NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

Data in the Classroom has structured, student-directed lesson plans that use historical and real-time NOAA data. The five modules address research questions and include stepped levels of engagement with complex inquiry investigations with real-time and past data.

This webinar series was developed by NOAA's Regional Collaboration Network and Woods Hole Sea Grant at WHOI in response to the COVID school closures. With over 100 webinars featuring different NOAA experts/topics and a moderated question and answers session throughout so that students could get a peek at what our NOAA scientists do in all the various NOAA offices. They range in geography, content, and NOAA line office focus but are all designed to engage the students, answer their questions, and give them a glimpse of possible career options. Captions are available in English and Spanish. Many have ASL interpretation.

NCEI is a major NOAA data repository that hosts and provides public access to one of the most significant archives for environmental data on Earth. Over 25 petabytes (25 million gigabytes) of atmospheric, coastal, oceanic, and geophysical data are available, including interactive maps, numerical data, satellite imagery, graphs and figures, modeled and predicted data, and more.

Read about the basics of the carbon cycle and greenhouse effect, including types of greenhouse gases and the role of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in carbon storage and exchange. The text is accompanied by informational graphics.

An interview with scientist Sarah Purkey about her deep ocean warming research.

Scientists have known for many years that rising temperatures are lengthening the growing season in many northern and mid-latitude forests. This research indicates that in the eastern United States, increased carbon uptake is great than carbon dioxide “exhaled” into the atmosphere through respiration. Overall, it seems that eastern forests are acting as increasing “sinks” for carbon dioxide.

Read an interview with Ariane Arias-Ortiz, a 2019-2021 NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California Berkeley’s Biometeorology Lab. Ariane studies carbon storage in coastal saltwater and freshwater wetlands. Her work holds significant, immediate implications for reducing global carbon emissions through wetlands restoration. 

A broad overview of the carbon cycle. The video is hosted on a webpage that includes more information about the carbon cycle. A side menu on the page links to more carbon resources. There is also an explanation of "blue carbon," or carbon captured by the world's ocean and coastal ecosystems.

This unit will introduce you to the basics of the carbon cycle. You will learn how the carbon cycle, climate and the abiotic and biotic components of the environment influence each other in many ways. You will learn how carbon moves throughout the different components of the carbon cycle and where carbon is stored in the Earth's system. Using case studies, NASA visualizations, current research, and interactives, you will explore how living things on land, in soils, and in our ocean regulate the carbon cycle. Because carbon, climate and the environment are tightly coupled, you will analyze the effect of carbon dioxide on the Earth's thermostat and our climate. Finally, you will seek possible solutions to a warming climate.

Students learn about Earth systems through science-based fictional story books and accompanying lesson plans. The seven books in this series cover air quality, climate, clouds, Earth system, seasons, soil, and water.