Education Links of the Month
2010 Education Links of the Month
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.
The video for the Census-inspired song, Look to the Sea, by singer/composer Maryann Camilleri, is now available in the “Weird and Wacky” gallery on National Geographic Kids web site. The video was produced by National Geographic Television/Digital Studio and had its world premiere at the Museum of Natural History in London during the Census 2010 Celebration.
November Featured Link, courtesy of ScienceNews
ScienceNews, the magazine of the ‘society for science and the public,’ provides a kid-friendly description of the Census of Marine Life program this month. The short article is perfect for anyone who wants a basic introduction into the program and its goals. The article also provides a short dictionary of terms, including the definitions of a ‘census’ and ‘biodiversity’. There are links to a sea life photo slide show and maps showing the ‘White Shark Café,’ a spot in the Pacific Ocean where Census researchers found White Sharks travel to and feed. To learn more, please visit the ScienceNews web site.
In early October the Census of Marine Life unveiled the findings of the previous 10 years of research at the Decade of Discovery events in London, England. The events kicked off on Monday, October 4 with a News Conference and Panel Presentations at The Royal Institution of Great Britain. On Tuesday and Wednesday, October 5-6, the J. Frederick Grassle Science Symposium was held at The Royal Society, followed by the Census of Marine Life Celebration at the London Museum of Natural History. A 64-page report that describes some of the scientific highlights of the decade of exploration, research and analysis undertaken by Census of Marine Life scientists was presented. The study was a 10-year exploration of 2,700 scientists from 80 nations revealing what, where and how much lives and hides in our global ocean.
The events received unprecedented media coverage from top international outlets, which resulted in over 1,700 individual media hits. To learn more about the events, please visit the News Conference and Science Symposium web site (link to http://www.coml.org/news-conference) to view Census posters, books and the National Geographic Ocean Life map. The Census-inspired song, Look to the Sea, and information on artwork inspired by the marine life discovered by Census researchers are also highlighted on the web site.
World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD), September 18, 2010, is an international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world. It engages citizens around the world to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies. Aquatic plants in rivers and streams, as well as sediment from those bodies of water, may play a major role in the health of coastal waters and the ocean. Therefore, monitoring local water bodies also helps monitor our coasts. WWMD participants are encouraged to register their site and report their data by December 31, 2010 to ensure they are included in the Year in Review report. If you are interested in participating, test kits can be ordered online and resources are available as free downloads. To learn more, please visit the WWMD web site.
The Ocean Portal Educators’ Corner provides educators and teachers with activities, lessons and educational resources that help bring the ocean to life for students. The resources are collected from trusted collaborators and provide teacher-tested, ocean science materials for all classrooms. Lesson plans and activities, sorted by grade level and topic (El Nino, hurricanes, and sea level rise, for example) can help inspire the next generation of ocean stewards. Other education resources are available on topics such as the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, climate change and its effects, and the lives of marine organisms, including sea cucumbers and box jellies. Students can learn about daily, personal changes they can make to help conserve the ocean and the life that inhabits it by visiting the ‘Find your Blue’ web page. Anyone interested in staying up-to-date on current ocean news, upcoming events, and new items added to the Ocean Portal can sign up for the educators’ newsletter.
To keep kids learning over the summer break, it’s a good time to highlight the NOAA Games portal which is full of interactive activities focused on the ocean and marine life. The games highlight the science being conducted by NOAA and other agencies and organizations promoting environmental stewardship. Kids and adults alike can enjoy the games based on their favorite marine mammals and turtles, including ‘Sea Turtles and the Quest to Nest’ and ‘Humpback Whale Migration.’ You can even learn about nautical charts and how their proper use helps boaters travel safely. Once you understand the charts, you can put your new skills to work and search for a shipwreck. Play ‘Predator Protector’ and learn why saving sharks helps to keep the marine ecosystem in balance.
Visitors to the web site can also challenge themselves with ocean themed crossword puzzles. Play, learn and have fun with NOAA Games.
June Featured Link, courtesy of EcoExpress
Educators are finding it increasingly difficult to incorporate out-of-the-classroom experiences and connections to students’ everyday lives into their teaching. EcoExpress was developed to help address this issue. EcoExpress offers localized content (with an initial focus on Pennsylvania) in story-based video segments aligned with curricula standards in an attempt to make it simpler for educators to integrate different techniques into their classrooms. EcoExpress strives to be an invaluable resource to educators and students alike. The web site shares stories of ordinary individuals doing extraordinary things to inspire students to become environmental stewards in their communities. To learn more, please visit EcoExpress.
May Featured Link, courtesy of TIME For Kids
TIME For Kids is a weekly classroom news magazine that really wants to get kids to read. As a teaching tool, TIME For Kids helps students with reading and writing skills by providing curriculum that highlights science, math and other studies. Students or teachers can choose their classroom grade level and find worksheets, printable quizzes and more. For those looking to have a little fun while learning, there are online games such as the Arctic Trivia Challenge. To learn more about the news magazine and corresponding web site for kids, please visit TIME For Kids online.
The Census of Marine Life (CoML) was recently highlighted on the TIME For Kids web site. To learn more about conducting a survey of all marine life, large and small, please visit An Undersea Census.
April Featured Link, courtesy of Earth Day 2010
Earth Day celebrates its 40th anniversary on April 22, 2010. Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, a former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest in 1970 “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.” His gamble, Earth Day, proved popular in the United States and around the world. Each year people around the world continue to fight for a clean and healthy environment. We all should support the Earth and celebrate Earth Day.
March Featured Link, courtesy of World Maths Day
March 3, 2010 is World Maths Day. Students around the world play against each other in live games of mental arithmetic. Each game lasts for 60 seconds and students can play up to 500 games, earning points for each correct answer.
March 13, 2007 saw the launch of the inaugural World Maths Day competition. In 48 hours over 287,000 students from 98 countries took part to smash the world record and answer 38,904,275 questions correctly. From this success, the World Maths Day was created.
Don’t worry if you’ve missed the 2010 event. In March 2011, World Maths Day will be even bigger, becoming part of The World Education Games. This global education event, will allow students and schools from around the world to unite to set a new world record for the numbers of questions correctly answered in maths, spelling, and science.
The World Education Games takes place on the first 3 Wednesdays in March:
World Maths Day – 2 March 2011
World Science Day – 9 March 2011
World Spelling Day – 16 March 2011
To learn more, please visit the official World Maths Day web site.
February Featured Link, courtesy of Ocean Today
The Ocean Today Kiosk website provides access to current and archived videos of the Ocean Today kiosk at the Sant Ocean Hall in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The Ocean Today Kiosk is a dynamic, visitor-friendly, multi-media experience that illustrates both the ocean’s influence on humans and their influence upon the ocean. The website offers transcripts of the videos along with links for more information. You can subscribe for updates on ocean news or visit the ‘Locations’ section to find out where other Ocean Today Kiosks are located, and if one is near you. To learn more, please visit the Ocean Today Kiosk online.
January Featured Link, courtesy of the National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) offers a Create-A-Graph section in their Kids’ Zone on the web site. This tool helps users make different charts and graphs, with options for customizing each type. A tutorial explains which kind of graph is best for a particular situation. Kids can learn how scientists use graphs to communicate information visually.
The NCES Kids’ Zone also provides information to help kids learn about schools; decide which college to attend; as well as engage in games, quizzes and skill building about math, probability, graphing, and mathematicians. Roll the online dice and learn about probability and statistics. There are even words and quotes of the day on the web site. To learn more, please visit the NCES Kids’ Zone web site.
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.