NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

Satellites have revolutionized communication, entertainment, and scientific monitoring. It becomes increasingly relevant for our 21st-century students to learn about these objects that hover around our planet. Satellite monitoring of the environment around coral reefs offers invaluable information to those working to preserve these unique ecosystems. The lessons in this unit are designed to be taught in sequence, however, many of the activities are suited to teaching in isolation. This science unit is appropriate for grades four through six.

Social Entrepreneurs in Hawaii are applying space technology and design principles to build a sustainable fish farm in the open ocean.

Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are tethered to and operated from a ship, allowing humans to explore the ocean without actually being in the vehicle.

This curriculum introduces students to remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and careers in marine science and underwater archaeology. Through a variety of hands-on activities, using problem-based learning, students learn the science behind an ROV. They also work to solve real world problems, while learning about the engineering design process. Students design, build, and test an ROV, as they ready for competition. The curriculum can be used in its entirety or activities can be used independently as appropriate for individual teaching objectives.

Alaska’s climate is changing, thanks to human-caused global warming, and the effects are widespread and sometimes dangerous.

Research on the eruption of an underwater volcano 300 miles off the coast of Oregon may help provide insights not only into the workings of submarine volcanoes, but to their land-based cousins, which pose a greater threat to people.

This map shows the locations of oil spills and other incidents for which NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) provided scientific support for the response. It also shows the locations of other major spills, but it does not show the location of every significant oil spill.

This interactive map displays the locations of oil spills, hazardous waste sites, or ship groundings where we are currently pursuing protection and restoration of natural resources. The locations of restoration efforts associated with these projects are also available.

To address threats to coral reefs, NOAA and its partners started a coral restoration effort. Using innovative techniques, like underwater coral farming and reattaching broken coral pieces, these projects transplant and restore thousands of coral colonies on damaged reef sites.

Restoring Ea is a place-based middle school science unit exploring management strategies that could be used for the Loko ea fishpond to sustainably feed people and ensure the ecosystem is healthy and pono (balanced). This unit honors and leverages traditional and scientific ways of knowing to create experiences that connect students to ‘āina (land) through investigations of place. This unit leverages the FieldScope platform (https://lokoea.fieldscope.org/) to allow students to investigate environmental data previously collected at Loko ea over time and also to collect additional data themselves.