NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

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.

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.

These 30-minute webinars are presented by Florida Sea Grant extension agents and specialists. They focus on marine and coastal science topics, specifically related to Florida. Some webinars were presented in Spanish.

Reef-building corals rely on a symbiosis with microscopic algae for much of their energetic needs. Rising ocean temperatures threaten this symbiosis and can cause it to break down in a process known as coral bleaching, which is one of the primary threats to the persistence of coral reef ecosystems globally. Corals are not helpless, however, as they are also excellent predators and if they can capture food to maintain their energy budgets while bleached they may have a greater chance for survival. Learn how natural variation in food availability on reefs around the world and how this may influence coral resilience and recovery from bleaching events.

The National Marine Sanctuaries Webinar Series provides educators with educational and scientific expertise, resources and training to support ocean and climate literacy in the classroom. This series targets formal and informal educators that are engaging students (elementary through college) in formal classroom settings, as well as members of the community in informal educational venues (e.g., after school programs, science centers, aquariums, etc.).

This webinar series was developed by NOAA's Regional Collaboration Network and Woods Hole Sea Grant at WHOI in response to the COVID school closures. With over 100 webinars featuring different NOAA experts/topics and a moderated question and answers session throughout so that students could get a peek at what our NOAA scientists do in all the various NOAA offices. They range in geography, content, and NOAA line office focus but are all designed to engage the students, answer their questions, and give them a glimpse of possible career options. Captions are available in English and Spanish. Many have ASL interpretation.

Take a 30 minute tour of the free videos and resources available from NOAA’s Ocean Today program, focusing on the Coral Comeback collection.

​Live events, tailored for students and run through Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, will connect viewers with national marine sanctuary experts in research, education, and exploration in real time. Through the following programs, you will be able to learn about national marine sanctuaries and ask questions to leading experts in their field.

Coral reefs are one of the most important ecosystems on our planet that protect and foster biodiversity. The diversity of locations and reef types makes this system unique and allows for valuable comparisons of reefs from differing biogeographic regions and of differing levels of use. Explore this collection of NOAA webinars, lesson plans, posters, videos, infographics, virtual reality, and more learn about coral reef ecosystems and NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ efforts within the sanctuary system to preserve them and limit the impacts they face.