NOAA education accomplishments

Advancing NOAA's mission through education

Each year, the NOAA Education community helps connect and inspire millions of people with NOAA's mission. The Education Council gathers information on the reach, progress, and impacts of these efforts and reports them through annual output measures and accomplishments reports.

Fiscal year 2021 common measures

NOAA’s common measures are collected from programs across NOAA and are one way we communicate the reach of our investments to the public, students, and educators. Partners such as academic institutions, educational organizations, and other federal, state, and local agencies extend our ability to reach our target audiences.

In 2021, these numbers continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With many in-person programs switching to virtual learning and partner institutions closing their doors to visitors, programs worked hard to continue providing meaningful learning experiences to students and educators in a new virtual world. Though the numbers below look different from previous years, they capture the combined, extraordinary efforts of educators across the agency, spanning all of NOAA’s mission areas.

    496
    institutions
    increased educational capacity through NOAA-funded centers, exhibits, or programs.
    331,000
    preK-12 students
    participated in NOAA-supported formal education programs.
    44,000
    educators
    participated in NOAA-supported professional development programs.
    1.2 mil
    youth and adults
    participated in NOAA-supported informal education programs.
    48.7 mil
    visits
    were made to NOAA Education websites that host valuable activities and information.
    4,300
    postsecondary students
    were trained through NOAA-funded higher education programs.
    783
    postsecondary degrees
    were awarded to NOAA-supported students in higher education programs.
    —
    not reported due to COVID-19
    people who visited informal education institutions hosting NOAA-supported exhibits or programs.