Teacher Resources
Create Your Own Drifter Story
Teachers, ask your students to create their own story by following the 18 frames in the story board below. Use this as an assignment in a writing class to improve your students’ science and writing skills. Click the image or here to download the rest of the story board images.
Teacher at Sea
We encourage you to visit the Teacher at Sea homepage using the button below. The Teacher at Sea program allows full-time educators to join NOAA scientists on research cruises and gain first-hand experience working at sea. The program is free for educators; the yearly application window opens November 1st with applications due November 30th.
Lesson Plans
Ocean Currents and Sea Surface Temperature
Ocean Impacts on an El Niño Event
The Thermohaline Circulation – The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt
Sea Surface Salinity Influence on Earth’s Climate
Sea Surface Temperature Trends of the Gulf Stream
Learning Polar Oceanography: Ocean Currents and Climate Connections
NOAA SciJinks Game
The Adopt a Drifter Program’s (ADP) first summer intern, Stephen Lewis, designed and developed “Ocean Odyssey: Tracking Marine Debris”, a NOAA SciJinks web game suitable for K-12 audiences! Ocean Odyssey is inspired by the Global Drifter Program’s contribution to ocean surface current observations. The game incorporates historic drifter data and helps middle school audiences understand how ocean surface currents transport marine debris and how users can help keep our oceans clean.
The new SciJinks game is the latest addition to the ADP’s growing list of resources for educators. Teachers can now introduce the topic of ocean surface currents and marine debris in an informative and fun manner. To read more about Stephen’s experience during the summer, click here. The internship was a collaborative effort across several NOAA programs, including GOMO, GDP, ADP, and SciJinks.
Newsletters
Below is an archive of newsletters that have been sent to classrooms participating in the Adopt a Drifter Program.