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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.
- PC: Hold down the control (ctrl) key while clicking the link. Or, right-click the link and select “open in new tab.”
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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 (104)
- Arts and crafts (1)
- Background information (98)
- Career profile (50)
- Citizen science project (2)
- Collection (100)
- Coloring/activity book (15)
- Contest (1)
- Data product (56)
- Job seeker resource (6)
- Multimedia (370)
- NOAA Education resource collection (7)
- Poster/brochure (12)
- Related story (65)
- Climate (275)
- Freshwater (164)
- Marine life
(481)
- Adaptations (11)
- Aquatic food webs (58)
- Coral reef ecosystems (85)
- Conservation (31)
- Ecosystems (116)
- Endangered species (20)
- Entanglement (17)
- Fish (99)
- Fisheries and seafood (111)
- Invasive marine species (9)
- Invertebrates (90)
- Life in an estuary (36)
- Marine mammals (135)
- Plankton (15)
- Salmon (23)
- Sea turtles (64)
- Seabirds (31)
- Seaweed, algae, and aquatic plants (24)
- Sharks, rays, and skates (39)
- NOAA careers (28)
- (-)
Ocean and coasts
(665)
- Earth processes (16)
- Harmful algal blooms (19)
- Maritime archaeology and history (35)
- Ocean acidification (66)
- Ocean chemistry (16)
- Ocean currents (95)
- Ocean exploration (81)
- Ocean floor features (84)
- Ocean pollution and marine debris (176)
- Ocean sounds (15)
- Oil spills (58)
- Rip currents (22)
- Sea level rise (41)
- Tides (59)
- Tsunamis (56)
- Space (50)
- Technology and engineering (288)
- Weather and atmosphere (326)
- ESS1: Earth’s Place in the Universe (2)
- ESS2: Earth’s Systems (30)
- ESS3: Earth and Human Activity (36)
- ETS1: Engineering Design (20)
- LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes (10)
- LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics (27)
- LS3: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits (1)
- LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity (15)
- PS1: Matter and Its Interactions (25)
- PS2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions (3)
- PS3: Energy (5)
- PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer (6)
- Adopt a Drifter Program (1)
- B-WET grantee (4)
- Bite-sized Science webinar series (1)
- CIRES/NOAA Science@Home webinar (1)
- CLEAN climate and energy education resource collection (1)
- Climate change in Alaska video series (1)
- Data in the Classroom (3)
- Deep Ocean Education Project Website (1)
- Deep ocean fact sheets (1)
- Deep-sea dialogues (2)
- Diving Deeper podcast (2)
- Do you NOAA? (1)
- EarthLabs (1)
- ELP grantee (2)
- Estuary Education website (1)
- Exploring our fluid Earth (1)
- Faces of the National Weather Service (1)
- Finding fish hotspots and mapping coral reefs (1)
- H.O.M.E.S. at Home webinars (1)
- JetStream: An online school for weather (1)
- 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 (4)
- 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) (1)
- National Marine Ecosystem Status (1)
- National Marine Sanctuaries Webinar Series: Archived webinars (3)
- NOAA and the Octonauts podcast (1)
- NOAA Boulder Labs: Meet our team (1)
- NOAA Boulder Virtual 8th Grade Science Days (1)
- NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps (1)
- NOAA Digital Coast (2)
- NOAA Fisheries YouTube (1)
- NOAA Live! 4 Kids (1)
- NOAA Live! Alaska (1)
- NOAA Marine Debris Program (5)
- NOAA Ocean Podcast (1)
- NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer: Education materials collection (1)
- Ocean Acidification Communication Toolkit: Dungeness crab case study (1)
- Ocean Exploration careers (2)
- Ocean Exploration educational materials (8)
- Ocean Exploration facts (2)
- Ocean facts (3)
- Ocean Today (237)
- Octonauts Corner (1)
- Oregon Marine Scientist and Educator Alliance (ORSEA) (1)
- Pacific Tsunami Warning Center animations and short videos (1)
- Sanctuaries 360 virtual dives (1)
- Sanctuaries LIVE Interactions (1)
- Sanctuaries media gallery (1)
- Sanctuaries resource collection: Coral reef ecosystems (1)
- Sanctuaries resource collection: Ocean sound and impact of noise (3)
- Science On a Sphere catalog (6)
- SciJinks (3)
- Sea Grant podcasts (5)
- Sea-Earth-Atmosphere (SEA) resources (1)
- Signals of Spring ACES (Animals in Curriculum-based Ecosystem Studies) (1)
- Teacher at Sea (2)
- Underwater robot education theme (1)
- Women in science profiles (1)
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Learn about Mark, who works as the Pacific Islands regional coordinator for the Marine Debris Program, part of NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). Here, he investigates and prevents the adverse impacts of marine debris in the Pacific Islands Region (Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) and facilitates information sharing between the region, the national marine debris community, and the national-level Marine Debris Program.
