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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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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.”
- 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 (29)
- 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 (327)
- ESS2: Earth’s Systems (4)
- ESS3: Earth and Human Activity (6)
- ETS1: Engineering Design (3)
- LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes (2)
- LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics (4)
- LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity (3)
- PS1: Matter and Its Interactions (2)
- PS3: Energy (1)
- B-WET grantee (1)
- CIMSS weather and climate activities (1)
- CIRES/NOAA Serie La Ciencia-en-Casa (1)
- CLEAN climate and energy education resource collection (1)
- ELP grantee (1)
- Exploring our fluid Earth (1)
- Faces of the National Weather Service (2)
- GOES-R satellite video collection (2)
- Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System (1)
- Great Lakes Meteorological Real-Time Coastal Observation Network (ReCON) (1)
- JetStream: An online school for weather (4)
- National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (2)
- National Marine Ecosystem Status (1)
- National Severe Storms Laboratory learning resources (1)
- National Weather Service (1)
- NOAA Boulder Labs: Meet our team (1)
- NOAA Boulder Virtual 8th Grade Science Days (1)
- NOAA Live! 4 Kids (1)
- NOAA Marine Debris Program (1)
- NOAA Ocean Podcast (1)
- Ocean Today (11)
- Oregon Marine Scientist and Educator Alliance (ORSEA) (1)
- Satellite meteorology learning modules (1)
- Science On a Sphere catalog (2)
- SciJinks (7)
- Severe weather 101 (1)
- Severe weather event summaries (1)
- The GLOBE Program (2)
- UCAR teaching boxes (1)
- Weather 101 (1)
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NGSS DCI
Special categories
Three themed modules — Ocean Food Webs, Observations and Models, and Predators and Prey — contain 21 interactive investigations. These educational modules help high school students learn how scientist use models, or data rich representations of systems, to better understand and predict changes in environmental processes in the ocean, the weather, and climate. In these investigations, students use scientific data and models — the same ones NOAA scientists use — to explore human-caused changes in ocean ecosystems and the impacts these changes have on the animals in those ecosystems. The modules also include resources for educators, including student worksheets, NGSS alignment, and presentation graphics.
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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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Heat related illnesses and death are largely preventable with proper planning, education, and action. Heat.gov serves as the premier source of heat and health information for the nation to reduce the health, economic, and infrastructural impacts of extreme heat. Heat.gov is the web portal for the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS). This website includes data, forecasts, safety information, and much more.
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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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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.
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Shocking! Within this cluster of storms, a single lightning bolt captured by NOAA satellites was recently certified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the world’s longest flash on record. The horizontal distance of the bolt stretched 477 miles, from the central coast of Texas to southern Mississippi, when it flashed on April 29, 2020.
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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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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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This collection of six separate lessons includes tutorial videos for each themed lesson, except ecological field modeling.
- Density dynamics: Experiment by creating four model bodies of water and observe how they compare.
- Ecological field monitoring: Get into the field and investigate the ecosystems in your local community using field equipment.
- Glaciers: Investigate how topography came to be through glacial activity 33,000 years ago. Use geologic and physical tests to uncover the evidence left behind by the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Track and hunt down the path laid by ice giants of the past.
- Marine debris & microplastics: Discover how marine debris impacts the environment as you experiment with buoyancy and design a model ocean with circular currents.
- Watersheds: Explore how we impact our water systems and the watersheds that sustain our population. Create a model coastal community and observe how pollutants travel within a watershed
- Weather & climate: Explore the differences between weather and climate, look at real-time NOAA weather and climate data, experiment with sea level rise, and create coastal resiliency models.
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This resource collection from NOAA Education explores different ways that we observe and forecast the weather. Observing the daily weather is part of a regular routine for many of us, helping us decide what to wear and which activities we will do each day. Similar observations of atmospheric conditions are also required by meteorologists to develop those weather forecasts with which we are all familiar.