• The ocean contains more than 97% of the world’s water, but less than 10% of the ocean has been explored.

• An estimated 50-80% of all life on Earth is in the ocean.

• Most of the oxygen we breathe comes from phytoplankton in the ocean, not trees.

• The largest animal in the world lives in the ocean: the blue whale. The blue whale can grow to over 100 feet long and weigh up to 150 tons. Their tongue can weigh as much as an elephant.

• Sound travels over 4 times faster in the ocean than it does on land.

What is an ocean? An ocean is a large body of salt water that covers most of the Earth.Ocean

Fun facts about oceans:

What are the different types of oceans? There is only one type of ocean on Earth, but it can be divided up into different zones and depths or divided into smaller oceans at different locations. The five oceans on Earth are the Arctic, Antarctic (or Southern), Indian, Atlantic and Pacific.

Are there oceans in Georgia? There is an ocean off the coast of Georgia — the Atlantic Ocean.

Ocean

Loggerhead turtle

Sand dollars

Cannonball jellyfish

Nurse shark

Octopus

Moray eel

Sea fan

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Wildlife Checklist:

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Must See:

Diver’s journal and equipment

Sediment sample from the ocean floor

View of open ocean from the sunken shrimp boat

Animals hiding in the reef and videos

Don’t forget to!

Turn the crank to operate

the fish mobile.

Play the Swim with a Turtle

video game.

Match the shapes on the

crab pot.

• The oldest trees east of the Mississippi River are found along blackwater creeks and rivers in Georgia. These bald cypresses have trunks that flare out at the base and produce “knees” that stick out of the ground or water.

• Georgia’s longest river, the Chattahoochee, is a whitewater river and travels 400 miles! It starts as a small spring only 6 inches wide in the mountains and becomes a large river that eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

What is a river? A river is a flowing body of water that is usually freshwater

and ends up in another river, a lake or the ocean.River

Fun facts about rivers:

What are the different types of rivers? Blackwater rivers are slow moving and dark colored due to the acid released by plants along the banks. Whitewater rivers are faster and lighter than blackwater rivers and they have more nutrients.

Are there rivers in Georgia? Georgia has over 70,000 miles of rivers. Some are blackwater and some are whitewater.

River

Must See:Live salamanders

The changes as you follow the path of the river

The waterfallDon’t forget to!

“Splash” in the river with the

virtual fish.

Balance as you walk across

the fallen log.

Match animals with their

footprint in the track game.

Create an echo in the chamber

behind the waterfall.

Can you find evidence that the following animals visited the river?

American beaver

Human

River otter

Black bear

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Wildlife Checklist:

• The water may be anywhere from a few inches to over a foot deep. Though swamps are usually saturated with water during the growing season, they may dry out in the heat of a long summer.

• River swamps have clear water moving quickly, while still water swamps have slow-moving dark-colored water.

• Okefenokee Swamp is called Okefenoka by Native Americans, meaning “Land of the Trembling Earth”. Peat deposits covering the swamp floor are so unstable in spots that one can shake trees & shrubs by stomping the surface.

Swamp

Fun facts about swamps:

What are the different types of swamps? Swamps are often named according to their predominant plants (forested swamp, shrub swamp, mangrove swamp, bottomland hardwood swamp, red oak swamp, etc). Some are classified by their appearance (black water swamp, cypress dome, river swamp, still water swamp).

Are there swamps in Georgia? Swamp areas can be found along Georgia’s large rivers and in floodplain regions.

What is a swamp? A swamp is a lowland region saturated with water whose dominant

vegetation is woody plants such as trees and shrubs.

Swamp

American alligators

Great egret

King snake

Carolina anole

Green tree frog

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Wildlife Checklist:

Must See:

Animals hiding inside of the large fallen log

The mother alligator watching her babies

Many varieties of mushrooms and fungi growing on dead logs and branchesDon’t forget to!

Find animal homes close

to the ground as you crawl

through the cypress knees.

Lift the sediment sample to see

the different layers of soil.

Stack the turtles on a branch.

Learn more about plants in the

botany notebook.

