Aquarium of the Pacific

Teacher Opportunities and Announcements

NOAA Workshop

Learning Ocean Science Through Ocean Exploration

From bioluminescent corals to deep-vent worms, from tropical underwater volcanoes to the Arctic Ocean floor, we know less about the landscape of our ocean than we do about the moon's.

Bring the excitement of current ocean science discoveries to your students using this Ocean Exploration curriculum and a CD-ROM of the Ocean Explorer Web site from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Learning Ocean Science through Ocean Exploration is a curriculum for teachers of Grades 6-12 that takes lesson plans that were developed for NOAA Voyages of Discovery and the Ocean Explorer Web Site and presents them in a comprehensive scope and sequence through subject area categories that cut across individual expeditions. Each lesson focuses on an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning and is correlated to the National Science Education Standards.

The curriculum themes are arranged in an order that progresses from physical science through earth science to biological and environmental science, as ocean sciences include all of these areas. Curriculum themes are based on the following:

1. the geologic formations that cut across expeditions (seamounts, ridges and banks, canyons and shelves, and mid-ocean spreading ridges)
2. using models to understand structures and functions
3. using scientific data in the classroom to model scientific work and thinking

What is unique in this approach is the combination of the Ocean Explorer Web Site with each lesson presented here. Through this approach, teachers and students have a direct connection to the scientists whose work they are modeling in the classroom and a direct connection to the exciting new discoveries through NOAA ocean exploration.

Registration will be limited to 30 participants per session. This course is free, and in addition, you will receive a $100 stipend (upon completion of both workshops), breakfast, an edition of the curriculum with CD-ROMS, certificates of participation, professional development credits, and more!

Upcoming dates: May 16, 2009, 8:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. - Follow-up session

In addition to the standards-based activities being presented, participants will have the opportunity to interact with Shannon Johnson, Research Technician at Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute (MBARI). Shannon will share exciting new discoveries at hydrothermal vent and cold seeps sites and discuss the communities that form on whale carcasses that fall to the ocean floor (whale-fall communities).

New Workshop

December 12, 2009 : Intro Workshop
May 15, 2010: Follow-up Workshop

Quote from a happy teacher:
"Thank you for the best in-service/seminar I have ever attended!  It made me want to get much more involved in ocean education, professional development, etc..  Thank you so very much!"