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Secrets of the Tide Pools course icon

Secrets of the Tide Pools

Like Duolingo, but for Secrets of the Tide Pools. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

26 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free during early access · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Barnaby the Barnacle
Secrets of the Tide Pools
with Barnaby the Barnacle
26
Levels
3
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Secrets of the Tide Pools

  • The upper shore is exposed to air for the majority of the day
  • Soft-bodied organisms require constant moisture to survive
  • The lower shore is only exposed during the lowest tides
  • The low tide zone provides the most protection from sun and wind
  • Predicting an animal's location based on its physical traits and moisture needs
  • Shells act as armor against drying out in high zones
  • The vertical arrangement of species based on their tolerance for exposure
  • Mobile predators like sea stars need deeper water to move and breathe
  • Matching specific survival strategies to the 'neighborhood' they enable
  • Sneaker waves can arrive unexpectedly even on calm days
  • Algae acts as a lubricant on wet stone
  • Maintaining peripheral awareness of the incoming tide prevents being trapped
  • Mussel shells protect living organisms and are brittle under human weight
  • The splash zone can become submerged instantly by a larger set of waves
  • Sneaker waves and awareness
  • High-energy environments change rapidly regardless of current moisture
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Secrets of the Tide Pools the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Life on the Vertical Ladder

What does a soft-bodied sea slug need most to stay happy and healthy?

Get it right to open this lesson and 25 more in the app.

Course map

Where Secrets of the Tide Pools takes you

Discover the miniature worlds hidden between the rocks at the ocean's edge. Learn how to spot camouflaged creatures and understand the daily drama of life in a puddle.

  1. 1

    Explore the Water's Edge

    • Where to Look for Life
    • The Art of Tide Pool Safety
    • Spotting the Masters of Disguise
    • How to Touch Without Hurting
  2. 2

    Meet the Toughest Neighbors

    • Crabs: The Grumpy Scavengers
    • Starfish and Their Sticky Feet
    • Anemones: The Flowers That Sting
    • Snails and Their Secret Trapdoors
    • Small Fish in Big Puddles
    • The Octopus in the Shallows
  3. 3

    Surviving the Changing Tides

    • The Battle Against the Sun
    • Holding On When Waves Crash
    • Why the Ocean Leaves Twice a Day

3 sections · 13 units · 26 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
Explain Like I'm 5

Secrets of the Tide Pools is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start Secrets of the Tide Pools today.

Download Tomo, search Secrets of the Tide Pools, and play your first lesson in under a minute.