Voyage to the Sea addresses the following learning standards from the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.

World Geography, Grade 6

History and Geography
1. Use map and globe skills learned in pre-kindergarten to grade five to interpret different kids of projections, as well as topographic, landform, political, population, and climage maps. (G)

2. Use geographic terms correctly.... (G)

3. Interpret geographic information from a graph or chart and construct a graph or chart that conveys geographic information (e.g., about rainfall, temperature, or population size data). (G)

4. Explain the difference between absolute and relative location and give examples of different ways to indicate relative location for countries or cities across the world. (G)

5. Identify how current world atlases are organized and the kind of information they provide for each continent and country. (G)

Economics
12. Define supply and demand and describe how changes in supply and demand affect prices of specific products.... (E)

13. Identify the key elements of a market economy.... (E)

History and Social Science, Grade 7

History and Geography
1. Compare information shown on modern and historical maps of the same region. (G)

4. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources and describe how each kind of source is used in interpreting history. (H)

5. Identify multiple causes and effects when explaining historical events. (H)

Economics
8. Define and apply economic concepts learned in pre-kindergarten through grade 6: producers, consumers, goods, services, buyers, sellers, natural resources, taxes, specialization, savings, entrepreneur, prices, markets, scarcity, trade, barter, money, medium of exchange, supply and demand.

Life Science (Biology), Grades 6-8

Evolution and Biodiversity
10. Give examples of ways in which genetic variation and environmental factors are causes of evolution and the diversity of organisms.

11. Recognize that evidence drawn from geology, fossils, and comparative anatomy provide the basis of the theory of evolution.

12. Relate the extinction of species to a mismatch of adaptation and the environment.

Living Things and Their Environment

13. Give examples of ways in which organisms interact and have different functions within an ecosystem that enable the ecosystem to survive.

Energy and Living Things
14. Explain the roles and relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in the process of energy transfer in a food web.

15. Explain how dead plants and animals are broken down by other living organisms and how this process contributes to the system as a whole.

16. Recognize that producers... use the energy from sunlight to make sugars from carbon dioxide and water through a process called photosynthesis. This food can be used immediately, stored for later use, or used by other organisms.

Changes in Ecosystems over Time
17. Identify ways in which ecosystems have changed throughout geologic time in response to physical conditions, interactions among organisms, and the actions of humans. Describe how changes may be catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions or ice storms.

18. Recognize that biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations.

Technology/Engineering, Grades PreK-8

1. Materials, Tools and Machines. Broad Concept: Appropriate materials, tools and machines enable us to solve problems, invent, and construct.

2. Engineering Design. Broad Concept: Engineering design is an iterative process involving modeling and optimizing for developing technological solutions to problems within given constraints.

3. Communication Technologies. Broad Concept: Ideas can be communicated through engineering drawings, written reports, and pictures.

4. Manufacturing Technologies. Broad Concept: Manufacturing is the process of converting raw materials (primary process) into physical goods (secondary process), involving multiple industrial processes, e.g., assembly, multiple stages of production, quality control.

5. Construction Technologies. Broad Concept: Construction technology involves building structures in order to contain, shelter, manufacture, transport, communicate, and provide recreation.

6. Transportation Technologies. Broad Concept: Transportation technologies are systems and devices that move goods and people from one place to another across or through land, air, water, or space.
 
English Language Arts
 
Standards, Language Strand, Grade 7
Standard 4: Vocabulary and Concept Development. Students will understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.
 
Standard 8: Understanding a Text. Students will identify basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
 
Standard 10: Genre. Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the characteristics of different genres.

Standard 12: Fiction. Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
 
Standard 13: Nonfiction. Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purposes, structure and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
 
Standard 15: Style and Language. Students will identify and analyze how an author's words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone, and will provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
 
Standard 17: Dramatic Literature. Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of drama and provide evidence form the text to support their understanding.
 
  
In our two year project associated with the making of Voyage to the Sea, we also addressed these additional standards: (E)
 
 
Earth and Space Science, Grades 6-8
 
Mapping the Earth
1. Recognize, interpret, and be able to create models of the earth's common physical features in various mapping representations, including contour maps.
 
Earth's Structure
2. Describe the layers of the solid earth, including the lithosphere, the hot convecting mantle, and the dense metallic core.

Heat Transfer in the Earth's System
3. Differentiate among radiation, conduction, and convection, the three mechanisms by which heat is transferred through the earth's system.

4. Explain the relationship among the energy provided by the sun, the global patterns of atmospheric movement, and the temperature differences among water, land, and atmosphere.

