 | | | | | | Education The U.S. CoML recognizes the importance of educating students, teachers, and the general public about our research projects. Recently, we have begun the process of establishing a significant education component based upon our diverse research projects and discoveries. In the meantime, to make it easier to find educational information from ALL our projects, please visit the CoML Portal.
August Featured Link, courtesy of The Discovery Channel:
There are just two days left to enjoy SHARK WEEK 2008 on the Discovery Channel. Every year the Discovery Channel airs a week-long series of television programs dedicated to amazing facts on sharks. Even if you missed the programs aired on television, the Shark Week website offers plenty of videos, blogs, trivia and games to educate all age groups about sharks. You can follow sharks tagged by scientists and learn about their migration routes, or play Shark Runners, a game that allows you to be the researcher, tagging sharks in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. There is an interactive map which shows the current status of shark populations, as well as areas of notable shark discoveries and areas where sharks are unfortunately under attack. If you are feeling a little silly, upload a photo of yourself to add some shark teeth!
July Featured Link, courtesy of The Luminous Deep:
‘The Luminous Deep’, an amazing animation created by two students from the Duncan of Jordanstone Art College in Dundee, UK, with help from researchers at Aberdeen University’s Oceanlab, shows the organisms and processes associated with a humpback whale fall. During the animation, you will learn how the carcass of a dead whale that sinks to the ocean floor nourishes a large interconnected community of scavengers and predators. Many of the creatures attracted to the whale fall are bioluminescent, meaning they produce glowing lights in the dark abyss. Visit 'The Luminous Deep' website to view the trailer, meet the crew that produced the animation, and also meet the crew of marine organisms, such as the Bloodbelly comb jelly, featured in the animation. The full animation can be viewed at the Duncan of Jordanstone Animation Degree Show website.
June Featured Link, courtesy of The Ocean Project:
June 8th marks World Ocean Day. This year’s theme is “helping our climate/helping our ocean”, focusing on global climate change and its relationship to coral reefs. This year’s theme takes advantage of the International Year of the Reef, also occurring in 2008. Visit the Ocean Project website to learn more about World Ocean Day, coral reefs, how climate change affects our ocean and what you can do daily to benefit the health of the ocean. You can also find World Ocean Day events in your area of the United States, or even worldwide, where you can celebrate the ocean and our connection to it. To help raise awareness of the ocean’s importance in our daily lives, sign the online petition to the United Nations and world’s leaders, encouraging them to protect and conserve the ocean in the present and for future generations.
May Featured Link, courtesy of Deep Earth Academy:
The Deep Earth Academy offers ‘Bubba’s Tour’, an interactive tour of the JOIDES Resolution scientific ocean drilling vessel. Take the tour and learn about the vessel, deep sea cores and the scientists and crew that work aboard the vessel. You can even catch a glimpse of the ‘floating laboratories’ where the scientists study the cores to gain more information on the seafloor’s sedimentology, geochemistry and paleontology. Correctly answering challenge questions at each tour stop earns you puzzle pieces, which if correctly assembled, earn you a certificate of achievement! Visit Bubba’s Tour now!
April Featured Link, courtesy of the BBC for Children:
The BBC Children’s website offers a game called 'Deep Sea Explorer', where you can pilot a manned underwater vehicle, navigating the deep sea, finding new sea life (which you must film), and avoiding the hydrothermal vents. You can learn more about deep sea organisms such as the angler fish, dumbo octopus and gulper eel. Be sure to watch your air supply and collect the extra air canisters along the way, you certainly don’t want to run out!
March Featured Link, courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium:
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a great ‘Games and Activities' page that will keep kids ages 4-13 entertained for days. Younger kids can choose from coloring book pages, tic-tac-toe, creating their own tide pools, various paper crafts and sing along songs about sea stars. Older kids can enjoy crossword puzzles, the ‘Shark School of Art, and interactive games that explore kelp beds and ocean realms only reached by submersibles. You can even send an e-card to your friends and family!
