Education at Home - Resources and Links
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The COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for teachers and parents trying to continue their students' education online and at home. Parents and teachers may not have access to resources that engage and educate students as they might in a classroom.
Listed below are links to help bridge the gaps and encourage scientific inquiry and creativity!
We’ve grouped links into a few general topics that we think will be engaging for a variety of students and grade levels. Engagement with your student is a key element in successful education! Please do not assume that a strong science background is required to ask the “right” questions. It's more important to encourage students to observe, think, analyze, explain, justify, and even argue their opinion. Sample discussion questions could include:
"What do you notice about _____?"
"Why do you think _____ happened?"
"How would you respond if _____ ?"
We will continue adding links and resources below as they are identified throughout this challenging time. Please feel free to share resources you discover that might be added here, and share positive and negative feedback on resources as appropriate. Email us at nh.seagrant@unh.edu. [Page last updated August 25, 2020 at 8 a.m.]
Enjoy and have fun!
Resources and Links by Topic
The National Sea Grant Network includes 34 programs in all of the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states. Sea Grant is dedicated to serving the needs of marine and coastal communities, and EDUCATION is a major component of Sea Grant's mission. The links below highlight other education resources provided by Sea Grant programs across the country:
Sea Grant Bridge – The Bridge is an excellent starting point to find a host of high-quality marine education resources, lesson plans, and activities.
Sea Grant Education At Home – National Sea Grant Office site that leads to state-specific marine education resources, from coast to coast!
MarineCareers.net – Explore examples of jobs and career opportunities in marine biology, oceanography, ocean engineering, and more.
California Sea Grant At-Home Education Resources – California Sea Grant's page collecting many marine educational resources.
Delaware Sea Grant 15 Second Science – Very short science videos covering marine science topics, available as a playlist on YouTube.
Florida Sea Grant Bite-Sized Science – 30-minute webinars every day at 4 p.m. Eastern. Cool topics and plenty of time for active Q&A!
Georgia Sea Grant Educational Resources and Teaching Materials – Georgia Sea Grant site for marine education resources.
Michigan Sea Grant H.O.M.E.S. at Home – Michigan Sea Grant site for marine education resources with lots of video links. Oriented towards the Great Lakes, but high quality.
New Hampshire Sea Grant Videos – Check out New Hampshire Sea Grant's YouTube channel for videos about our work. It's organized into themed playlists!
New Jersey Sea Grant Resources for Educators – New Jersey Sea Grant site for marine education resources.
Texas Sea Grant Aglantis Sea Lessons – Download educational materials packets by topic: sea turtles, whales, climate change, meteorology, marine animals and habitats, and more!
Woods Hole Sea Grant Educational Resources – Marine science resources site created by Woods Hole Sea Gran to be used during school closures. Check out the NOAA Live! webinars with new topics each week and recordings of previous webinars.
Appledore Island Webcam: Live footage from the Shoals Marine Laboratory in the Isles of Shoals
Blue Ocean Society Hands-on Activities and Lessons – At home labs and lesson plans covering Microplastics, Beaches, Whales, and Gulf of Maine wildlife.
Gulf of Maine Research Institute – The Gulf of Maine Research Institute may be familiar to many Maine students who have visited their Lab program, but it is also an excellent source of information about Gulf of Maine species.
Gundalow Company – Learn about the historic Gundalow ships, local marine life, and more from local non-profit the Gundalow Company.
New England Aquarium Teacher Resource Center – The Teacher Resource Center is a wonderful starting point to find lots of ideas for home-based exploration.
New Hampshire Sea Grant Videos – Check out New Hampshire Sea Grant's YouTube channel for videos about our work. It's organized into themed playlists!
Seacoast Science Center – The Seacoast Science Center offers a variety of activities and resources to connect with the environment including a Virtual Tide Pool Exploration in their "Your Learning Connection" page.
Monterey Bay Aquarium's Kelp Forest Cam
ECOGIG – An online ocean-themed webinar series, live via Zoom and recordings on YouTube.
FMSEA Virtual Opportunities for Marine Educators – FMSEA is the Florida-based association of the National Marine Educators Association. This list of resources is varied and extensive with connections to other valuable resource lists.
Hakai Magazine – The Hakai magazine is an excellent resource for students interested in articles covering many marine topics.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Learning at Home – Guided learning plans for K-12 focusing on ocean science topics such as kelp forests and microplastics offering a week or more of activities.
National Marine Educators Association – Online "Ocean at Home Calendar" featuring webinars and virtual activities happening in marine science and ocean education.
NOAA Digital Debris – Learn about how Marine Debris are impacting our ocean through free online videos, activities, and more.
