There are many approaches to learning the meaning of these prefixes and suffixes. Here are a few examples:

1. Have students combine different prefixes and suffixes to create new words associated with deep-sea expeditions. Have them illustrate their new concepts, lifeforms, and/or inventions that result.
   • Examples:
     • Hydropod: "a water-footed animal"
     • Unisub: "a research vessel for only one person"
     • Ancephlafish: "a fish with no head"
     • Subaquabicam: "an underwater camera with two apertures"

   • Students can make a glossary of these new terms, share them orally, and ask other students to figure out their meaning, or they can share their illustrations and ask classmates to label the concept, lifeform, or invention based on their understanding of the prefixes and suffixes.

2. Have students find words in the In Search of Giant Squid web page or in other oceanographic material that uses one or more of these word parts. Ask students to predict the meaning of the word based on the prefix or suffix, as well as sentence context clues, then have them look up the meaning in a dictionary and state the extent to which their prediction was correct. Download the Prefix/Suffix Table for use with this activity.

   Prefix or suffix	Found in this word	Predicted definition	Dictionary definition	Was your prediction correct?

3. Ask students to find words that use these prefixes and suffixes and look up the meanings of those words (Example words are provided below). Then ask students to write a paragraph on an oceanographic topic in which they use eight of those words. When the students come to proper placement for one of the prefix/suffix words, they draw a blank line in place of the prefix or suffix. Collect the paragraphs and re-distribute them to classmates. Classmates fill in the missing prefixes and suffixes using their knowledge of meanings and sentence context clues. Return paragraphs to the original authors and have them determine the accuracy of their classmates' responses.
   • Example words:

     cephalopod	bivalve	zooplankton	phytoplankton
     submarine	chlorophyll	biosphere	bioacoustic
     univalve	aquafilter	photosynthesis	invertebrate

4. Supply basic words or word roots on small pieces of paper. Have students record the prefixes and suffixes on separate pieces of paper. Give students time to mix and match prefixes and suffixes to the word roots or parts and thereby coin new words. Challenge students to find new inventions and ideas that are the most original, the most scientific, the most ridiculous, the most helpful to Dr. Clyde Roper and the expedition in search of giant squid, the most frustrating invention, the most fun, the most likely to be a real word, the greatest number of things associated with the Giant Squid, the greatest number of things associated with research, and so on. Let the students come up with new categories of words.
   • Extension:

     Once a large group of words is generated, have students categorize them five different ways according to meanings or attributes.

     Example:

     Add prefixes to the word "bus." (Students define these words in hopes of winning one of the announced categories.)

     inbus	unibus	bibus	chlorobus
     photobus	zoobus	phytobus	aquabus