A case study describing how Bryan Field, a veteran teacher of 12 years and science faculty member at Conant High School in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, uses the COSEE-OS multimedia tools to help his students organize information and see the bigger story.
A case study describing how Jennifer (Jenn) Bowdoin, a first-year teacher and science faculty member at Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts, uses the COSEE-OS multimedia tools to introduce the complex topics of global warming and climate change to her students.
The COSEE-OS Concept Map Builder is a web-based tool that allows users to create customized concept maps linked to videos, images, news, and resources. The resulting maps can be exported as XML data or stored in our database for reuse or sharing with colleagues, students, and peers.
This flash-based application allows users to explore concepts and their relationships through a variety of assets - videos, images, news articles, and teaching resources - within a profile that gives breadth and depth to the learning experience. The Ocean Climate Interactive, when used in conjuction with our Concept Map Builder, constitutes part of the COSEE-OS suite of ocean-climate multimedia known as the Concept Linked Integrated Media Builder.
The second Geoscience Education Working Group's report that includes a discussion of the overall status of the of the geoscience education and diversity community, recommendations for how the community can best promote improvements in geoscience education, and a set of strategies for strengthening geoscience education and diversity programs.
A whole-school interdisciplinary marine science program at the Lawrence Hall of Science offering year-round professional development opportunities, including events that immerse your whole school—faculty, students and families—in the study and celebration of the ocean.
The Ocean Literacy Campaign is changing the way educators and the public think about ocean sciences education: teaching ocean sciences is not just enrichment, but is essential to science literacy. Read about how the Ocean Literacy Campaign is bringing about a paradigm shift in the way educators and the public think about Ocean Sciences Education.
Together educators and ocean scientists have developed and teach a university course entitled Communicating Ocean Sciences that is now being taught in several institutions of higher education nationwide. The course is designed for undergraduate and graduate science students interested in improving their ability to communicate about complex science concepts. This paper focuses on the content, outcomes, and potential of the Communicating Ocean Sciences course.
COSEE-OS concept maps are designed to help teachers and their students understand the connections and relationships between climate & oceanography. These maps are created through discussion and collaboration and are ideal instruments in revealing their authors' understanding of a topic. For scientists, concept mapping helps them share their understanding of connections in the earth system. For educators, concept maps can be powerful tools for exposing and clarifying topics in the classroom.
This resource explores Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the largest structure on Earth built by living organisms. It demonstrates the types of relationships among living things that have contributed to this incredible biodiversity and elaborates on some of the adaptations that have enabled species to survive and reproduce in this unique habitat.
This interactive flash animation allows students to compare the sizes of the smallest organisms we know of on our planet. Starting with the head of a pin at 2 millimeters in diameter, students can use this animation to compare the relative sizes of cells and organisms small enough to sit on a pinhead. Nearly invisible without magnification, dust mites dwarf pollen grains and human cells. In turn, bacteria and viruses are even smaller.
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) may pale against El Nino's press, but this climate pattern can kick up a commotion all over the Northern Hemisphere. Lately, scientists have been discovering why. This four-part story describes the NAO, how it "does its thing," how data are "hunted and gathered," and NAO forecasting efforts.
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a seesaw in atmospheric pressure between the subtropical high-pressure system over the Azores Islands and the subpolar low-pressure system over Iceland. Using this interactive flash, users can click on any of the highlighted years featured in the NAO index timeline to learn how the NOA may have affected history.
This lesson explores the relationship between density and ocean currents. Deep ocean currents are caused by differences in water temperature and salinity (density). In this experiment, the students will hypothesize the cause of ocean currents and then develop a model to help explain the role that temperature plays in deep ocean currents.
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a seesaw in atmospheric pressure between the subtropical high-pressure system over the Azores Islands and the subpolar low-pressure system over Iceland. Users can learn more about the POSITIVE and NEGATIVE phases of the NAO and how it affects the climate of the North Atlantic region by clicking on the LOW and HIGH icons.
