Instructify

There’s a whole world down there, and you can bring it to your student engagingly and easily with Ocean Explorer from NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). This site has a number of “explorations” based on actual work being done by NOAA scientists, with well-developed lesson plans (some even have adaptations for teaching deaf students). You can pick a lesson by subject, or by a specific exploration project. All lessons are correlated to national science standards.

An example is the lesson on the January 2008 Bonaire expedition in the Caribbean. The  lessons offered for Grades 5-6 include one on Pi by looking at surface area, or a more language-arts-oriented lesson where students design a public information campaign to save coral reefs.

Included below is a link to a video from Dr. Robert Ballard, famous ocean explorer and NOAA scientist. The video explains the motivation behind the Jason project and this site which is to publicize ocean exploration, and to engage and educate the next generation of oceanographers. -ALICE MERCER

NOAA Ocean Explorer
TED | Talks | Robert Ballard: Exploring the ocean’s hidden worlds (video)

Related Stuff:
Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Briny Deep? Monsters of the Deep Sea
Talk About the Weather Without Being Boring: NOAA Education
Foragin’ for the Species: Catalogue all Life on Earth with the Encyclopedia of Life

Photo Credit: Ocean Blue by Micah A. Ponce