NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

In the Plan an Ocean Expedition lesson, students plan an expedition to a national marine sanctuary or monument. They choose a phenomenon to investigate, select personnel they will hire and technology they will use. Students create a research question, mission statement, expedition budget and justify how their choices support the mission.

This module introduces students to models used to predict populations of organisms within an ecosystem. Students will analyze a simple predator-prey system, optionally building and “running” a simple, spreadsheet based model. They will compare the population graphs produced by the model with actual historical data from a similar, simple predator-prey system. Then, students will collect data on “virtual dives” in simulated marine habitats. They will gather biomass data for predators and their prey in complex marine food webs and compare changes over time to the behaviors of the simpler systems with just a single predator and its lone prey.

The Sanctuary Landscapes lesson engages students with phenomena impacting coastal landscapes at East Coast and West Coast national marine sanctuaries. Students will examine coastal landscapes using photographs and/or Google Earth and hypothesize why they see differences. They will explore the geologic and ocean forces that created the diverse features and investigate where and when they might be most likely to find buried treasure.

This presentation provides an overview of the fundamental concepts of global sea level change, followed by an overview and discussion of its basic causes, including thermal expansion and ice mass loss. After a review of historical sea-level change over ice-age time scales, the present rates of sea level change determined from tide gauges and satellite altimeters are presented. Projected rates of sea level rise for the rest of this century from IPCC and the National Climate Assessment at the time of this presentation are given along with a discussion of uncertainty. Regional variations in the rates of sea-level change are illustrated by looking at the results from the measurements systems.

As savvy as Sherlock was, his insights pale compared to the ingenious techniques used by paleoscientists in reconstructing past environmental conditions. Drs. Rusty Low and Carole Mandryk presented these techniques in an interactive webinar showing how fossils, rocks and chemical information (the so-called biogeochemical proxy data) evidence Earth system processes on time scales that even Sherlock didn't know to exist. By the end of the webinar, Dr. Low and Dr. Mandryk made evident that the patterns of contemporary climate change we see today can't be understood without the backstory provided by paleoclimate research.

In the Sifting Sanctuary Sands lesson, students “visit” locations in Hawai’i and on the West Coast by exploring a model of the Pacific basin, analyzing close-up photos of sand at various beaches in national marine sanctuaries and monuments. They create their own system of categorizing sand, explore the visual samples and compare them to actual sand found in your local area (if available). They learn about methods scientists use to classify sand and apply those methods. Students speculate about the origins of sand and geological processes that create it. They realize that many constructive and destructive forces are at work between land and sea.

What is Antarctic paleo-climate research? Dr. T.J. Fudge discusses SPICE Core (the South Pole Ice Core) where scientists seeking data from the past 40,000 years are drilling a 1500 meter ice core to study aerosols and atmospheric gases trapped in the Earth's great southern ice sheet. The goal is to investigate environmental change since the last glacial/interglacial transition. Why was the South Pole targeted? What criteria affect the specific site selection for drilling? What new kinds of technology were required? These questions and what its like working in the Pole's extreme environment are discussed.Educational resources from the US Ice Drilling Program will be shared.

In the Surfacing Ocean Mysteries lesson, students explore phenomena observed at national marine sanctuaries or monuments. They investigate reasons for ocean exploration and benefits to humans. They discover that most of the ocean is unexplored and that exploration is critical for protecting life on Earth and finding new resources.

Derek "Deke" Arndt, Chief of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center Climate Monitoring Branch presents of how the Earth's climate system works. He focuses on how the ocean and the atmosphere affect each other, and how a warming world may affect this relationship. In addition to detailing the interconnectedness of the major components of the climate system, Deke's presentation includes insights into recently observed trends and evidence of change.

Every year, humpback whales make a grand migration. During this journey, the whales travel thousands of miles, communicate with one another and look out for predators. The whales spend summers feeding in the areas around Alaska, Washington and Oregon, then migrate to warmer waters in the winter to breed. Baby whales make these journeys alongside their mothers, meeting many of the milestones of their life. In this lesson, students have an opportunity to explore more about the milestones in a whale’s life and compare it to their own development.