Estuary-Net
Project
http://inlet.geol.sc.edu/estnet.html
Estuary-Net is an excellent website for teachers to use guided inquiry
learning activities in their classroom. Estuary-Net was developed by the National
Estuarine Research Reserve System in response to water quality issues arising in
coastal areas. This project strives to develop collaborations among high schools,
community volunteer water quality monitoring groups, local officials, state
Coastal Zone Management (CZM) programs, and National Estuarine Research Reserves
(NERRS) to solve non-point source pollution problems in estuaries and their
watersheds. This website provides comprehensive information about characteristics
of estuaries, estuarine ecology, water quality monitoring; and quality assurance,
quality control, and standard operating procedures of a water quality monitoring
program.
This web site contains a database of monitoring data from National Estuarine Research Reserve sites and volunteer sites. Data includes water temperature, water level, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and stream flow. Biological variables and bioassment techniques are also included in the dataset. These include water quality, habitat, benthic macroinvertebrates, intertidal organisms, aquatic vegetation, chlorophyll/plankton, and fecal coliform bacteria. In addition to the datasets, the secondary school volunteer sites contain metadata. The metadata includes research descriptors, entry verification, experimental design, research methods, site location and character, data collection period, associated researchers and projects, data table descriptors, and remarks.
This web site provides many classroom activities from the Estuary-Net curriculum. The classroom activities are divided into three levels in order to provide various degrees of involvement in the subject, ranging from lab experiments to single field experiences to long-term monitoring. The benefit of this scaffolding is that schools that do not have easy access to watershed areas can still participate in the Estuary-Net activities by engaging in hands-on/minds-on laboratory activities. All Estuary-Net activities contain objectives, assessments, time needed, materials, procedures,and hypotheses.
Level I activities do not include a field sampling component, but provide classes with a hands-on, inquiry experience that explore the habitat variables tested in later levels. Students use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret water quality data in their classroom. In addition, these variables are investigated using current data available at this web site. In these activities, students use telecommunications for collaborative problem-solving. Students relate their data to problems that exist in their local watershed.
Level II activities focus on the development of a watershed map and a water sampling plan. These activities provide a format for conducting a reconnaissance of the area and a stream survey. Students study the relationship between upstream influences in their watershed and their watershed's estuary. They identify the information needed and the resources necessary to address a potential watershed question. Students use USGS topographic maps to create a watershed map of their local area which identifies watershed and access points to those water sheds. They also create mylar overlays of their local map showing soil type, plant communities, and other land use categories. Classes are expected to make one reconnaissance field trip and at least one sampling field trip during this unit. Students will survey the biota of the water course and conduct sampling for macroinvertebrates and chlorophyll a or another appropriate indicator species following the design of their approved water sampling plan. Students identify the species collected and analyze their samples for species diversity and population characteristics.
Level III activities focus on improving the quality of data gathered for a class's water quality monitoring program. By this level, classes have conducted their initial sampling and, along with with their other regional partners, identified a condition that warrants further study in their watershed. Students learn about the different components of a Quality Assurance Project Plan. They work in groups to write the proposed expansions to their sampling plan and identify any resources from the community that they may need prior to implementing the plan. Students learn how action plans using "Best Management Practices" and other pollution control measures support solutions to their possible watershed problem.
JASON
PROJECT VII:
Adapting to a Changing Sea - Homepage
http://www.jasonproject.org/expeditions/jason7/index.html
The JASON VII expedition was conducted in 1996.
This JASON Project investigated marine life and living conditions, including
habitats and food sources at the edge of the sea. During JASON VII, researchers,
students, and teachers investigated several interconnected shallow water habitats
in Southern Florida, including the Everglades, Florida Bay, Florida Keys, and relic
reefs. The JASON VII Homepage contains many good learning activities that can be
easily incorporated into K-12 science curricula.
The "Shark Tracking Activity" contains a dataset of shark movement observed by the JASON research team. Students can use this dataset activity to produce maps and graphs showing the sharks' movement. Students can then analyze their graphs or maps to look for patterns in the sharks' movements which might indicate if they have a preferred territory.
In "Exploring the Steel Reef," students can view and magnify sonar images of a ship wreck.
The "Fish Survey Data" of the expedition contains an extensive dataset that can be analyzed by students to examine relationships among habitat preferences of different organisms.
The "Aquatic Field Investigation" contains many hands on activities that can be used in the K-12 classroom curricula which focus on how to measure the biotic and abiotic (living and nonliving) characteristics of an aquatic site to gain an understanding of how the habitat operates. Many different materials and methods sheets are provided for teachers to use these activities with their students.