February Featured Link, courtesy of Census of Marine Life's Tagging of Pacific Predators:
Our Census of Marine Life friends at TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Predators) are celebrating “Elephant Seals Homecoming Days”, documenting the migration of female elephant seals from the North Pacific Ocean to the beaches of Año Nuevo State Reserve in Northern California to give birth to their pups. The TOPP website offers information and fun facts about elephant seals, photos of the tagged ‘momma’ seals and their pups, video clips, interviews with the researchers and links to educational materials for teachers. Choose your favorite seals - their names are Myoceen, Mukurma, Isabel, Clara, Cheddar, Coya, Annie, Guadalupe, and Flora – and check out their trading cards for details on when they were born, who (or what) they were named after and how many pups they’ve given birth to!
January Featured Link, courtesy of Census of Marine Life's Education and Outreach Team:
Our colleagues at the Census of Marine Life Education and Outreach network have embarked on a new educational effort with the creation of their new informative webpage. Take a look at the "Marine Life Discoveries" section of the updated CoML Portal webpage, which describes the important discoveries and species found by CoML scientists, as well as the research being conducted on abundance, distribution, historical populations and predicting future trends. The website also offers an extremely helpful glossary of terms!
December Featured Link, courtesy of The American Museum of Natural History:
The American Museum of Natural History has a fun website called 'Ology'. On the website you can explore your favorite 'ology' (or study), such as marine biology or biodiversity. The website offers educational information, games, quizzes and even instructions for downloading your own stationery or making your own coral reef diorama from household items. You can collect over 200 ology cards, create your own homepage or ask museum scientists questions about a range of topics. There is also a link for educators offering an After-School Educator's Guide to Ology. Discover AMNH's Ology website for yourself!
November Featured Link, courtesy of The Living Oceans Foundation and SeaCAMEL:
Project SeaCAMEL (Classroom Aquarius Marine Education Live) will broadcast six coral reef classroom modules live via satellite and internet from November 12-14, 2007 from Atlantis, the NOAA Aquarius underwater laboratory in Key Largo, Florida. You can learn more about coral reefs, artificial reefs and oceanography, as well as take a virtual tour of Atlantis! For more information, please visit the SeaCAMEL website.
October Featured Link, courtesy of the American Geological Institute:
Celebrate Earth Science Week from 14-20 October 2007! Visit the Earth Science Week website to find educational materials for students, including information on scholarships and fellowships, as well as classroom activities for teachers. An Earth Science Week Tool Kit containing various posters, calendars and CD-ROMs from organizations such as NASA, NOAA and the USGS can be ordered online. Kids and adults can discover local events and research projects to participate in too!
September Featured Link, courtesy of Census of Marine Life's
Gulf of Maine Area Program (GOMA):
The Gulf of Maine Area (GOMA) Census program has created a series of Google Earth lesson plans intended to introduce educators and students to Google Earth and on-line resources for visualizing and understanding ocean characteristics, including species distribution, wave heights and sea surface temperature. The 'Changing Ocean' unit of lesson plans is broken into 3 categories: (1) Daily change; (2) Seasonal change; and (3) Long-term change. Please visit their Lesson Plans Introduction webpage to learn more.
August Featured Link: Try out our latest content on this website:FUN&GAMES July Featured link, courtesy of EuroCoML (Euro Regional Committee)Our friends at the European Census of Marine Life Regional Committee have an excellent website, including a great collection of materials for both students and teachers. Take a look at their education and outreach section with a collection of lesson plans, organized by age group from experts at NOAA, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and others. And if you have some time, give their jigsaw puzzle from the Kids section a try.
May Featured link, courtesy of TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Predators)
The Great Turtle Race - TOPP has teamed up with Yahoo! and others to follow tagged Leatherback Sea Turtles over a 14 day period in April. The action began on Monday, April 16. This link contains resources for teachers and students about Leatherback Sea turtles, as well as interactive activities.
If you are affiliated with any of our research projects and would like to send us links to educational materials, please contact Melissa Brodeur at mbrodeur@OceanLeadership.org.
To learn about the current happenings of the U.S. National Committee of the Census of Marine Life, please view the NEWSLETTER. | | |
| |
|
