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This project plans to increase elementary and undergraduate ocean science and related Great Lakes science literacy that aligns with the Michigan Curriculum, the national science standards, and the Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts. We will 1) develop an elementary storybook and other elementary classroom materials that support ocean and Great Lakes literacy, 2) train pre-service elementary teachers to use this Storybook, 3) develop undergraduate activities that support the NOAA Education Plan and Ocean Literacy in teacher education courses at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), and 4) train teachers in Detroit and Dexter (MI) and Golden (CO) to use an elementary storybook and related activities that support Ocean Literacy. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and oceanographic experts at EMU and the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) will partner with us to develop the elementary storybook. This elementary resource will be freely available to all teachers, via the internet (see http://www.windows2universe.org/teacher_resources/ocean_education/curre…). Our second objective is that teachers will relate ocean and Great Lakes science to theirs and their students' lives. We will accomplish this by 1) producing teacher-friendly web resources that make Great Lakes data from GLERL accessible for use by elementary teachers and 2) teaching pre-service teachers to interpret these data during undergraduate, inquiry activities at EMU. Our third objective is to measure environmental, ocean and Great Lakes literacy among pre-service teachers and their students before and after implementation of targeted instruction. We will accomplish this via 1) assessing pre- and in-service teachers' content knowledge and ability to apply content knowledge in ocean and Great Lakes science, 2) assessing elementary children for content knowledge and ability to apply content knowledge in ocean and Great Lakes science, 3) performance assessments of pre- and in-service teachers' abilities to interpret environmental data, 4) standardized tests of Earth Science content knowledge, and 5) surveys of pre- and in-service teachers' attitudes towards ocean literacy and supporting materials.

The Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) is a successful teacher professional development program enhancing K-12 teachers' environmental literacy and ability to teach Earth System Science. The ESSEA 40+ educational institution consortium is supporting universities and other educational institutions in teacher preparation and professional development for pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers. This NOAA-funded project enhances and builds on this foundation by: 1) Using the ESSEA online courses as a model to introduce newly upgraded Earth system science undergraduate and graduate courses for teachers; 2) Introducing new Earth System Science data, analysis tools and educational resources to support the teacher courses; and 3) Disseminating model teaching practices and program success through annual conferences, continuing support, and presentations at geoscience and education conferences.

McWane ScienceCenter (McWSC) is a non-profit, interactive science museum committed to showing the public how science and technology enrich their lives and help them solve problems. McWSC has a goal of extending the power of experiential learning to as many people as possible, particularly those who would otherwise not be able to do so on their own. McWane’s environmental education initiative, the Envirosphere Educational Project, uses NOAA’s Science on a Sphere (SOS) to provide environmental education and workforce development programs for an estimated 200,000 people. This number includes the general public, school groups from across the region, and 2,500 children in low-income communities from across the state of Alabama. All visitors have the opportunity to go to the SOS exhibit and participate in environmental education programs led by McWSC Education Staff. Each program corresponds to one of the SOS data sets and to the Alabama Course of Study Standards for elementary and secondary schools. The intended outcomes of the Project are to make complex environmental science concepts more accessible to people of all ages; to provide educational opportunities to children who would otherwise not have access to this type of information; to partner with local and state academic institutions, school boards and municipalities to improve environmental science curricula and awareness; and to increase the visitor’s knowledge of and pique his/her interest in science and its related real-world applications.

The Miami Science Museum, in collaboration with Ideum and the Institute for Learning Innovation, is designing and developing an interactive multi-user exhibit that allows visitors to explore the global dimensions and local impacts of climate change. The exhibit will raise public understanding about the underlying science, the human causes, and the potential impacts of climate change by combining the attraction of a 4-foot spherical display with a user-controlled interface that lets visitors control the sphere and choose from a range of global and local content they wish to explore. A particular focus is on climate-related impacts on coastal communities, including the dangers posed by rising sea level and the possibility of more intense hurricanes. The project emphasizes engagement of diverse, multigenerational audiences through development of an interface that is fully bilingual and that promotes social interaction. The open-source learning module will be adaptable by other museums, to explore climate impacts specific to their region.