In this two-hour program, Jean-Michel Cousteau leads an expedition to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). They are the most remote islands on the planet, 10 tiny spots of rock and sand in 10 million square miles of ocean. The NWHI serve as reminders of what many other reefs used to be, crowded with life and nearly unspoiled. But their isolation has not always protected them. Voyage to Kure chronicles Jean-Michel's exploration of this nearly pristine environment and his investigation to uncover the stories of its native people and its exploitation by outsiders. These two one-hour episodes address protection and maintenance of the ocean, including mechanisms for addressing pollution/marine debris and invasive species.

Voyage to Kure Viewing Guide: Captivate your students with Voyage to Kure by using these brainstorming, map-reading and vocabulary-building exercises. Also included are Viewing Questions to engage students while they view the program, a collage activity to use as a follow-up assignment, clips recommended for classroom use and specially selected lesson plans developed by ocean experts.

Debris Dilemmas: Use these viewing questions and activities along with the video Trash on the Spin Cycle to discover what causes huge quantities of garbage to end up on the most remote islands in the world.

Kure Waste Chase Lesson: Turn the exciting Web-based game Kure Waste Chase into a structured learning activity by using these specially designed student handouts and teacher tips.

Voyage to Kure Adventures: Visit an aquarium, read a book, research where your waste goes, and inventory the native and exotic species in your yard. With these bonus activities you can extend the learning process beyond the classroom walls.

Because teachers don't have time to research additional materials, the Ocean Adventures education team has handpicked these lessons to complement Voyage to Kure:

• Seabird Survival Adaptation Card Game (PDF): a card game to learn about seabird adaptations and the environmental challenges they face.
• You Are What You Eat: Plastics and Marine Life (PDF): find out about different types of plastics and investigate their impacts on marine life.
• The Purple Problem (PDF): discover the problems an invasive species like purple loosestrife causes.
• Navigating Change (at hawaiianatolls.org): a five part curriculum for grades 4-5 focused on the NWHI and designed to help students explore their relationships to the environment.

Educator Web Links: Expand your curriculum with recommendations from the Ocean Adventures education team.

All Ocean Adventures Educational Materials: View all of the lessons and activities Ocean Adventures has to offer.

PDF File Format
These Ocean Adventures lessons and other materials are available as printer-friendly PDFs (Portable Document Format). To download and view the lesson plans as a PDF, you may first have to get Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free on Adobe's Web site. The Reader is available for most computer platforms, and once downloaded the lessons may be viewed on-screen as well as printed out. Get Acrobat Reader software (at adobe.com)