NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

National marine sanctuaries are a source of many sounds from humans and animals, as well as abiotic sounds coming from weather and water. Researchers need special tools to "see" beneath the waves to better understand and protect sanctuaries. Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary has been a hot spot for passive acoustic monitoring for years, and this webinar explores various ways in which the Channel Islands sanctuary and partners are characterizing the sanctuary soundscape, what we've been able to learn so far, and what we are still seeking to understand.

Part of the National Centers for Environmental Information, Local Climatological Data hosts common past weather data including temperature, precipitation, wind, pressure, and more. Search by state/territory, county, or zip code to download information. Some international data are available. Note: Though you may need to click "Add to cart" to obtain data, all information is free unless you require a certified copy.

Caught in an Atlantic hurricane, satellite-tagged loggerhead turtles changed their dive behavior and movement patterns as the storm passed.

In classrooms across Lake Charles, Louisiana, schools are cultivating bitter panicum, a native coastal grass, and Gulf killifish, a native coastal minnow, in their own aquaponics systems.

In the Pacific Northwest, Lummi Nation has kept their ancient knowledge and schelangen (shuh-LANG-un; “way of life”) alive by transmitting their cultural knowledge, worldview, and traditions to the next generation. Watershed management is particularly important to the Lummi community because of the abundance of one of their most culturally important food sources, salmon, which depends on watershed health and quality.

Male and female northern elephant seals exhibit dramatic differences in size, shape and behavior. My research compares the feeding behavior of male and female seals to understand how the sexes use marine resources throughout the North Pacific Ocean.

As a system of nationally significant places managed by NOAA, national marine sanctuaries are directly experiencing climate impacts, and serve as important assets for climate-informed management, science and education. Learn more about how the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is actively incorporating climate into site management plans, facilities management, science and assessment, and education and outreach. This presentation will discuss how sanctuaries work with partners to use NOAA climate information in management, our role as climate educators, building a network of sentinel sites, and challenges in managing sanctuaries in a changing ocean.

The following three exercises give students an introduction to the techniques used to create maps of the underwater world — bathymetric maps. Of particular content relevance are the Mission Plan and Mapping the Unknown from Hudson Canyon 2002, as well as several of the seamount expeditions from the OE CD or website.

Barely had the ink dried on the partnership agreement signed by NOAA and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo, owner of Caladan Oceanic LLC, when his team headed out to the Pacific Ocean to dive and map the Mariana Trench, and answer the questions: How deep and where exactly is the bottom of the ocean.

The activities in this collection are based on the principle that real-time environmental data is a valuable tool for providing students with opportunities for self-directed exploration of the natural world. Students engaging in these activities will gain a deeper understanding of carbon cycling, ocean acidification, and other phenomena related to climate change. These activities are designed with the three-dimensional approach to teaching in mind (e.g. NGSS-aligned), and also use a data literacy framework to help guide students through data orientation, interpretation, and synthesis.