Lesson Plans

Our Mission:

to establish scientific partnerships between schools around the world and engage students in activities and communication about ocean climate science.

High School

Ocean Currents and Sea Surface Temperature
Aquarius – Ocean Circulation
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

Middle School

Adopt a Drifter Lessons:

  1. A Laboratory Simulation of Ocean Surface Currents
  2. Climographs pdf | lesson
  3. Tracking a Drifter
  4. Graphing Temperatures
  5. Ground-truthing Satellite Imagery with Drifting Buoy Data

Sea Surface Temperature Trends of the Gulf Stream

Undergraduate Students

Modeling the oceanic thermohaline circulation with STELLA
Gulf Stream Heat Budget and Europe’s Mild Climate: A Problem-based Learning Activity

Elementary School

Ducks in the Flow – a book about ocean currents

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.

Ocean Currents / Drifting Buoys (.pdf)

NOAA Research “Ocean Currents” Page

Ocean Temperatures (.pdf)

NOAA Research “Ocean Temperatures” Page

Create Climographs Using Buoy Data! (.pdf)

Learn More about Oceanography Using Buoy Data (.pdf)

PPT Presentations
How do we measure ocean currents? (video)