NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

The Marine Debris Prevention Best Practices Manual is a comprehensive guide to help establish lasting change on school campuses. It covers tips and tricks for engaging students in assessing school waste, bringing student leaders together into “Green Teams,” and supporting the entire school community with marine debris prevention. Learn creative ways to minimize waste in the classroom, in the cafeteria, in school gardens, and on the playground. These strategies are accompanied by case studies, standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, and other resources. 

This collection of six separate lessons includes tutorial videos for each themed lesson, except ecological field modeling.

1. Density dynamics: Experiment by creating four model bodies of water and observe how they compare. 
2. Ecological field monitoring: Get into the field and investigate the ecosystems in your local community using field equipment.
3. 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.  
4. Marine debris & microplastics: Discover how marine debris impacts the environment as you experiment with buoyancy and design a model ocean with circular currents.
5. 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
6. 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.

Una mirada al efecto directo e indirecto que ha causado la absorción de dióxido de carbono (CO2) en los ecosistemas marinos, corales y organismos marinos. Estudios de monitoreo realizados y cómo las comunidades pueden ayudar.

This video, created by One Cool Earth offsite link with support from the NOAA Marine Debris Program, walks through an easy way to help your school reduce waste: organizing waste stations! This strategy guides students in sorting different types of lunchroom waste, including landfill trash, recyclable materials, organic waste, and more. Waste stations help reduce debris by maximizing recycling and composting, while also helping students understand the importance of disposing of their waste responsibly. 

This series of standards-aligned lesson plans explores issues related to marine debris and environmental stewardship. Each of these lessons focus on experiential, project-based learning to support student engagement and action. Each of these lessons are also available in Spanish or in a virtual format. 

Environmental hazards — such as wildfire, flood, and drought — are increasingly affecting communities in Colorado. With this rise in hazardous events, there is a pressing need for communities to become more resilient through education, preparation, and planning. The Hazard Education, Awareness, and Resilience Task Force (HEART Force) lessons and education resources engage rural Colorado middle and high school students, teachers, and communities to take proactive steps in preparing for and responding to natural hazards.

“At Home With The Bay” is a virtual series of engaging environmental education lessons taught by Galveston Bay Foundation staff. Lessons include a lab, conservation craft, talk with a Bay biologist and an activity of the week. Each lesson comes with an accompanying activity guide available for download on the website.

An interactive water pollution simulation as seen thru the experiences of “Fred the Fish” as he travels downstream encountering obstacles along the way. Students will learn about human impacts on aquatic ecosystems and discuss how to be better watershed stewards. Find additional supporting materials for the Fred the Fish video under "Classroom Activities" on this page offsite link.

Hurricane Resilience is a high school environmental science curriculum for use in coastal locations where hurricanes are common. The curriculum unit aims to empower high school students to have a voice in resilience planning and help them understand the relationship between the science of hurricanes and the local impacts of these storms on people and places.

An animated overview of the life cycle of Pacific salmon species.