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EARTH Resources

EARTH Workshops

If you ever come across Web resources, news articles, or other educational materials that you would like to see added to the EARTH Web site, please email them to Jennifer Magnusson.

Lesson Plan Development

Lesson Plan Template—MS Word

• National Science Standards—Content Standards
  • Standards Excel spreadsheet
• AAAS Benchmarks—Project 2061
• Ocean Literacy—Understanding of the Ocean’s influence on you and your influence on the Ocean
• Ocean Literacy Essential Principles
• Carolina Biological—Correlations to Educational Standards
• Rubistar—a free tool to help teachers create quality rubrics
• Cornell Notes—http://coe.jmu.edu/LearningToolbox/cornellnotes1.html
• Wikimedia Commons (great source for images)

Other Lesson Plan programs

• Oregon State University SMILE Program—http://smile.oregonstate.edu/
  • SMILE High School Teacher Workshop Activities—http://cioss.coas.oregonstate.edu/CIOSS/teacher_activities.html
• BRIDGE Data Series lesson plans
• Rutgers COOL Classroom teacher page

Materials

• Live Daphnia culture at Hometrainingtools
• Plastic fish models at Tapirback
• Sea Soup books
• Giant Microbes—stuffed models of your favorite microbes!

Audio Visual Resources

• Audacity—The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor
  • Download page
  • Instructions PowerPoint
  • Audacity Tutorial page
  • Audacity Tutorial: How to Record and Edit Audio with Audacity
• transom.org—A Showcase & Workshop for New Public Radio
• PRX—Public Radio Exchange
• How to Podcast—The definitive step-by-step guide on how to podcast without breaking the bank.
• LAME mp3 Encoder
• Learning in Hand—Podcasting
• Freeplay Music—Source of free music clips
• VoiceThread
  • How to Use Someone Else’s Voicethread
  • Eye-in-the-Sea (Video 1)
  • Eye-in-the-Sea (Video 2)
  • Eye-in-the-Sea (Video 4)
  • Tutorials
  • FAQs
  • VoiceThread free educator accounts
  • K-12 Solutions

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Marine Biology | Back to top

Astrobiology

• NASA Astrobiology—http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/
• Micro*scope – online encyclopedia of life for microbes—http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php
• Astrobiology in secondary classrooms—http://www.astroclassroom.org/New-Pages/Home.html
• Microbes at NASA—http://microbes.arc.nasa.gov/
• Microbe webquest—http://microbes.arc.nasa.gov/educators/webquest.html

Bioluminescence

• The Bioluminescence Webpage—This section of the UCSB Bioluminescence Webpage includes photos and short explanations of various organisms and their luminous properties.
• Bioluminescence lessons
  • The Beautiful World of Bioluminescence
  • Growing Dinoflagellates
• Primer on bioluminescence by Edie Widder

Classification

• MBARI Images and Video
  This link from the Data and Images section gives browsers a peek at a few of the incredible organisms they might see in the Monterey Canyon.
• Monterey Bay Aquarium—Deep Sea
  The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s section on the deep sea is full of adaptation information and a list of some of the species MBARI scientists see in the Monterey Canyon, as well as a virtual dive!
• Animal Diversity Web
  Created by the University of Michigan’s Department of Zoology, this site has lots of information about different groups of animals, as well as a section for teachers/instructors that includes some great teaching ideas.
• The “Nuts and Bolts” of Taxonomy and Classification
  Provides background information on what exactly these two subjects are and provides a simple activity to do with your students.
• DiscoverySchool.com—Animal Classification
  This lesson on classification by the Discovery Channel is aimed at grades 3–5, but is easily adaptable to suit older or younger grades.
• MBARI Midwater Research
  Includes information about current MBARI research projects and the scientists that explore the ocean realm between the surface and the ocean floor.
• Monsters of the Deep
  This site leads viewers through an underwater exploration of the curious creatures of the deep sea.

Dead Zones

• NOAA’s ocean service education—http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/welcome.html
• NOAA’s ocean service data explorer—http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/dataexplorer/welcome.html
• PISCO hypoxia overview—http://www.piscoweb.org/policy-and-outreach-hypoxia
• PISCO data—http://www.piscoweb.org/data (have to register)
• NOAA data sets; mostly just an overview—http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/datasets/welcome.html
• World Ocean Database—http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/SELECT/dbsearch/dbsearch.html
• NOAA Ocean Exploration—http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/
• MBARI Mooring data sets—http://www.mbari.org/oasis/index.html
• Hypoxia/upwelling activity—http://www.mbari.org/earth/2007/ooei/Aug_2/Presentations/VA_Eutroph_Lesson.doc

