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Welcome to our searchable database of education resources created by NOAA and our partners. If you have issues or feedback, please let us know by filling out our feedback form offsite link or sending us an email at education@noaa.gov.
Tips for using the database
Searching for terms that contain more than one word.
Use quotation marks around multiple-word phrases you want to search. For example, searching “climate change” will return resources about “climate change.” If you don’t include quotation marks, it will return resources that include either the word “climate” or “change.”
Opening resources in a new tab.
Follow the instructions below for the device you are using.
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Expanding categories.
Each category has a plus sign (+) to expand the available filters within the category. Some categories have subcategories. Look for the plus sign (+) to see more filterable items.
Making the most of the filterable categories.
There are several categories you can use to filter through the resources.
- “Audience” filters by grade level, including postsecondary education, and also has a filter option for adult learners.
- “Subject” filters by the general subject area, such as Arts, Earth science, Math, and more.
- “Resource Type” filters allow you to look for resources ranging from activities, lessons, and units to videos or background information.
- “Topic” filters are more specific than subject. They include filters such as climate, freshwater, and weather and atmosphere.
- “NGSS DCI” filters by Next Generation Science Standards Disciplinary Core Ideas. Only activities, lessons, and units (and no other resource types) have NGSS DCI associated with them. Not all activities, lessons, and units have this alignment.
- “Special categories” offers additional filters for specific types of resources and topics, such as printables, resources available in other languages, and safety/preparedness.
Exploring activities, lessons, and units.
Activities, lessons, and units are bundled together under resource type. You can expand to filter for only one type. Activity/demonstration refers to straightforward activities with little or no classroom strategy or pedagogy. Lesson refers to structured activities that are intended for a classroom audience. Module/unit refers to a collection of lessons that can build upon each other over multiple class periods or times of instruction; some people might call this a curriculum.
Understanding instructional strategies.
Within special categories, there is an expandable filter called “instructional strategies.” This includes special filters that are applicable for some lessons, activities, and units, including things like “outdoor education” and “uses data.”
- Activities, lessons, and units (129)
- Arts and crafts (6)
- Background information (227)
- Career profile (93)
- Citizen science project (12)
- Collection (176)
- Coloring/activity book (16)
- Contest (2)
- Data product (160)
- Job seeker resource (8)
- Multimedia (526)
- NOAA Education resource collection (25)
- Poster/brochure (28)
- Related story (181)
- Climate (264)
- Freshwater (144)
- Marine life
(417)
- Adaptations (11)
- Aquatic food webs (47)
- Coral reef ecosystems (75)
- Conservation (28)
- Ecosystems (98)
- Endangered species (20)
- Entanglement (14)
- Fish (82)
- Fisheries and seafood (98)
- Invasive marine species (8)
- Invertebrates (79)
- Life in an estuary (30)
- Marine mammals (111)
- Plankton (12)
- Salmon (21)
- Sea turtles (56)
- Seabirds (24)
- Seaweed, algae, and aquatic plants (21)
- Sharks, rays, and skates (32)
- NOAA careers (22)
- Ocean and coasts
(610)
- Earth processes (13)
- Harmful algal blooms (18)
- Maritime archaeology and history (32)
- Ocean acidification (63)
- Ocean chemistry (16)
- Ocean currents (90)
- Ocean exploration (75)
- Ocean floor features (77)
- Ocean pollution and marine debris (148)
- Ocean sounds (13)
- Oil spills (54)
- Rip currents (22)
- Sea level rise (40)
- Tides (57)
- Tsunamis (53)
- Space (47)
- Technology and engineering (275)
- Weather and atmosphere (305)
- ESS2: Earth’s Systems (27)
- ESS3: Earth and Human Activity (35)
- ETS1: Engineering Design (22)
- LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes (9)
- LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics (35)
- LS3: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits (2)
- LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity (11)
- PS1: Matter and Its Interactions (15)
- PS2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions (2)
- PS3: Energy (4)
- PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer (4)
- Adopt a Drifter Program (1)
- Aquaculture education webinar series (1)
- At Home with Galveston Bay (1)
- B-WET grantee (5)
- Bite-sized Science webinar series (1)
- Carbon educational tools (1)
- Careers in hydrology (1)
- Celebrating veterans serving in habitat conservation (1)
- CIMSS weather and climate activities (1)
- CIRES/NOAA Science@Home webinar (1)
- CIRES/NOAA Serie La Ciencia-en-Casa (1)
- CLEAN climate and energy education resource collection (1)
- Climate change in Alaska video series (1)
- Climate.gov (1)
- Data in the Classroom (4)
- Deep Ocean Education Project Website (1)
- Deep ocean fact sheets (1)
- Deep-sea dialogues (5)
- Diving Deeper podcast (2)
- Do you NOAA? (1)
- EarthLabs (2)
- ELP grantee (5)
- ESRL Global Monitoring Laboratory (1)
- Estuary Education website (2)
- Explore remote sensing (1)
- Exploring our fluid Earth (1)
- Faces of the National Weather Service (2)
- Finding fish hotspots and mapping coral reefs (1)
- FishWatch sustainable seafood database (1)
- FishWatch sustainable seafood video gallery (1)
- Florida Seafood at Your Fingertips (1)
- Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (1)
- Fun facts about sea life (1)
- GOES-R infographics (1)
- GOES-R printable materials (1)
- GOES-R satellite video collection (2)
- GPS educational resources (1)
- Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System (1)
- Great Lakes Meteorological Real-Time Coastal Observation Network (ReCON) (1)
- Great Lakes photo gallery (1)
- Hurricane Hunters video collection (1)
- JetStream: An online school for weather (7)
- Making Waves podcast (4)
- Marine Careers: A Sea Grant guide to ocean opportunities (1)
- Marine Debris at-home collection (1)
- Marine Debris Program posters (1)
- Marine Debris STEAMSS (2)
- Marine Debris Toolkit (1)
- Maritime Archaeology (1)
- MOSAiC: Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate videos (1)