Dr. Martin Visbeck's online slide show about the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is intended for older high school or undergraduate audiences. It gives background on the NAO, its impacts (temperature, precipitation, storminess, economics), its effects on the North Atlantic Ocean, the stratosphere, and global warming.
This learning activity is part of an overall series entitled "The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change". This series of three activities demonstrates some effects of rising levels of greenhouse gases on climate.
The first activity, "How Does the Make-up of the Atmosphere Affect Temperature?", asks students to construct a model to address the matter of increasing levels of greenhouse gases and their relationship to increasing atmospheric temperatures. The second activity, "How Do Higher Temperatures Affect the Water Cycle?", will demonstrate how an increase in temperature will speed up the water cycle, resulting in higher rainfall amounts followed by increased evaporation and subsequent drought. The final activity, "What Will Happen if Climate Variability and Change Cause Glacier and Polar Ice Cap Melting?", will show how the melting of ice can lead to a rise in sea level and subsequent flooding of coastal areas.
This lesson plan investigation allows students to see how geography and a spatial perspective are useful in addressing global challenges. Data gathering and organization skills are emphasized as students create maps of global aerosol hazards. In small groups, students collect either long-term or short-term data showing the distribution of global aerosols and convert the data into a map. Groups then compare their maps to identify patterns and sources of aerosols around the world.
The Currents Tutorial is an overview of the types of currents, what causes them, how they are measured, and how they affect people's lives. It is made up of of 6 primary "chapters" or pages that can be read in sequence by clicking on the arrows at the top or bottom of each chapter page.
Scientists use layers of rock with embedded fossils to glean information about the past. These layers of rock are called strata. This simple activity simulates how scientists study the past (using a paper recycling bin and worksheet) to make the connection with students that fossil layers were deposited in a known order (deepest records are oldest), and that the collection of accurate data is critical.
The history of the Earth has been characterized by global change of a very gradual nature. However, the Earth's history has also included events of abrupt change. Often these changes coincide with catastrophic events (meteorite impact 65 million years ago). At other times, the global climate system gradually moves closer to a breaking point, at which time abrupt change occurs. Scientific ocean drilling has provided stunning examples of these abrupt events through its recovery of deep sea sediment cores.
This website has activities and resources, including a picture of a real ocean core showing abrupt changes, to help students analyze the evidence for abrupt changes in Earth's climate system using ocean cores.
What are climate cycles? The Earth's climate is cyclical - that means that there is a regular pattern of change over time. Scientific ocean drilling has been the tool in reconstructing virtually every climate record from 500,000 years ago to nearly 70 million years ago. So, deep sea cores obviously hold a lot of clues in discovering what ancient climate was like.
This video animation shows how oceanic rock and sediment cores are scientifically analyzed by a variety of techniques and archived in cold storage for future study. This animation covers how biological, chemical, physical and geochemical studies are conducted on each core collected, and what these data can tell scientists about the history of the Earth.
How old is It? It's always one of the first questions that everyone asks about deep ocean rock cores. How do we really know how old these cores of rock and sediment are? Scientists studying paleohistory (past history of the Earth) need to know the answer to this question because it is important to gain a time context for every core they collect. Without the age, it is very difficult to tell a story, geologic or otherwise.
This activity will guide you through one of the methods scientists use call biostratigraphy, the use of microfossils to obtain ages for cores. The activity requires access to the School of Rock website to access an essential datasheet.
This is an animation showing the feeding habits of Nanomia cara (a pelagic, or mid-water, colonial jellyfish also known as a siphonophore). Nanomia feeds on small oceanic crustaceans including the very numerous copepods shown as their prey in this animation. Jellyfish play a very important role in oceanic foodwebs.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant # NSF OCE-0707385. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
COSEE-Ocean Systems Central Office School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine Darling Marine Center 193 Clark's Cove Road Walpole, ME 04573
Phone: (207) 563-8176 E-mail: cosee-os