Other activities at the Jason Project VII web site have students examine coral growth patterns and design visual shark targets.
Detailed descriptions of the entire expedition is provided online, including an in depth look at the equipment used by the research team.
Oceans Instructional
Materials - Athena Project
http://athena.wednet.edu/curric/oceans/index.html
The Athena Project has put together several wonderful interactive, guided
inquiry learning activities that take advantage of oceanographic data placed on
the World Wide Web.
In "Tracking Drifter Buoys", students "experience" how oceanographers use devices called drifter buoys to track ocean currents. Students are presented with detailed information to learn how drifter buoys measure ocean currents. Students also learn about satellite imagery of ocean topography. Students are presented with a dataset of information to plot on a map. After this practice activity, students must use information from spreadsheet files to locate the Gulf Stream. Science journal activities are also included. This activity is appropriate for both middle and high school students.
"Ocean Color" is an activity that can be used in any K-12 science classroom. This activity examines how scientists interpret satellite imagery. Students create a map which identifies different productivity levels in the ocean and identify areas of continental vegetation.
WhaleNet
http://whale.wheelock.edu
WhaleNet
is a collaborative project between the biology departments at Wheelock College and
Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. It is an educational site devoted to
whales, whale research, the marine habitat, and environmental studies.
Students are encouraged to use telecommunications tools to ask researchers questions on-line in the "Ask a scientist" area.
The Satellite Tagging Observation Program (STOP) electronically tracks whales to study their movements and migrations. STOP includes data and observations including satellite tracking maps. Teachers are able to download a variety of tracking maps for use in their classrooms. Curricular lesson plans are included to guide the study of the range of whale movement during their migrations.
This web site also contains classroom activities in which students study the relationships between whales and their marine habitat.
At the WhaleNet web site, students can read logs of oceanographic research vessels. These logs can be used in a variety of activities with K-12 students including graphing a ship's position by plotting coordinate data on a map, analyzing meteorological data such as wind speed, air temperature, water temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and classifying the plants and animals encountered by the research vessels on their voyages.
WhaleNet also contains an area of curricular activities which provide ideas on how to use the WhaleNet data and information for a variety of topics including navigation, water testing, plankton tow and analysis, data collection, photo identification of whales, bathymetry, topographic models of the ocean bottom, marine pollution, and data analyses.
Collaboration between K-12 classrooms worldwide is encouraged with an on-line listserv at the WhaleNet web site.
This web site also contains a multimedia collection of whale movies and images that can be used by teachers as visual resources in their science classrooms.
EnviroNet at Simmons
College
http://http://earth.simmons.edu/
EnvironNet
contains many scientific monitoring projects in which students can participate. All
projects involve hands-on science activities which include data analysis and
synthesis.
The Ocean Drilling
Program
http://www-odp.tamu.edu/
The
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) consists of research into the history of the ocean
basins and the nature of the crust beneath the ocean floor. This web site can be
used in an upper level secondary education science classroom to learn about
oceanographic science processes. Students can learn about laboratory equipment
and the types of research which are conducted on board the research vessels.
Students can access online data from a database containing downhole measurements
taken from core samples. Students can analyze the data to look for patterns in
the physical properties, paleomagnetism, and chemistry of the core samples. This
web sites provides excellent maps of the drilling sites. Science teachers can
also use the resources at this web site for mapping activities with their
students.
Topex/Poseidon
http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov/
This web site is the
homepage of the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite. Teachers and students can learn how
TOPEX/Poseidon maps ocean surface topography, how oceanographers use ocean
topography to monitor ocean currents, and how oceanographers use data to compute
the ocean's heat budget. Many of the resources at this web site can be incorporated
into secondary science curricula.
The TOPEX/Poseidon science images highlight many of the scientific discoveries of the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. Teachers can use the images to illustrate different ocean characteristics to their students.
The "near real time data" section includes data sets of sea surface heights, ocean wind, significant wave heights, and map coordinates. Science teachers can use this data for data analysis activities and mapping activities with their students.
The "image library" includes graphics of dynamic ocean topography, sea surface variability, significant wave height, wind speed, and precipitable water vapor.
The Educational Resources section contains an online tutorial that presents ideas on how to incorporate the TOPEX/Poseidon data on the Internet into the classroom. This tutorial can be used effectively as a stand alone tutorial for secondary students in a networked computer lab. Many sections of the tutorial contain images which can be used by teachers as presentation materials to explain oceanographic science processes and concepts.
