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NERACOOS Ocean and Weather Climate Display

03.08.2013

The NERACOOS ocean and weather climate display delivers information about the average weather and ocean conditions between 2001 and 2012. The display also includes information about recent and past years' ocean and weather conditions so that you can compare them to the average conditions from the past decade.

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SMS Graduate Students and Post-Docs Pilot Collaborative Workshop with COSEE-OS

04.26.2010

In response to interest from graduate students and research faculty, COSEE-OS has adapted its “scientist-educator collaborative” workshop model to focus on graduate student professional development, and on opening new lines of communication between faculty and graduate students.

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Holy Cow!

10.22.2009

This fun webpage about microbes that help cows digest their food is part of a larger website called Microbe Zoo. On this page, students can find out how cows have a special type of stomach called a rumen, which is home to billions of microbes which can eat grass and hay. These bacteria, fungi and protists provide nutrients that the cow can digest. Without these microbes, the cow would die.

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Drawing in a New Crowd of Ocean Science Literate Citizens

06.12.2009

A case study describing how Robert (Bob) Khederian, a faculty member who teaches oceanography at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline, MA, uses the COSEE-OS multimedia tools in his oceanography survey course.

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Gearing up for Ocean First Focus with Concept Mapping

06.12.2009

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.

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Concept Map Builder

01.21.2009

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.

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Ocean Careers

01.08.2009

Find hundreds of related links to continue your career exploration - explore over fifty ocean-related careers, find a college, university or training center that specializes in ocean-related education, find professional societies that can provide career guidance and scholarships, and find internships and jobs.

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MARE - Marine Resources, Actvities, & Education

01.08.2009

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.

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How Big is a ...?

04.14.2008

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.

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NAO: Driving Climate Across the Atlantic

04.08.2008

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.

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North Atlantic Oscillation and Climate Variability

03.25.2008

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.

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Ocean Currents Tutorial

01.06.2008

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.

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Abrupt Events of the Past 70 Million Years - Evidence from Scientific Ocean Drilling

11.24.2007

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.

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Climate Cycles: Clues from Deep Sea Cores

11.24.2007

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.

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How Old is it: Biostratigraphy of Ocean Rock Cores

11.24.2007

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.

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Jellyfish Behavior

11.24.2007

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.

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Microfossils: the Ocean's Storytellers

11.24.2007

This website has a poster that shows several different images of microfossils, taken through microscopes, as well as activities for students simulate the identification and use of these microfossils to examine past climate change and Earth history. Activities include: Small Creatures-Big Science, Secrets of the Sediments, Nannofossils Reveal Seafloor Spreading Truth.

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Climate, Ecology, and Human Health

11.16.2007

Environmental conditions, interacting with the biology of disease agents, can exert profound effects. Changes in how land is used affect the distribution of disease carriers, such as rodents or insects, while climate influences their range, and affects the timing and intensity of outbreaks. In this review we examine how our health is influenced by the interplay of social conditions, local environmental factors, and global changes.

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Red Tide - A Harmful Algal Bloom

11.16.2007

What are red tides? Red tide is a phenomenon caused by algal blooms (Wikipedia definition) during which algae become so numerous that they discolor coastal waters (hence the name "red tide"). This tutorial with educator collections is an excellent introduction with links to further study.

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Extremophiles in Kamchatka Hot Springs

11.16.2007

Follow scientists in this excellent interactive website looking for life in the seemingly hostile hot springs of the Russian Far East. There are four units to explore: getting to Kamchatka by helicopter, following the scientists into the laboratory to collect data, find out why these studies help us understand the first signs of life on Earth, and find out how microbes leave their mark for millenia.

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Global Climate Change: Research Explorer

11.16.2007

Though climate change isn't new, the study of how human activity affects the earth's climate is. The exploration of climate change encompasses many fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, geology, meteorology, oceanography, and even sociology. At this Web site, you can explore scientific data relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, the areas covered by ice and snow, and the living organisms in all these domains. You'll also get a sense of how scientists study natural phenomena-how researchers gather evidence, test theories, and come to conclusions.

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Microbial Life in Marine Environments

11.16.2007

Microbes account for more than 90% of ocean biomass and constitute a hidden majority of life that flourishes in the sea. This site contains a variety of educational and supporting materials for students and teachers of microbiology.

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The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science

11.13.2007

The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science is a course for high school teachers and undergraduate students in environmental science. The content course will help teachers of biology, chemistry, and Earth science provide more content in their classes. Course components include 13 half-hour video programs, a coordinated Web site which includes the streamed video programs, the course text online, five interactive simulations, background on the scientists who created the content and those whose research is documented, a professional development guide (also available in print form), and additional resources. Graduate credit is available for the course through Colorado State University.

This course begins with an overview of the Earth's systems - geophysical, atmospheric, oceanic, and ecosystems - as they exist independently of human influence. Following this introduction, the course explores the effect that human activities have on the different natural systems. Topics include human population growth and resource use, increasing competition for fresh water, and climate change. Each of the 13 programs features two case studies following top scientists in the field.

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Rediscovering Biology: Emerging Infectious Diseases

11.13.2007

This online textbook chapter from Rediscovering Biology supports and extends the content of Unit 5: Emerging Infectious Diseases video, which can be accessed online at the URL listed. This is course designed initially for high school biology teachers. The chapter content covers the factors affecting the emergence of disease including a subchapter topics on Insect Vectors and Climate and Weather, with discussions on global climate change, Cholera and Hantavirus outbreaks.

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What is Ocean Acidification?

11.13.2007

This excellent tutorial addresses questions about ocean acidification, and the ocean's carbonate chemistry.

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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