NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

In this activity students investigate the relationship between winds, surface currents, sea surface temperature and upwelling and downwelling off the coast of OR and WA. Students analyze data to make predictions on today’s upwelling or downwelling conditions.

This collection of six separate lessons includes tutorial videos for each themed lesson, except ecological field modeling.

1. Density dynamics: Experiment by creating four model bodies of water and observe how they compare. 
2. Ecological field monitoring: Get into the field and investigate the ecosystems in your local community using field equipment.
3. Glaciers: Investigate how topography came to be through glacial activity 33,000 years ago. Use geologic and physical tests to uncover the evidence left behind by the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Track and hunt down the path laid by ice giants of the past.  
4. Marine debris & microplastics: Discover how marine debris impacts the environment as you experiment with buoyancy and design a model ocean with circular currents.
5. Watersheds: Explore how we impact our water systems and the watersheds that sustain our population. Create a model coastal community and observe how pollutants travel within a watershed
6. Weather & climate: Explore the differences between weather and climate, look at real-time NOAA weather and climate data, experiment with sea level rise, and create coastal resiliency models.

This website hosts a collection of lessons for 5th - 9th grades about the Adopt a Drifter Program, drifter buoys, and data collection. There are additional lessons for high school and undergraduate classes on buoys, data, ocean currents, and more.

Accurate education about climate and energy topics has never been more important, and it can be challenging to locate reliable, vetted educational materials to use in your classroom. CLEAN is here to help you find the resources that you need, without wondering about their scientific credibility or educational value. Search for resources by NGSS Performance Expectations (PE) and Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI), grade level, keyword or resource type, or use CLEAN to design your own unit.

An activity book for educators and students

In this activity, students engineer drifter buoys to demonstrate how trash found in inland waterways can move through the watershed and become marine debris. More lessons from this STREAMSS curriculum for 4th through 12th grade can be found in an offsite link.

Marine debris is a pervasive, global problem and one that is felt locally in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). Through a NOAA Marine Debris Program prevention grant, the University of the Virgin Islands(link is external) adapted and revised marine debris lessons for USVI, including Oregon Marine Debris STEAMSS, Turning the Tide on Trash, and Talking Trash and Taking Action. The curriculum was co-created with the input of educators from USVI who participated in workshops and provided input following in-class use. The curriculum also includes 15 spotlights, which highlight USVI-specific marine debris research, local researchers, community-led prevention efforts, and natural disaster impacts from marine debris.

Marine Debris is a complex, real-world problem which can be addressed through the lenses of several different academic subjects. This curriculum integrates the subject areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math, and Social Studies (STEAMSS), and focuses on experiential hands-on lessons and activities for students in grades 4 through 12.

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.

This unit is designed for seventh grade, but can be adapted to other middle school grades. The unit is introduced with a true story of rubber bath toys that were lost overboard in the Pacific Ocean and found on beaches around the world. Students investigate physical patterns in the ocean as they progress through a series of investigations to learn about weather and ocean circulation patterns, waves and tides, temperature and salinity in relation to currents, and the effects of ocean floor topography on currents. They then choose a culminating activity to examine the effects of ocean movement in real-life or theoretical situations.