El Niño Theme
Page
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino/nino-home.html
This
web site contains a wealth of information about El Niño. The material at
this web site is appropriate for students in grades 10-12. Graphic images and
animations facilitate learning about El Niño. Extensive information about
the impacts of El Niño and benefits of El Niño prediction are
presented with many web links to recent graphic images on the Internet. Teachers
and students can access the latest El Niño forecasts and measurements
which include global sea surface temperature, equatorial Pacific sea surface
temperature, and tropical Pacific buoy data. These datasets can be used in the
classroom for graphing and data analysis activities.
Roadkill
Project
http://earth.simmons.edu/roadkill/roadkill.html
The Roadkill Project is designed to involve students and teachers with
scientific monitoring and telecommunications and increase participant
awareness of motor vehicle hazards for wildlife. This site is guaranteed to
bring about stimulating discussion in your classroom.
The GLOBE Program - Global
Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment
http://www.globe.gov/
Global Learning and Observations
to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is a worldwide network of students, teachers,
and scientists working together to study and understand the global environment.
Students conduct an array of measurements and observations at their schools and
share their data via the Internet with other students and scientists around the
world to detail an environmental picture of the globe. An excellent way for your
students to contribute data to a unique ecology project on the Internet.
Dr. B's Wide
World of Web Data
http://research.ed.asu.edu/siip/webdata/
This
site has lots of data!!! Here's what they say: "This archive is a set of
links to data and depictions of data from throughout the world. It is organized
by topic areas. We hope instructors will use these data for examples in classes
AND set students loose to find data that THEY find interesting."
International Wolf Center
http://www.wolf.org
The International Wolf Center is a
great resource to learn about wolves. A highlight of this site is the Telemetry
Dataset. Great graphics of wolves can be accessed at this site. A great
educational resource for both math and science.
National Space Science
Data Center
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
This NASA site
has lots of great information that incorporates biological content into the space
sciences. NSSDC provides discipline-specific pages which summarize available
resources at NSSDC for each discipline it supports. Disciplines currently
supported include Space Physics, Solar Physics, Astrophysics,
Planetary Science, and Earth Science.
Reef Environmental
Education Foundation
http://www.reef.org/index.htm
This
site provides information about ongoing projects by the Reef Environmental
Education Foundation. Contents include reef fish pictures, distinctive features,
fish descriptions, description of the fish survey, survey data, and how to
interpret the data. The survey data would be useful for designing an activity
based on reading a table or determining fish distribution. Information is also
provided about the organization's training programs, collecting sites, how to
become a member, and the "REEF" publication. Also included is a list of other
links related to marine biology. This site would interest elementary level
students interested in learning about different types of marine fish and also
high school students interested in population and distribution studies. It will
be necessary to have a description of the number code in hand when interpreting
the survey data.
Mullard Space Science
Lab
http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk
This web site is great for
grades 9-12 teachers and students from the University College London! Will you
have a career day at your school? If so, this is a great site to visit about a
career in space. This web site features: astro-physics, solar physics, plasma
physics, climate physics, and detector physics.
Astronomy
Datasets and
Atlases
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/astro/astronomy_databases.html
This
web site is great for grades 9-12 teachers and students. This site contains many
links to other astronomy sites on the World Wide Web. Included is great
information on "Today's Space Weather." This site is very user-friendly
and contains great pictures and graphs.
National
Geophysical Data Center
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ngdc.html
Neuse River Estuary
MODeling and MONitoring (MODMON) Project
http://www.marine.unc.edu/neuse/modmon/homepage.html
CHL-FRF Duck Research
Facility
http://frf.usace.army.mil
Datasets Classified by Area of
Interest
http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/sicl/datatype1.htm
Morbidity &
Mortality Weekly
Report
http://www2.cdc.gov/mmwr/
Earthquake Information
from the USGS
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/
Biological
Timing Online Science Experiment
http://www.cbt.virginia.edu/Olh/
Students
as Scientists - Pollution Prevention Through Education
http://smec.uncwil.edu/GLAXO/SAS/index.htm
SunAngle
http://www.susdesign.com/sunangle/
Astronomical
Applications Data Services
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/
Historical
Streamflow
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis-w/US/
National Geospatial
Data Clearinghouse, USGS Mode
http://nsdi.usgs.gov/
Real-Time
Water Data
http://water.usgs.gov/public/realtime.html
Water
Use Data
http://water.usgs.gov/public/watuse/