NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

A curation of resources for educators to bring the Arctic Report Card to your classrooms. 

This Arctic Report Card educational resource kit was created to accompany the release of the 2025 Arctic Report Card (December 2025) and the National Science Teaching Association Science Update webinar on the “2025 Arctic Report Card Headlines” offsite link (January 2026).

The heat islands module connects students with the latest local and national datasets on heat, linking science directly to their daily lives. Students investigate surface and air temperature patterns, explore how land cover and vegetation shape neighborhood hot spots, and consider the impacts of extreme heat on human health. Through five scaffolded lessons, they work with interactive maps and graphs, analyze heat-mapping data from across the United States, and watch videos featuring student experiences, citizen scientists, and researchers. By combining the most up-to-date data with hands-on tools, the module builds data literacy and empowers students to use evidence and engineering design to propose solutions that help keep communities cooler.

Released in 2023, the Fifth National Climate Assessment is the U.S. Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making about the changing climate across the United States. The NOAA Library hosts a copy of the full report in PDF format. The National Climate Assessment is written for general audiences, not technical experts. The report is broken into digestible sections with themes ranging from physical science to climate impacts to ways we can adapt regionally and nationally. Browse the table to contents to find sections you’d like to dive into.

Weather the Storm is an immersive virtual reality experience designed to help coastal residents understand the true dangers of hurricanes — without putting their lives at risk. Developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, this simulation places you inside a coastal home as a major storm approaches, letting you experience the escalating wind, rain, and storm surge firsthand.

There are five training modules on an introduction to hurricanes, hurricane risks, hurricane preparation, resilience to hurricanes, and what to do after a hurricane. Each module is designed to stand alone or be combined for deeper engagement, ranging from quick 15-minute lessons to half-day workshops, and includes videos, slideshows, discussion questions, and a hands-on activity.

What do world-traveling plastic toys, biodiversity in the deep sea, climate change and the last great unexplored area on Earth have in common? The critical need for ocean literacy! The ocean is often neglected in our schools, yet it comprises 71% of Earth’s surface. Life on Earth evolved in and depends on our global ocean.

This collection of 17 lessons that makes it easy to teach the Ocean Literacy Principles while meeting NGSS, Common Core, and Climate Literacy standards. They use the National Marine Sanctuary System as an engaging backdrop that helps students understand their importance for exploration, research, Indigenous cultures and more.

These lessons and materials are also available in Spanish.

SOS Explorer® (SOSx) is a flat screen version of the widely popular Science On a Sphere® (SOS). The revolutionary software takes SOS datasets, usually only seen on a 6-foot sphere in large museum spaces, and makes them more accessible. The visualizations show information provided by satellites, ground observations and computer models. SOSx is available for free as a mobile app or desktop program.