Earth's History
5. Describe how the movement of the earth's crustal plates causes both slow changes in the earth's surface (e.g., formation of mountains and ocean basins) and rapid ones (e.g., volcanic eruptions and earthquakes).

6. Describe and give examples of ways in which the earth's surface is built up and torn down by natural processes, including deposition of sediments, rock formation, erosion, and weathering.

7. Explain and give examples of how physical evidence, such as fossils and surface features of glaciation, supports theories that the earth has evolved over geologic time.

The Earth in the Solar System
8. Recognize that gravity is a force that pulls all things on and near the earth towards the center of the earth. Gravity plays a major role in the formation of the planets, stars, and solar system and in determining their motions.
 
World Geography, Grade 6

History and Geography
1.  Use map and globe skills learned in pre-kindergarten to grade five to interpret different kids of projections, as well as topographic, landform, political, population, and climate maps. (G)
 
2.  Use geographic terms correctly…. (G)
 
3.  Interpret geographic information from a graph or chart and construct a graph or chart that conveys geography information (e.g., about rainfall, temperature, or population size data). (G)
 
4.  Explain the difference between absolute and relative location and give examples of different ways to indicate relative location for countries or cities across the world. (G)
 
5.  Identify how current world atlases are organized and the kind of information they provide for each continent and country. (G)
 
Economics
12.  Define supply and demand and describe how changes in supply and demand affect prices of specific products.... (E)
 
13.  Identify the key elements of a market economy.... (E)
 
History and Social Science, Grade 7
 
History and Geography
1.  Compare information shown on modern and historical maps of the same region. (G)
 
4.  Distinguish between primary and secondary sources and describe how each kind of source is used in interpreting history. (H)
 
5.  Identify multiple causes and effects when explaining historical events. (H)
 
Economics
 
8.  Define and apply economic concepts learned in pre-kindergarten through grade 6:  producers, consumers, goods, services, buyers, sellers, natural resources, taxes, specialization, savings, entrepreneur, prices, markets, scarcity, trade, barter, money, medium of exchange, supply and demand.
 
 
Life Science (Biology), Grades 6-8
 
Evolution and Biodiversity
10.  Give examples of ways in which genetic variation and environmental factors are causes of evolution and the diversity of organisms.
 
11.  Recognize that evidence drawn from geology, fossils, and comparative anatomy provide the basis of the theory of evolution.
 
12.  Relate the extinction of species to a mis-match of adaptation and the environment.
 
Living Things and Their Environment
13.  Give examples of ways in which organisms interact and have different functions within an ecosystem that enable the ecosystem to survive.
 
Energy and Living Things
14.  Explain the roles and relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in the process of energy transfer in a food web.
 
15.  Explain how dead plants and animals are broken down by other living organisms and how this process contributes to the system as a whole.
 
16.  Recognize that producers... use the energy from sunlight to make sugars from carbon dioxide and water through a process called photosynthesis.  This food can be used immediately, stored for later use, or used by other organisms.
 
Changes in Ecosystems over Time
17.  Identify ways in which ecosystems have changed throughout geologic time in response to physical conditions, interactions among organisms, and the actions of humans.  Describe how changes may be catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions or ice storms.
 
18.  Recognize that biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations.
 
Technology/Engineering, Grades PreK-8
1.  Materials, Tools and Machines.  Broad Concept:  Appropriate materials, tools and machines enable us to solve problems, invent, and construct.
 
2.  Engineering Design.  Broad Concept:  Engineering design is an iterative process involving modeling and optimizing for developing technological solutions to problems within given constraints.
 
3.  Communication Technologies.  Broad Concept:  Ideas can be communicated through engineering drawings, written reports, and pictures.
 
4.  Manufacturing Technologies.  Broad Concept:  Manufacturing is the process of converting raw materials (primary process) into physical goods (secondary process), involving multiple industrial processes, e.g., assembly, multiple stages of production, quality control.
 
5.  Construction Technologies.  Broad Concept:  Construction technology involves building structures in order to contain, shelter, manufacture, transport, communicate, and provide recreation.
 
6.  Transportation Technologies.  Broad Concept:  Transportation technologies are systems and devices that move goods and people from one place to another across or through land, air, water, or space.
 
English Language Arts, Grade 7  
 
Standard 4:  Vocabulary and Concept Development.  Students will understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.
 
Standard 8:  Understanding a Text.  Students will identify basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
 
Standard 10:  Genre.  Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the characteristics of different genres.
 