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Marine debris has major impacts on all kinds of marine animals, especially sea turtles. These iconic animals can confuse plastic bags and balloons for jellyfish, their favorite food. In this interactive video program, students can virtually participate in a simulated sea turtle necropsy, or animal dissection, learn how trash can get to the ocean and impact sea turtles, and learn how we can all help stop marine debris! Throughout the video, there are places to pause and discuss observations and predictions with students. For more information, additional activities, and lesson extensions, please see the Program Activities Guide.
Please be aware that the model dissection may upset sensitive viewers, especially younger students.
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To celebrate Women’s History Month, check out this interview with the NOAA Central Library Research Team, including Librarians Lisa Clarke, Hope Shinn, and Shannon Delaney, and Outreach Librarian Katie Poser.
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NGSS DCI
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The Marine Debris Prevention Best Practices Manual is a comprehensive guide to help establish lasting change on school campuses. It covers tips and tricks for engaging students in assessing school waste, bringing student leaders together into “Green Teams,” and supporting the entire school community with marine debris prevention. Learn creative ways to minimize waste in the classroom, in the cafeteria, in school gardens, and on the playground. These strategies are accompanied by case studies, standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, and other resources.
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How do human choices regarding the consumption and disposal of plastics impact ecosystems and our communities and what actions can we take to minimize those impacts? The Wave of Plastic Project includes five lessons to tackle this question. This unit helps students make sense of the core ideas related to issues of plastic pollution (particularly those relevant to the Chesapeake Bay watershed) by engaging in authentic interdisciplinary practice culminating in comprehensive, student-driven, informed action projects.
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The NOAA Coordinated Hurricane Atmosphere-Ocean Sampling (CHAOS) program's goals are to improve our understanding of the role of the ocean, waves, and air-sea interactions in the development and intensification of hurricanes in order to produce more accurate and reliable models and forecasts. Learn more about the early career scientists working on this program! Early career ocean professionals are defined as people who are current graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, or within 10 years since the completion of their highest graduate degree.
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When you think of springtime on land, you might think of birds migrating, flowers blooming, and leaves emerging. While these changes are happening on land, changes are happening in the ocean, too! But how can you tell if spring has sprung in the sea? This graphic explains some of the seasonal effects that take place as ocean waters warm and days grow longer.
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In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the National Marine Sanctuary System, the best of the best educational materials for an elementary school audience have been compiled in collaboration with the National Park Trust. Discover Spectacular with these education and outreach digital materials focused on 10 exciting topics: climate change, ocean acidification, marine debris, kelp forest ecosystems, coral reef ecosystems, sea turtles, sharks, whales and ocean noise, seabirds, and shipwrecks.
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Materials like consumer plastics, metals, rubber, paper, textiles, lost fishing gear, vessels, and other lost or discarded items can easily end up in the ocean, where it becomes marine debris. Marine debris threatens the ocean and its resources, the economy, and safe navigation. Animals like turtles, marine mammals, birds, and other creatures can die when they accidentally swallow or get tangled up in marine debris. These materials can also crush sensitive habitats like seagrass beds or coral reefs. All national marine sanctuaries face the challenges of marine debris and the harmful impacts that come along with managing this problem. This collection features resources related to the problem of marine debris, NOAA and sanctuary system programs, and the solution to pollution.
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Learn all about the incredible staff who work for NOAA Research! This page provides dozens of career profiles from many fields within NOAA.