- MOSAiC: Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate virtual reality tours (1)
- National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (2)
- National Geodetic Survey (3)
- National Geodetic Survey geodesy and mapping videos (1)
- National Marine Ecosystem Status (1)
- National marine sanctuaries coloring pages and puzzles (1)
- National Marine Sanctuaries Webinar Series: Archived webinars (7)
- National Weather Service (1)
- NOAA Boulder Labs: Meet our team (1)
- NOAA Boulder scientists explain science (1)
- NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps (1)
- NOAA Digital Coast (2)
- NOAA Enrichment in Marine Sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) curriculum (1)
- NOAA Fisheries YouTube (1)
- NOAA Fisheries: Find a species (1)
- NOAA Live! Alaska (1)
- NOAA Marine Debris Program (3)
- NOAA Ocean Podcast (1)
- NOAA Office of Education student opportunities (1)
- NOAA Satellites infographics (1)
- NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer: Education materials collection (1)
- Ocean Acidification Communication Toolkit: Dungeness crab case study (1)
- Ocean Exploration careers (1)
- Ocean Exploration educational materials (10)
- Ocean Exploration facts (2)
- Ocean facts (3)
- Ocean Today
(263)
- Ocean Today: Danger zone (27)
- Ocean Today: Deeper dive (1)
- Ocean Today: Exploration (27)
- Ocean Today: Fix the ocean (21)
- Ocean Today: Go fish (9)
- Ocean Today: Marine life (45)
- Ocean Today: Research (40)
- Ocean Today: The future of ocean farming (1)
- Ocean Today: Trash talk (1)
- Ocean Today: Tsunami science and safety (2)
- Oregon Marine Scientist and Educator Alliance (ORSEA) (1)
- Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory El Niño theme page (1)
- Pacific Tsunami Warning Center animations and short videos (1)
- Raindrop to Sea video series (1)
- Salmon Heroes (1)
- Sanctuaries 360 virtual dives (1)
- Sanctuaries LIVE Interactions (1)
- Sanctuaries media gallery (1)
- Sanctuaries resource collection: Coral reef ecosystems (1)
- Sanctuaries resource collection: Whales (1)
- Satellite meteorology learning modules (3)
- Science On a Sphere catalog (12)
- SciJinks (13)
- Sea Grant podcasts (5)
- Severe weather 101 (1)
- Severe weather event summaries (1)
- Signals of Spring ACES (Animals in Curriculum-based Ecosystem Studies) (1)
- Solar physics and terrestrial effects curriculum guide (5)
- Space weather videos (1)
- Storm surge videos and brochures (1)
- Sustainable fisheries video gallery (1)
- Sustainable seafood video galley (1)
- Teacher at Sea (1)
- Teaching Great Lakes science (1)
- The GLOBE Program (2)
- Underwater robot education theme (1)
- Weather 101 (1)
- Women in science profiles (1)
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The geographic, or spatial extent, over which a species is found to occur, is its distribution. Understanding how species are distributed in space and time and the factors that drive spatial patterns in distribution and abundance are central questions in ecology and important for species conservation and management. The Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal (DisMAP) brings species distribution data into one user-friendly and interactive map with data models. Explore changes in marine fish and invertebrate distributions over time. Learn more with this introduction from the project's lead.
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This 3D printable model shows the Jason 1 satellite. The satellite was decommissioned in 2013 and NOAA is now on the Jason 3 mission. Jason 1 was an oceanography mission to monitor global ocean circulation, study the ties between the oceans and atmosphere, improve global climate forecasts and predictions, and monitor events.
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This 3D print file allows you to explore a POES satellite. The POES project instruments provide critical operational climate data that is integrated into the weather prediction model used in developing current and extended weather forecasts.
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This 3D printable model allows you to see a miniature GOES satellite. GOES satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. They circle the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, which means they orbit the equatorial plane of the Earth at a speed matching the Earth's rotation. This allows them to hover continuously over one position on the surface. The geosynchronous plane is about 35,800 km (22,300 miles) above the Earth, high enough to allow the satellites a full-disc view of the Earth.
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How can scientists learn about climate from these beautiful and essential underwater ecosystems? Many coral reefs have been around for millions of years, yet they are extremely sensitive to changes in climate conditions. Corals are affected by ocean warming (sometimes bleaching when temperatures rise or fall), by pollution and runoff, and by changes in the pH of seawater, which decreases as more carbon dioxide enters the ocean—a trend known as ocean acidification.
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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.
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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.
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Explore this interactive map of global tsunamis and their sources. By clicking on any tsunami event, you can access more information, including an overview of the tsunami, more information about the source, and the number of deaths. Get started with a helpful teacher guide.
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What does it mean to be a woman in an ocean science career? What different career paths are available, and how does one get there? Perhaps you’ve thought about becoming a marine biologist, or you have an interest in marine policy, but aren’t sure which steps to take towards such a career. Maybe you’re passionate about ocean science and conservation, and want to use your communication skills to influence others. Hear from some of the inspiring women working throughout the National Marine Sanctuary System.
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This old saying actually has a scientific explanation. It relates to moving high and low surface-pressure weather systems, and the way that the colors in sunlight are scattered differently by dirty and clean atmospheres. This is the explanation of how these phenomena combine to color our sunrises and sunsets.