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Weekly Online LessonOnline Lesson ArchivesGrade Level: 5-12
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Deep Sea Exploration
Robert J.
Ballard and his crew of oceanographic explorers are at it
again. The same man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic
in the northern Atlantic has uncovered the site of an
ancient Phoenician shipwreck 30 miles off the coast of
Israel in the Mediterranean sea.
Ballard and a team of Harvard archaeologists headed by Lawrence Stager are now researching the find, which promises to reveal new insights into the little-known ways of the ancient Phoenicians. The Phoenicians, who populated what is now Lebanon from about 1200 B.C. to about 146 B.C., have long been known as seagoing traders. These finds, however, begin to shed light on specific trading routes and practices.
As deep-sea
exploration technologies advance, the rate at which finds
like this are being uncovered is accelerating. More and
more, the secrets of the deep are coming to light. In
this lesson you will go on a voyage to the earth's
extremes as you study and learn about deep sea
exploration.
Let's get down to business.
The World's Oldest Deep-Sea Shipwrecks
You can
learn about Ballard's discovery of the Phoenician ships
at the National
Geographic site. At the top of the page is
a series of photographs taken from the excavation site,
as well as images of the team at work above. Read the
short article, and then click on any of the images to see
an enlargement with a paragraph telling more about the
image. These ships were carrying a cargo of wine stored
in amphorae; in one image you can see how after
thousands of years they remain clustered neatly on the
ocean floor.
While at the National Geographic site,
pay a visit to another site explored by Ballard—the
underwater resting place of USS Yorktown, which was
attacked and sunk by the Japanese during the critical
World War II battle of Midway. Go to the Return To Midway
site and click the dive
down link (the Mission
Command link is a shortcut to the final
destination, but it's a lot of fun using your scroll bar
to "dive down" to the level of the wreck). 
When you
arrive at the mission command center, click any of the
links to learn more about various aspects of the wreck
site. For example, click Ships to learn more about
the carriers lost in the battle, or click Findings
to see images and video excerpts.
Aquarius
If you've ever wondered what it might be
like to live and work under the ocean surface, take a
visit to Aquarius—the
first truly undersea Web site. Aquarius is like an
underwater apartment that oceanographers can live in
while they are conducting studies of the ocean near Key
Largo, Florida. 
Most missions last about 10 days, but some
go as long as 30 days. There are definitely some
advantages to living at that depth when you are
conducting research. Find out what these advantages are,
and learn more about Aquarius at their frequently
asked questions page. Also, read Innovations
for the 21st Century for a more detailed overview
of how and why Aquarius was developed.
Once you have a basic understanding of what Aquarius is all about, it's time for you to take a virtual tour. You'll need the IPIX plug-in to take the tour, but there's a link to download it right from that site. Once it's installed, click the image on the page to enter Aquarius. Then use your mouse to maneuver around the cabin in the virtual 3-D environment.
Now that you know what Aquarius is all about, it's time for you to apply some of that underwater expertise to your own study of science. Go to the Lessons page and follow the link to The Physics of Underwater Diving online lesson. You can choose experiments with Buoyancy, Pressure, and Light. The lessons take you step-by-step through the experiments and then show you how each experiment relates to Aquarius.
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