• Georgia has some of the last remaining old growth longleaf pine forests in the world! This forest type once spread from Texas to Georgia and up to Virginia, but now only a few thousand acres are left. These forests have many species that rely heavily on fire for them to thrive.

• Small pockets of forest in the North Georgia mountains average 80-100” of rain per year (twice what Atlanta gets) and some scientists consider these temperate rainforests!

• Georgia has some of the tallest trees in the eastern United States with a few species between 150-180 feet.

Forest

Fun facts about forests:

What are the different types of forests? Forests are classified by their location and amount of precipitation. A few examples are temperate forests, rainforests and boreal forests.

Are there forests in Georgia? Forests are everywhere in Georgia! We mostly have temperate deciduous forests, though we also have some very unique forest types such as longleaf pine forests in the Coastal Plain. Fernbank Forest is one of the best examples of old growth temperate deciduous forest in the state.

What is a forest? A forest is an ecosystem with living and non-living organisms and many trees.

Forest

Squirrel

Red-tailed hawk

Fox

Yellow rat snake

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Wildlife Checklist: Must See:

Cool insect collection

Differences in each tree’s bark and leaves

Acorns hidden in the trunk

Maze of tracks left by termites on the pine tree

Don’t forget to!

Count the tree rings on

the stump table.

Help move the acorns in

the seed dispersal game.

Climb up the secret passage

in the big tree.

Use your ears to find the

yellowjacket nest.

• Solution caves are formed when underground water dissolves the rock layers.

• Caves provide protection for animals from millipedes to bears!

• Stalactites and stalagmites grow drip by drip, and can take hundreds or thousands of years to grow as big as a person.

• Ellison’s Cave in Walker County, GA is the 12th deepest in the U.S., and has two of the deepest cave drops in the country. The cave drops are named “Fantastic” with a 586’ drop and “Incredible” which drops 440’.

• The area where TN, AL and GA meet is one of the most exciting caving spots in the U.S. and is known by its initials as “TAG”.

Caves

Fun facts about caves:

What are the different types of caves? Caves are classified based on how they form. Types include solution caves, lava tube caves, sea caves and glacier caves.

Are there caves in Georgia? At last count, Georgia had over 500 caves. Most of them are solution caves in northwest Georgia.

What is a cave? A cave is a natural hole in the earth, larger than a person, and it

extends far enough into the earth to end up in total darkness.

Caves

Little brown bats

Blind cave fish

Salamanders

Coyote

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Wildlife Checklist:

Must See:

Crystals and geodes

Stalactites and stalagmites

Awesome mineral collection

Map of cave systemDon’t forget to!

Open the drawers in the rock

face to see the fossils buried

inside of the rock.

Explore inside the tunnel.

Shine a flashlight into the cave

and listen for animals.

Look for evidence that animals,

even humans, have used the

caves in the past.

• Salt marshes often surround estuaries. Together, estuaries and salt marshes are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth. They provide food and shelter for fish, birds, mollusks and more.

• Though only about 100 miles long, Georgia’s coast has over 25% of the total salt marsh on the eastern coast of the U.S.

• Estuaries are considered the “nurseries” of the sea because many fish move in to the estuary to lay their eggs and raise their young. In fact, most of the seafood eaten in the U.S. lived in the estuary during part of its life cycle.

• Since saltwater is heavier than freshwater, the water at the bottom of an estuary is usually saltier than the top.

What is an estuary? An estuary is a partially enclosed body of water where

freshwater from the land flows into salty seawater.Estuary

Fun facts about estuaries:

What are the different types of estuaries? Estuaries are usually classified based on how they form. Bays, harbors, fjords and sounds are some of the different names given to estuaries.

Are there estuaries in Georgia? Georgia’s coast is lined with estuaries, most of which are formed when a major river flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the best-known are St. Catherines Sound, Cumberland Sound and Sapelo Sound.

Estuary

Barnacles

Mussels

Oyster beds

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Wildlife Checklist:

Must See:

Live terrapin turtles

SS Fernbank

Cordgrass

Don’t forget to!

Place the estuary animals

in their home on the

magnet board.

Follow the raccoon’s foot prints.

Find the right spot for sea stars

on the magnetic pier piling.