Estuaries

• National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS)
  • Estuary Education
  • Estuaries 101 Curriculum
  • Data Graphing Application
  • Centralized Data Management Office
• NOAA Data in the Classroom: Monitoring Estuarine Water Quality

Fisheries

• Gray's Reef Data Resorces
  • National Data Buoy Center buoy at Gray's Reef —Station 41008
  • NOAA Ocean Data Education Project
  • PMEL Carbon Program
  • NOAA Fisheries Annual Commercial Landing Statistics
  • NOAA Fisheries Recreational Fishery Statistics Time Series Query
  • South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
  • NOAA's Adopt a Drifter Program
  • APL Ocean Remote Sensing—Gulf Stream Region
  • The Global Drifter Program—Satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys
  • TOPP—Tagging of Pacific Predators
  • USGS—OBIS-USA
  • NOAA Habitat Conservation—Deep-Sea Coral Interactive Map
  • SERTC—Southeast Regional Taxonomic Center

Genetics

• Gene detection techniques—http://www.dnalc.org/ddnalc/resources/pcr.html
• Ecogenomics (NEPTUNE)—http://www.neptune.washington.edu/research/index.jsp?keywords=ECOGNM&title=Ecogenomics
• Oceans and human health—http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ohhi/
• Greenomes – lab and internet exercises—http://www.greenomes.org/
• The Cartoon Guide to Genetics—http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/Biotech/cartoon.html

Harmful Algal Blooms

• Bigelow’s algal blooms page: neat interactive and also focuses on non-harmful algal blooms—http://www.bigelow.org/hab/
• WHOI’s introduction—http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/
• HABs in Texas; general intro with frequent updates—http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/environconcerns/hab/
• NOAA’s HAB site—http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/topics/coasts/hab/welcome.html

Microbiology

• Phytopia (Bigelow Labs)—http://www.bigelow.org/phytopia/
• Whyville—Whyville is a virtual world where boys and girls from all over the real world come to chat, play, learn, and have fun together
• ESPERE—Environmental Science Published for Everybody Round the Earth
  • Phytoplankton and nutrients in the oceans
  • Seasonal cycle of phytoplankton growth
• MicrobeWiki: http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/MicrobeWiki
• Micro*Scope: http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php

Biological Oceanography

• Seward Line—http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/sewardline/
• Arctic Ocean Diversity—http://www.arcodiv.org/
• Census of Marine Zooplankton—http://www.cmarz.org/
• A new climate regime in northeast pacific ecosystems (Geophysical Research Letters, VOL. 30, NO. 17, 1896)

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Marine Chemistry | Back to top

General Oceanographic Info

• CTD (Conductivity/Temperature/Depth)— http://www.whoi.edu/instruments/viewInstrument.do?id=1003
• Niskin Bottles—http://www.coml.org/edu/tech/collect/niskin.htm
• Redfield Ratio—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redfield_ratio
• WHOI Podcasts—http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12515

Nutrient Cycles

• e-subjects—Nutrient Cycles
• The Encyclopedia of Earth—Marine Nitrogen Cycle
• Chemgapedia—Simplified Marine Nitrogen Cycle
• The Environmental Literacy Council—Phosphorus Cycle

Primary Productivity

• Oregon State University—Ocean Productivity

Ocean Acidification

• UAF Ocean Acidification Research Center—http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/oarc
• PMEL Carbon Program: Ocean Acidification—http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification
• Nationa Academy of Sciences: Ocean Acidification—http://oceanacidification.nas.edu/
• Gulf of Alaska Ocean Acidification Mooring—http://pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/GAKOA
• Resurrection Bay Real-time Data Buoy—http://www.ims.uaf.edu/gak1/realtime/index.html
• Rapid Acidification of the Ocean During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Science 10 June 2005: Vol. 308 no. 5728)
• Impact of Anthropogenic CO2 on the CaCO3 System in the Oceans (Science, 305(5682), 2004)
• Global Carbon Budget and Ocean pH—George Matsumoto, CSTA 2008
• MBARI—The Emerging Science of a High CO2 / Low pH Ocean
• Sea Grant Ocean Acidification Fact Sheet
• Ocean Acidification Resources Overview
• pH Measurements
  • MBARI Ocean Acidification Buoy 1
  • MBARI Ocean Acidification Buoy 2
  • HOT Data Trends (Hawaii Ocean Time Series)
  • PMEL Carbon Program OA Observations and Data
• CO2 Measurements
  • PMEL Carbon Program LDEO Surface Ocean CO2 Climatology
  • Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
  • Marine Institute Ocean Measurements of Carbon Dioxide
• Ocean Acidification: So What? (voicethread)
• I2I: Inquiry-to-Insight project—An International Environmental Science Collaboration

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Marine Geology | Back to top

Ocean Drilling

• International Ocean Drilling Program—www.iodp.org
  • IODP Visual Resources Library
  • IODP Education/Teaching materials
  • IODP Video Expedition
    • MARUM scientists Ursula Röhl and Alex Wülbers are investigating what the ocean floor has to tell us about the climate in the past. The geologists are part of the international IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) project. In this report they talk about an especially challenging expedition; how with a drilling ship they navigated the Arctic ice to the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater shelf that extends through the northern polar region.

