NOAA welcomes teachers and students back to school this fall. If you’re interested in bringing more NOAA science and data into your classroom, check out this roundup of NOAA education resource highlights. We hope you’re gearing up for a great year!
Teacher at Sea alum Trevor Hance led a Trout in the Classroom program for 140 second-grade students at Laurel Mountain Elementary in Austin, Texas. (Image credit: Trevor Hance, NOAA Teacher at Sea)
Do more with data
NOAA is an incredible source for getting started with earth science data. In fact, we have an entire collection of data resources just for educators. If it’s your first time teaching with data, check out our classroom-ready data resources, which are all ready to go. Then dive into some of our best primary data sources from paleoclimatology to real-time ocean conditions.
Download the new NOAA Science on a Sphere Explorer mobile app and bring beautiful visualizations of global data into the palm of your hand. Use the National Data Buoy Center to monitor water quality across the ocean. See potential flooding impacts across most of the United States and its territories with the Sea Level Rise Viewer. Become a Climate Explorer offsite link while looking over historical and projected climate data.
Investigate the International Year of the Salmon
Did you know that 2019 is the International Year of the Salmon? Bring salmon education into your classroom with lessons and activities from our West Coast Fisheries office. Discover salmon species that are managed by NOAA Fisheries, including the three populations that NOAA scientists consider highly at-risk of extinction.
Clue into clouds
Check out the newly updated NOAA cloud chart. Learn to identify the clouds you see overhead and delve into new information about understanding the weather. Then try analyzing your own weather with JetStream and reading a weather map with SciJinks.
Become citizen scientists
Connect your students to ongoing citizen science projects, opportunities for them to participate in Earth science research. Weather monitoring is a great way to connect students with NOAA. Students can report precipitation with mobile devices using the mPING app, and schools can sign up to join the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) offsite link. If you are near a waterway, use the Marine Debris Toolkit for Educators to engage your students in research on global plastic pollution.
Educate young learners
NOAA can help you teach even the youngest students. Look through our elementary resource collection for lessons on earth, life, and physical science, as well as careers and the scientific process. Check out our partnerships with the Octonauts offsite link: listen to our podcast about the show’s featured animals and watch our video about life on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Find out more about weather and safety with Owlie Skywarn.
Decorate your classroom with posters and imagery
If your classroom is in need of an updated look, NOAA has you covered with high-resolution posters and images that you can download and print for free. For larger formats, check out these posters featuring the ocean offsite link, weather, and climate. Bookmark the NOAA Satellite Image of the Day gallery for new ways to see the Earth. Scroll through the thousands of images in the NOAA Flickr library, all in the public domain.
Discover more of what NOAA has to offer
This is only a small sample of the resources that exist within NOAA. We invite you to explore more of NOAA’s education websites from our different offices and programs:
