NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

The Deep Ocean Education Project is a collaboration among NOAA Ocean Exploration, Ocean Exploration Trust, and Schmidt Ocean Institute featuring high-quality ocean exploration and science education materials from the three organizations. The Deep Ocean Education Project website – launched in 2021 – is built around themes that are easily searchable, address key ocean-related phenomena, and encourage and support three-dimensional approaches to teaching and learning for K-12 education. The objective is to provide a one-stop resource hub for public, educators, and students looking for deep-sea educational materials. The website also includes information on how to connect with research vessels, including a list of upcoming events and opportunities, and live feeds of expeditions.

A rapidly changing climate brings challenges to our underwater parks in ways we have never seen before. Climate-related impacts, like changing weather patterns and storm events, warming seas, ocean acidification, and sea level rise, are becoming more prevalent around the globe. Changes in climate will affect national marine sanctuaries and the overall health of the ocean, which is vital to our quality of life and, ultimately, our survival.

Seamounts represent some of Earth’s tallest peaks, unexplored territories, and critical habitats supporting important fisheries across the globe. Students will apply the phenomenon of upwelling and currents to determine why many seamounts sustain diverse ecological communities and support surprising levels of biological productivity in nearby waters. Students analyze data and various models to evaluate how well they represent patterns of ocean currents around seamounts and determine the effects these current flows have on productivity.

Explore this collections of lessons, activities, videos, coloring pages, and field guides from the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve on life in that estuary.

Kelp forests are an important ecosystem that support a variety of species and grow predominantly along the Eastern Pacific Coast, from Alaska and Canada to the waters of Baja, California. Kelp forests can be found in four of our national marine sanctuaries along the West Coast of the United States. This collection has compiled wide-ranging resources from lesson plans, webinars, web stories, virtual reality videos, and more. You are invited to learn more about the importance of Kelp Forest Ecosystems, NOAA’s efforts to manage and conserve them, the species that call these forests home, and the threats kelp face.

The ocean absorbs the extra carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels, like coal, oil, and natural gas, and that changes the chemistry of the ocean. We call this “ocean acidification.” The change in chemistry is reducing the amount of calcium carbonate in the ocean. Just as humans need calcium to build their bones, sea creatures need calcium carbonate to build strong skeletons and shells. Ocean acidification changes the chemistry of the ocean and causes “osteoporosis of the sea,” which prevents animals at the bottom of the food chain from building and maintaining the protective shells they need to survive.

Why teach about estuaries? This suite of estuary education resources help educators bring estuarine science into the classroom through hands-on learning, experiments, fieldwork, and data explorations. These specially designed lessons, activities, data explorations, animations and videos can be used independently or as a supplement to existing curricula and can be adapted to meet any grade level.

Students will explore the ecology of one of three different species in Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (HIHWNMS). They will also explore conservation measures in place for their species protection. Students will produce a trifold brochure meant to teach visitors of the sanctuary about the ecology of their assigned species and its important to Native Hawaiian culture.

Despite existing in the depths of the ocean, where sunlight cannot reach, hydrothermal vents are oases of life in the deep. In this investigation, students explore the phenomenon: How can ecosystems survive without sunlight? and develop their understanding of chemosynthetic communities through student-sensemaking.

The Okeanos Explorer education materials collection was developed to encourage educators and students to become personally involved with the voyages and discoveries of the Okeanos Explorer – the only federal vessel dedicated to exploring our largely unknown ocean for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge about the deep ocean.