• MBARI coring system—http://www.mbari.org/canyon/coresystem.htm
• Video from “Pele meets the sea”— http://satftp.soest.hawaii.edu/space/hawaii/vfts/pele/
• The ‘Hole’ story about ocean cores— http://www.oceanleadership.org/posters/holestory

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Physical Oceanography | Back to top

Google Earth and MBARI

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Great Ocean Conveyor Belt

• David Suzuki Foundation—The Great Ocean Conveyor
• The Environmental Literacy Council—The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt
• Windows to the Universe—Transfer and Storage of Heat in the Oceans

Oil Spill Information

News & Feature Articles

• The New York Times—BP Is Criticized Over Oil Spill, but U.S. Missed Chances to Act (04/30/10)
• The Washington Post—In gulf oil spill's long reach, ecological damage could last decades (06/06/10)
• NASA Deploys Planes, Targets Satellites to Aid in Oil Spill Response (05/11/10)
• National Geographic—Gulf Oil Spill Could Reach East Coast Beaches (05/04/10)
• Scholastic—Gulf Coast Oil-Spill Disaster (05/03/10)

Images, Video, Podcasts & other media

• National Geographic—Gulf Oil Spill Pictures
• NPR: Talk of the Nation—Oil Spill Stories From Around The Gulf Coast
• Discovery Education—Philippe Cousteau: Spotlight on the Gulf
• NASA Image Gallery—Oil Spill
• PBS Newshour—Live Oil Cam
• boston.com: The Big Picture—Disaster unfolds slowly in the Gulf of Mexico
• BP—Live feeds from remotely operated vehicles (ROV)
• KSBW.com—MBARI Scientists Return From Gulf Oil Spill
• CNN.com—Drilling the relief wells
• TEDxOilSpill
• TED—Carl Safina: The oil spill’s unseen culprits, victims

Satellite Imagery & Mapping

• ESRI (makers of GIS software)—Interactive Social Media Map
• Google Crisis Response—Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
• The New York Times—Tracking the Oil Spill in the Gulf
• GeoPlatform.gov—Mapping the Response to BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• CNN—Tracking the Gulf oil disaster
• LSU Earth Scan Laboratory—Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
• ifitwasmyhome.com—Visualizing the BP Oil Spill Disaster
• National Data Buoy Center

Facts & Figures

• PBS Newshour
  • Gulf Oil Spill
  • The Rundown—Gulf Coast Oil Leak
• The Infrastructurist—The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, Shown in Graph
• The New York Times—A History of Major Oil Spills
• USFWS—Daily Wildlife Collection Reports

Data

• MBARI AUV Data Report
• EPA Response to BP Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
  • Dispersants
• IOOS Response to BP Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• US Department of Energy—Deep Horizon Response

Activities

• GNOME (General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment)
• Thew New York Times Learning Blog—The Drill on the Spill: Learning About the Gulf Oil Leak in the Lab
• Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary—How would an oil spill affect a Marine Sanctuary?
• PBS Newshour Article—Largest Oil Spill in U.S. History Continues Despite Efforts to Stop the Leak
• NOAA’s Prince William's Oily Mess: A Tale of Recovery: Teacher Resources
• Prince William Sound—Alaska Oil Spill Curriculum
• ASFA Environmental Science—Core Environmental Science (CES) Final Exam: Gulf Coast Oil Spill

General

• Deepwater Horizon—Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response
• NOAA Education Resources—Gulf Oil Spill Resources
• Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS)—Oil Spill Information
• NOAA Office of Response and Restoration—Deepwater Horizon Incident, Gulf of Mexico
• The Bridge Ocean Science Education Blog—Oil Spill
• The Bridge—Oil Spill Resources
• TERC Eyes in the Sky II—Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Information
• Consortium for Ocean Leadership—Gulf Oil Spill Scientific Symposium
• EPA—Response to BP Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• Innocentive—Emergency Response 2.0: Solutions to Respond to Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• Encyclopedia of Life—Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010
• ORCA—Modernizing Disaster Response

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Marine Technology | Back to top

ORCA Eye-in-the-Sea

• MBARI MARS Observatory ORCA Eye-in-the-Sea info page
• NOAA Ocean Explorer: Explorations
  • Operation Deep Scope 2005: Eye-in-the-Sea
    Pictures, video clips, and a daily log from a 2005 expedition to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico
  • Eye-in-the-Sea: An Innovative, Unobtrusive Camera System
• Ocean Research & Conservation Association
  • Deep Sea Conservation page