Standard 12:  Fiction.  Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
 
Standard 13:  Nonfiction.  Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purposes, structure and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
 
Standard 15:  Style and Language.  Students will identify and analyze how an author's words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone, and will provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
 
Standard 17:  Dramatic Literature.  Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of drama and provide evidence form the text to support their understanding.
 
In our two-year project associated with the making of Voyage to the Sea, we also addressed these additional standards:
 
Earth and Space Science, Grades 6-8
 
Mapping the Earth
1.  Recognize, interpret, and be able to create models of the earth's common physical features in various mapping representations, including contour maps.
 
Earth's Structure
2.  Describe the layers of the solid earth, including the lithosphere, the hot convecting mantle, and the dense metallic core.
 
Heat Transfer in the Earth's System
3.  Differentiate among radiation, conduction, and convection, the three mechanisms by which heat is transferred through the earth's system.
 
4.  Explain the relationship among the energy provided by the sun, the global patterns of atmospheric movement, and the temperature differences among water, land, and atmosphere.
 
Earth's History
5.  Describe how the movement of the earth's crustal plates causes both slow changes in the earth's surface (e.g., formation of mountains and ocean basins) and rapid ones (e.g., volcanic eruptions and earthquakes).
 
6.  Describe and give examples of ways in which the earth's surface is built up and torn down by natural processes, including deposition of sediments, rock formation, erosion, and weathering.
 
7.  Explain and give examples of how physical evidence, such as fossils and surface features of glaciation, supports theories that the earth has evolved over geologic time.
 
The Earth in the Solar System
8.  Recognize that gravity is a force that pulls all things on and near the earth towards the center of the earth.  Gravity plays a major role in the formation of the planets, stars, and solar system and in determining their motions.
 
 
Instructional Technology, PreK-12
 
#1  Demonstrate proficiency in the use of computers and applications as well as an understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, and connectivity.
 
            1.15     Operate peripheral equipment, scanner, digital camera, camcorder.
1.17     Identify and use editing and formatting features of a word processing program.
1.18     Insert images from other files and word-processed document.
1.20     Create an original database, defining field formats and adding new records.
1.21     Perform simple operations in database.
1.26     Using a browser, “bookmark” a Web site for future reference.
1.28     Copy an image from a Web site into a file on the desktop; write a correct citation caption in keeping with copyright laws.
1.33     Identify and use drawing and painting applications as appropriate for class projects.
1.35      Demonstrate file management skills.
1.36      Run multiple applications simultaneously, alternating among them.
1.37     Resolve commonly occurring error messages.  Resolve simple hardware and software problems as they occur.
1.38     Identify and use methods for transferring, downloading and converting graphic, sound and video files.  Use different graphic file formats where appropriate.
1.39     Use a variety of external peripherals and understand how they connect to a computer.
1.54     Explain effective search strategies to locate and retrieve electronic information.
1.58     Create and manipulate illustrators using a drawing or painting program.
1.60     Select the appropriate technology tool for a task.
 
#2  Demonstrate responsible use of technology and an understanding of ethics and safety issues in using electronic media.
           
2.1      Follow classroom rules for responsible use of computers.
2.2      Develop understanding for the school’s rules for safe and ethical Internet use.
2.3       Explore practices for evaluating Web sites.
2.6       Explain and demonstrate ethical and legal behavior in copying files, applications, and media.
2.12     Validate a Web site for authenticity (e.g. find sponsor, author, and date
the site was last updated).
2.13     Explain how media and technology can be misused to distort or exaggerate Information.
2.14     Write correct citations for text and images gathered from electronic sources. Understand that the use of materials is   limited by the fair use rule of copyright law.
 
#3  Demonstrate ability to use technology for research, problem-solving and communication.  Students locate, evaluate, collect, and process information from a variety of electronic sources.  Students use telecommunications and other media to interact or collaborate with peers, experts, and other audiences.
 
3.1     Explore and develop understanding of how to gather information from a variety of electronic sources.
3.2     Explore the use of application programs (e.g., word processing, database, spreadsheet) for organizing information into charts, tables, and diagrams.         
3.4     Collaborate with classmates and teachers in creating a multimedia presentation to communicate learning with others.
3.7     Use search engines effectively to find relevant, unbiased, and current information on a subject.
3.8     Organize information that is collected using a variety of tools.
3.9     Communicate results of research and learning with others using the most appropriate tools.
3.11   Under teacher’s guidance and at discretion of district, use e-mail to communicate with others (e.g., students in other classrooms, experts in a subject, teachers).
3.15   Present information, ideas, and results of work using any of a variety of communications technologies (e.g., multimedia presentations, Web pages, videotapes, desktop-published documents).