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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.”
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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 (30)
- Arts and crafts (2)
- Background information (54)
- Career profile (32)
- Citizen science project (3)
- (-) Collection (66)
- Coloring/activity book (5)
- Data product (36)
- Job seeker resource (3)
- Multimedia (159)
- NOAA Education resource collection (1)
- Poster/brochure (6)
- Related story (33)
- Climate (60)
- Freshwater (36)
- Marine life
(93)
- Adaptations (4)
- Aquatic food webs (19)
- Coral reef ecosystems (34)
- Conservation (10)
- Ecosystems (43)
- Endangered species (2)
- Entanglement (3)
- Fish (33)
- Fisheries and seafood (32)
- Invasive marine species (6)
- Invertebrates (31)
- Life in an estuary (11)
- Marine mammals (35)
- Plankton (7)
- Salmon (12)
- Sea turtles (20)
- Seabirds (13)
- Seaweed, algae, and aquatic plants (12)
- Sharks, rays, and skates (19)
- NOAA careers (6)
- Ocean and coasts
(100)
- Earth processes (8)
- Harmful algal blooms (9)
- Maritime archaeology and history (14)
- Ocean acidification (22)
- Ocean chemistry (9)
- Ocean currents (20)
- Ocean exploration (19)
- Ocean floor features (20)
- Ocean pollution and marine debris (34)
- Ocean sounds (6)
- Oil spills (13)
- Rip currents (3)
- Sea level rise (8)
- Tides (12)
- Tsunamis (15)
- Space (16)
- (-) Technology and engineering (66)
- Weather and atmosphere (69)
- ESS2: Earth’s Systems (3)
- ESS3: Earth and Human Activity (3)
- ETS1: Engineering Design (2)
- LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes (2)
- LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics (4)
- LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity (2)
- PS1: Matter and Its Interactions (1)
- PS3: Energy (1)
- PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer (1)
- Adopt a Drifter Program (1)
- Bite-sized Science webinar series (1)
- CIMSS weather and climate activities (1)
- CIRES/NOAA Science@Home webinar (1)
- Deep Ocean Education Project Website (1)
- Deep-sea dialogues (2)
- Diving Deeper podcast (1)
- Do you NOAA? (1)
- Estuary Education website (1)
- Explore remote sensing (1)
- Exploring our fluid Earth (1)
- Faces of the National Weather Service (1)
- GOES-R infographics (1)
- GOES-R printable materials (1)
- GOES-R satellite video collection (2)
- GPS educational resources (1)
- Great Lakes photo gallery (1)
- Hurricane Hunters video collection (1)
- JetStream: An online school for weather (1)
- Marine Careers: A Sea Grant guide to ocean opportunities (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 Geodetic Survey (1)
- National Geodetic Survey geodesy and mapping videos (1)
- NOAA Boulder Labs: Meet our team (1)
- NOAA Boulder scientists explain science (1)
- NOAA Digital Coast (1)
- NOAA Fisheries YouTube (1)
- NOAA Live! 4 Kids (1)
- NOAA Ocean Podcast (1)
- NOAA Satellites infographics (1)
- NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer: Education materials collection (1)
- Ocean Exploration careers (1)
- Ocean Exploration educational materials (1)
- Ocean Exploration facts (1)
- Ocean facts (1)
- Ocean Today (4)
- Sanctuaries resource collection: Ocean sound and impact of noise (1)
- Science On a Sphere catalog (1)
- SciJinks (3)
- Sea Grant podcasts (1)
- Space weather videos (1)
- UCAR teaching boxes (1)
- Underwater robot education theme (1)
- Weather 101 (1)
- Women in science profiles (1)
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NGSS DCI
This guide includes eight elementary-level lessons, inspired by topics from the IMAX film Ocean Odyssey. Watching the film is not required for these lessons, but may enhance students’ learning experience of the topics presented in the activities. Educators can view a special extended preview offsite link of the film. Understanding the ocean and its ecosystems is essential to comprehending and protecting this planet. We must all be stewards for a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable ocean. The activities in this guide will help lead you and your students to learn more about our ocean planet, its myriad of wonders beneath the waves, and work to maintain healthy ecosystems that are resilient in the face of change.
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The Deep Ocean Education Project is a collaboration among NOAA Ocean Exploration, Ocean Exploration Trust, and Schmidt Ocean Institute featuring high-quality ocean exploration and science education materials from the three organizations. The Deep Ocean Education Project website – launched in 2021 – is built around themes that are easily searchable, address key ocean-related phenomena, and encourage and support three-dimensional approaches to teaching and learning for K-12 education. The objective is to provide a one-stop resource hub for public, educators, and students looking for deep-sea educational materials. The website also includes information on how to connect with research vessels, including a list of upcoming events and opportunities, and live feeds of expeditions.
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Watch. Explore. Discover. View the beauty and mystery of the ocean realm captured on video around the globe. Videos are organized into collections to help educators.
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Monitor National Marine Sanctuary offers a variety of free resources for educators. Resources include social studies activities, as well as science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) activities, lesson plans, and guides. Each section below is filled with STEM activities, lesson plans, and games. Explore the Civil War and USS Monitor, World War I, World War II, Shipwrecks and STEM, Wrecks as Reefs, the Outer Banks Maritime Heritage Trail, and more.
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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.
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This resource collection from NOAA Education explores how NOAA collects climate data from the atmosphere, land, ocean, and space. Some say that climate is what you expect and weather is what you get. More formally, climate is the long-term average of temperature, precipitation, and other weather variables at a given location. Every 30 years, climate scientists calculate new averages. The normal high and low temperatures reported on your local weather forecast come from these 30-year averages. Although climate describes conditions in the atmosphere (hot/cold, wet/dry), these conditions are influenced by the ocean, land, sun, and atmospheric chemistry. NOAA monitors these factors to understand and predict changes to local or global climate.
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Follow along with NOAA Teachers at Sea as they participate in NOAA research voyages. Teachers and educators spend several weeks on a NOAA Ship and are part of the research crew while on board! Past blogs go back to 2003. Some blog posts are in Spanish.
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These "tiny tutorials" are designed to break the ice and get you started. These simple animations walk you through our data visualizations step by step. From there, each data portal offers many variables and dimensions to explore. So roll up your sleeves, fire up your browser or phone, and start exploring the ocean and atmosphere. Explore tiny tutorials on auroras, historical climate, magnetic fields, environmental response, fire weather, and hurricane data products from NOAA.
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Dive into tutorials on corals, estuaries, global positioning, pollution, ocean currents, and tides. Learn the basics about these topics and how they are a part of NOAA's work.
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Produced by the Teacher at Sea Alumni Association offsite link and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation offsite link, these videos feature unique stories of how teachers have found and nurtured their inner explorer.