• The Bioluminescence Webpage—This section of the UCSB Bioluminescence Webpage includes photos and short explanations of various organisms and their luminous properties.
• Bioluminescence lessons
  • The Beautiful World of Bioluminescence
  • Growing Dinoflagellates
• Primer on bioluminescence by Edie Widder

• Squid resources
  • MBARI Press Room—Humboldt squid on the move
  • The Gilly Lab (Stanford)—Squids4Kids
  • PNAS—Invasive range expansion by the Humboldt squid, Dosidicus gigas, in the eastern North Pacific
  • goTofino.com—Squids Wash Ashore onto Tofino Beaches
  • Oceanwest—Squid strandings

AUV/Glider Resources

• Teledyne Webb Research—Slocum Glider
• CMOP—Phoebe Glider Data
• CMOP News—Modeling Technology Supports Glider Rescue
• LOBO-0023 Lower Columbia River
  • LOBOVIZ Data Visualization page
• Rutgers University COOL Classroom
  • Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)
  • The Hudson River Plume
• Rutgers University AUV Fleet
• RUCOOL—The Scarlet Knight’s Trans-Atlantic Challenge
• SCCOOS—Tijuana River Stormwater Plume Tracking
• SOON-Drifter Data Page

Satellite Oceanography

Satellite tagging and tracking:

Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators
The Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators (GTOPP) program is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration among biologists, engineers, computer scientists and educators, which will allow users to view and interact with animal tracking data, as well as oceanographic datasets, to marine life observation.

Tagging of Pacific Predators
This recently-updated site includes tracking information from a wide variety of pelagic predators, including sharks, whales, seals, sea turtles, squid and albatross, as well as corresponding graphs of oceanographic data.

World Wildlife Federation Polar Bear Tracker
For the last 4 years, the WWF-Canon Polar Bear Tracker has followed polar bears in the Arctic. Their positions are beamed from collars on the bears’ necks, via satellite to scientists, and then to this Web site, which has been developed with the help of the Norwegian Polar Institute. This allows scientists to get regular updates about how the polar bears behave in their arctic environment and how they may be affected by climate change. 

WhaleNet
Tracking information includes both active and archived data and maps for a variety of seals and sea lions, porpoises, whales and sea turtles. Extensive background information on satellite tagging equipment, purposes and procedures.  Includes information on how to interpret satellite tag data and questions and activities to assist in exploring data.

Sea Turtle Migration-Tracking Education Program
Tracking information includes maps for both active and inactive tags from leatherback, loggerhead and green sea turtles.  Includes a plotting activity that uses data and maps from archived turtles, and a section with general information on satellite tracking.

Space for Species
This incredible space-trekking, species-tracking program monitors migratory animals, like the polar bear, eider, caribou, peregrine falcon, and leatherback seaturtle, as well as their habitats, from beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

NOAA—National Marine Mammal Laboratory
The objective of the Alaska Ecosystem Program's Telemetry Research Page is to provide visitors with a tool to view the near-real-time movements of Steller sea lions with active instruments and to view location data from previous tracking efforts. Includes information on capture methods, instrumentation, data collecting and deployment.

NOAA—PFEL Live Access Server
Serves as a demonstration server for the Census of Marine Life (CoML) Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) Project. Includes tag data from nine elephant seals, which are representative of the type of data that will be collected during TOPP. Descriptions of the data available from the PFEL LAS are provided as well.

Satellite oceanographic data:

NASA—SeaWiFS Project
Access to SeaWiFS satellite imagery of sea surface color.  High-resolution images can be used to examine chlorophyll concentration and therefore phytoplankton levels. Includes extensive background and educational resources.

NASA Earth Observatory
Centralized access to a wide variety of images and data sets, including chlorophyll, sea surface height and temperature, rainfall and reflected solar radiation.

NOAA—Satellite Active Archive
Provides tools to access a variety of satellite data, including AVHRR sea surface temperature.  Time/location search returns either graph or data set.

NOAA—National Geophysical Data Center
Access to color relief images of seafloor bathymetry.

Additional Satellite Resources

• Primer on Giovanni—http://www.mbari.org/earth/2007/ooei/Aug_1/Giovanni_education_JG.pdf
• NOAA CoastWatch West Coast Regional Node Browser
• NASA Ocean Color data browser
• CCAR Near Real-Time Altimetry Data Homepage
• AVISO Live Access Server
• JPL WINDS: Measuring Ocean Winds from Space
• OSU Real-time Satellite Images
• ORSOO (Oregon State) Data Online
• GTOPP—Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators

Google Earth and MBARI

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