As "America’s Ship for Ocean Exploration," NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer’s sole assignment is to systematically explore Earth’s largely unknown ocean. A major task for this mission is to reach out to teachers, students, and the general public so that they may become engaged with expeditions dedicated to purposes of discovery and the advancement of knowledge. Okeanos Explorer Expedition Education Modules are designed to help accomplish this task.
The Okeanos Explorer Tropical Exploration Expedition 2015 offers a unique opportunity for explorers of all ages to investigate the unknown and poorly known areas within the Caribbean Ocean and the central Pacific Ocean.
The education resource collection below includes an Expedition Purpose; a link to the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer Education Materials Collection - Volume 1, Why Do We Explore? and Volume 2, How Do We Explore?; specific lessons and learning tools relevant to bathymetric mapping and water column exploration; multimedia resources on relevant topics; career connections; and a link to the Expedition Education Module for the recent expedition, Exploring Puerto Rico’s Seamounts, Trenches, and Troughs, which includes theme pages on seamounts, canyons, and deep-sea corals as well as standards-based lessons and much more.
One of the primary purposes for this expedition is to move the Okeanos Explorer from the U.S. east coast to Hawaii.
Learn more
Okeanos Explorer Education Materials Collection was developed to encourage educators and students to become personally involved with the voyages and discoveries of the vessel.
Learn more
Classroom lessons and learning tools relevant to the expedition are listed below by grade level. Although some of these resources may have been developed for past expeditions conducted in other regions of the world ocean, the Focus Questions and Student Learning Objectives are applicable to the current expedition - bathymetric mapping and water column exploration.
View Lessons
Multimedia Discovery Missions (MDMs) are interactive multimedia presentations and learning activities that address topics ranging from Chemosynthesis and Hydrothermal Vent Life and Deep-sea Benthos to Food, Water and Medicine from the Sea. Each MDM includes a 7-9 minute animated Lesson, a 4-5 minute animation on Global Impacts, and three interactive activities. The following MDMs support the science of this expedition.
The following expeditions cover topics similar to those of interest on the current expedition. 2015-2017 expedition web pages have an education component with associated lessons and other resources that you might find useful to classroom teaching and learning.
Ocean Careers to Inspire Another Generation of Explorers, or OceanAGE Careers, invites students to learn about the talented people who explore our ocean planet.
