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Windows to the Deep 2018: Exploration of the Southeast U.S. Continental Margin

Classroom Lessons

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.

 

Grades 6-8

Strange Life

Grade Level: 6-8
Focus: Biological organisms in cold-seep communities (Life Science/Chemistry)

Students obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about flows and cycles of energy in cold-seep ecosystems; develop a model that describes some of the interdependent relationships in cold-seep ecosystems; and develop and use a model to explain states and changes between states of methane hydrates.

 

Grades 9-12

How to Use the Ocean Explorer Digital Atlas and Exploring Cold Seeps

Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information provides a map-based atlas that links to information about past expeditions supported by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research in 2001. This atlas is an excellent teaching tool to orient students to expedition locations and provide experiences exploring data and associated discoveries from specific expeditions. This Supplement describes how geographical and mapping data marry with expedition website data and selected interactive scene files from key discoveries. The Digital Atlas can be used to obtain information about past expeditions, education resources associated with the expeditions, ship tracks, bathymetric maps, dive tracks, and more.

Explore the interactive Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013: Cold Seeps activity to learn about recent cold seep observations in the western Atlantic Ocean.

 

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer Education Materials Collection

This lesson collection was developed to encourage educators and students to become personally involved with the voyages and discoveries of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer – America’s first Federal ship dedicated to ocean exploration. The Education Materials Collection is presented in two volumes:

  • Volume 1: Why Do We Explore? (Grades 5-12)
    This volume of 16 lessons focuses on modern reasons for ocean exploration, providing background information on key topics of Ocean Exploration including Climate Change, Energy, Human Health, and Ocean Health.

  • Volume 2: How Do We Explore? (Grades 5-12)
    This volume of 11 lessons focuses on modern exploration tools used aboard the ship: telepresence, multibeam sonar, water column investigations and underwater robots.

Several of these lessons are also provided in Spanish and are also available.