NOAA Ocean Service for Kids! – Explore activities and resources especially for kids, like coloring sheets, videos, and puzzles.
NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve Estuary Education – Learn all about estuaries with these lessons, activities, data explorations, animations and videos.
NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Virtual Dives – Virtual reality voyages use 360-degree images to highlight the amazing habitats, animals, and cultural resources you can find in each national marine sanctuary!
NOAA Planet Arcade Games – NOAA-based site for marine education games and simulations aimed mainly at younger student audiences.
Sanctuaries at Home – Explore our National Marine Sanctuaries through streaming videos of scientists, games and activities, and curricula aimed at all ages.
The National Center for Science Education – A resource for teachers looking for more pedagogy and curriculum support. One of their strengths is to assist teaching of sensitive subjects, e.g., climate change, evolution, etc.
The Nature Conservancy's Naure Lab – The Nature Conservancy and its 550 scientists created Nature Lab to help students learn the science behind how nature works. Resources are designed specifically for a young audience and classroom use, and listed by grade level.
Next Generation Science Standards – The standards most states are using for the basis of science instruction. A good reference for teachers looking to align their assignment to standards they wish to address.
Online resources for K12 STEM Teachers and Parents – This site contains a list that was started by the UNH Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Education.
Skype a Scientist – Live webinars and recordings of online presentations in which a wide variety scientists and experts interact with real classrooms and students to share their work.
UNH STEM Teachers' Collaborative – A UNH Website dedicated to STEM education, currently highlighting STEM at home.
Sharks4Kids
Sharks are an incredibly engaging animal for most students, and they exhibit a significant number of adaptations that can be the basis for great questioning and discussion. Be careful with Discovery Channel videos – they can sometimes be sensational, but not necessarily scientifically accurate.
OCEARCH STEM Curriculum – OCEARCH has a large suite of STEM educational materials covering a broad range of subjects that are perfect for home schooling or remote learning for K-8 students.
Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Curriculum Resources on White Sharks – The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy arose out of the interest and concern for the rise of Great White shark populations near Cape Cod. Students may have heard of the increased shark activity in the Cape Cod area, and may be interested in the curriculum resources the Conservancy offer.
Sharks 4 Kids – A good site for younger students with lots of resources for both students and teachers.
Shark Safety and Facts for New Hampshire – A collection of resources and links for beachgoers in New Hampshire to stay 'shark smart' and explore why we are seeing more great white sharks and seals here in the Gulf of Maine.
EarthViewer
Earth Science Week - Earth Sciences Week is an annual event sponsored by the American Geosciences Institute focusing on Earth Sciences and stewardship of the earth. They offer a significant number of earth science activities and resources across the K-12 grade spans and categorized by Next Generation Science Standards
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) “Dive and Discover” – Resource on plate tectonics. This site can lead to other resources from WHOI
National Geographic Resource Library – A massive, high-quality, and well-organized library of resources from National Geographic. It has 4,900+ units on a wide range of topics, including many marine related topics. They have topics for many age groups, along with teachers notes and activities - an example
EarthViewer – EarthViewer is an interactive geology program supporting plate tectonics and related topics.
Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) Webinar Series is available at Climate.gov
Climate in the Classroom – Hosted by the NH Coastal Adaptation Workgroup, this page includes tons of activities and information designed to engage both students and their family members in learning about climate change.
Mt. Washington Observatory - Engaging weather and climate related activites and presentations from a private, nonprofit, member-supported institution with a mission to advance understanding of the natural systems that create Earth’s weather and climate.
National Weather Service JetStream Learning – Learn about weather, the atmosphere, and the Ocean through online lessons from the U.S. National Weather Service.
NOAA Climate.gov – Designed with professional educators in mind, this site has a wealth of resources for teaching about climate and energy.
Weather & Climate Toolkit – Our friends at Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant created an awesome weather and climate lesson plan toolkit with resources that can be readily utilized or adapted for e-learning and at-home teaching environments.
Notes from our Education Team
Use of the resources and links above should be combined with good science education practices as identified in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Framework and Standards:
- Activities that engage students in observation, analysis, hypothesis generation, and argumentation effectively support the outcomes embodied in NGSS.
- Any question, and ensuing discussion, that encourages the student to observe, think, analyze, explain, and justify will significantly increase the impact of the activity on learning.
The sites identified above are were not developed by NH Sea Grant, and we can therefore not guarantee the total quality or veracity of the materials or claims made within, or additional pages that may be linked from those sites. However, we believe that these resources are made in good faith and recommend their exploration for students and educators looking for marine educational resources.
Better Together
NH Sea Grant works in close partnership with other groups, departments, and institutes at the University of New Hampshire and across the state to meet our research, extension, and education mission.
