dioxide and pH.

Ocean Currents (Grades 3-9, science, environment) 

Activity Time: 15 minutes 

This activity brings ocean currents into the classroom through a demonstration. Participants will learn how ocean currents are formed, as well as how they are impacted by climate change.

Ocean Floor Mapping (Grade 6-12, science, math, environment) 

Activity Time: 30 minutes 

In this activity, students will learn about sonar, oceanography, and replicate real-life ocean floor mapping techniques using physical tools and data visualization techniques.   

Ocean Slime (Grades P-4, science, art, math, biology, environment) 

Activity time: 15 minutes 

Participants will learn about how and why marine animals produce slime in the ocean. They will then make their own slime to mimic that of marine animals. 

Overfishing Game (Grades 3-12, math, social studies, biology, environment) 

Activity Time: 30 minutes 

This game will introduce the participants to the dangers of overfishing. In small groups, participants will have to develop a fishing strategy which balances profits with a sustainable ocean fish population.  

Sharks Display (Teeth, Tail and Skin) (Grades 9-12, biology, environment)

Activity time: 30 minutes 

Through our shark display, participants will learn about sharks, their anatomy, behaviour and physiology.

Seaweed Spheres (Grades 7-12, science, nutrition, math, biology, chemistry, environment) 

Activity Time: 20 minutes 

Through this experiment participants will be introduced to the concept of polymerization with seaweed. Participants will use sodium alginate, a seaweed material commonly utilized in the food industry as a thickening agent.

Ocean Microfibers (Grades 2-8, environment) & Microplastics* (Grades 6-12, environment)

Activity Time: 30 minutes 

Through hands-on experiments, participants will learn about the prominence of microfibers and/or microplastics in the ocean. Students will be able to identify with microscopes microfibers that come off clothes when washed or microplastics that accumulate on our beaches.  
*Microplastics activity can only occur once per day.

Marine Animal Dissections: Lungs vs Gills, and/or Circulatory System (Grades 9-12, science, biology, environment)

Activity Time: 30 minutes 
Students will dissect a squid and/or crayfish and/or fish while discussing anatomy, physiology, function, and habitat of the animals. Sheep heart, lungs, frog, and rat dissections can be provided upon request. 

Water Filtration (Grades 2-8, science, chemistry, environment) 

Activity Time: 20 minutes 

Participants will make, and test, their own water filters to mimic how water is filtered in nature. This will be done using prepared materials, as well as materials foraged from the local environment. This activity is best done outside.  

Renewable Energy and the Ocean (Grades 10-12, science, physics, environment)

Activity Time: 20 minutes 

Participants will learn how offshore wind turbines work. By means of small turbines and a computer program, students will measure the energy and calculate the electricity generated by the turbines. They will also compare energy production of offshore turbines vs onshore turbines.

Ocean Nutrition - Meal Preparation (Grades 1-12, science, nutrition, math, biology, environment)

Activity Time:2 hours (offered after May 15)

Under the supervision of our facilitators, participants will prepare and consume a 3-course meal involved seafood in the Human Nutrition labs. Our coordinators will work with you to design a menu that is specifically tailored to the participants. Please let us know of any dietary restrictions a minimum of 48 hours before the activity begins. 
This activity can only occur at Saint Francis Xavier University.

Aquaponics (Grades 10-12, environment, biology, math, chemistry)  

Students will learn about how aquaponics systems work. They will be responsible for looking after a small ecosystem which includes a fish and seeds, with the end goal of growing edible herbs at the top of the aquarium. Focus will be placed on the nitrogen cycle.
This activity is subject to the availability of aquariums.

Non-Ocean Based STEM Activities 

The Importance of Bees (Grades 2-12, environment, biology, nutrition, climate change, math)  

Activity Time: 30 minutes – 1 hour (offered in June)

Students will learn about bees, both wild and managed bees. This includes a discussion about bee conservation, the typical bee lifecycle and a honey tasting directly out of the hive. The students will also have the opportunity to see the demonstration hive; a portable and safe teaching tool filled with a live honeybee colony. Note: the demonstration hive is locked tight. 

Seed Bombs & Pollination (Grades 1-6, environment)  

Activity Time: 30 minutes (offered after May 15)

Students will help make pollinator seed bombs, which can be planted to help “feed the bees”. This activity can also include a discussion on pollinators and their roles in our ecosystem.   

Paleontology - I am not a Dinosaur* (Grades 2-3, biology, science, environment)

Activity Time: 40 minutes  

Through this presentation with Mr. Lauff, participants will learn that not all prehistoric animals are dinosaurs. 
*Subject to Mr. Lauff’s availability. 

Ornithology – Owl pellets dissections* (Grades 2-3, biology, environment)

Activity Time: 30-40 minutes  

Participants will learn about the diversity of owls and their habitat, and dissect owl pellets (which are regurgitated from the beak end) to learn about what owls eat.   
* Subject to Mr. Lauff’s availability.