The webinar Climate Change Education – What Works? reviews key themes in current research that might help educators emphasize valuable and effective strategies in
their climate change programs. Open this webinar and/or
the entire treasure trove of Planet Stewards webinars that
can be reviewed or accessed here.

The National Marine Sanctuary Webinar Series provides formal and informal educators with educational and scientific expertise, resources and training to support ocean and climate literacy in the classroom. 92% of educators attending these events said they were likely to attend a future webinar and 90% were likely to recommend the webinar series to others. So join in! The next Webinar on November 21st: Announcing the United States' Newest National Marine Sanctuary in Nearly 20 Years. Check this and all its forthcoming webinars here.

ONE: National American Indian Heritage Month

November is National American Indian Heritage Month, a time set aside to pay tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans. NOAA partners with state agencies and tribes to protect the natural resources that often represent the foundation of tribal communities and their traditions. See examples of such protection from a sea reef fortification in Louisiana to disaster prevention and response in areas such as Padilla Bay Reserve in Washington state, an area of significance to local tribes. 

Sign up now to learn the value of connecting in-school and out-of-school STEM activities virtually - from the comfort of anywhere! Hear from educators who have carried out successful programs with students of all ages, and explore ways you can connect your learning environment to outside settings.

Use the promo code NSTAVC20 for an additional 20% savings on registration costs - an exclusive for subscribers of The Watch - and take your STEM learning to the next level!

An overview can be found here.

Click here if you are interested in presenting.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Environmental Education is now accepting applications for the 2020 Presidential Environmental Youth Awards (PEYA) and Presidential Innovation Awards for Environmental Educators (PIAEE). Winners are invited to Washington, D.C. in mid-2020 to be honored by the agency and present their work in a poster session. These awards recognize outstanding environmental stewardship projects by students in grades K-12 who promote environmental awareness and encourage community involvement, and educators who employ innovative approaches to environmental education. One student in grades K-5 and another from grades 6-12 will receive the award, and two educators will be selected.

For more information on the youth awards (PEYA), please contact: PEYA@epa.gov  

For more information on the teacher (PIAEE) award, please contact: PIAEE@epa.gov

This NGSS-aligned Project Based Learning Challenge empowers grade 6-12 learners to create innovative biomimicry designs for solving local problems that impact global climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Teachers can find new educator instructional resources - Instructional Storyline, a MIMIC instructional approach uniquely adapted from the engineering design process for biomimicry designing, a suite of lesson plans, and much more. Share it, try it! Join the challenge. You can access all resources by registering here.

The 9th annual Youth Ocean Conservation Summit will take place on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. Participants will learn from students leading ocean conservation programs in their communities, have the opportunity to develop plans for their own ocean conservation projects (or further develop existing programs), and take part in workshops and trainings to give them the skills needed to ensure the success of these projects. Participants will network with conservation experts and other young people.  The registration fee for the event IS ONLY $14! It includes lunch, snacks, and program materials. Register for the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit here.

K-12 students from the United States and Canada are invited to participate in a recycling contest by creating a video or a poster that imagines what recycling will look like in 50, 75, or even 100 years from now by designing a solution to a current problem. You could win a trip to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ 2020 Annual Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada!. Register to participate or learn more here. All entries must be submitted by December 20, 2019.

Thanks to the involvement of millions of people in thousands of communities, June 8th’s World Oceans Day continued to significantly expand its reach and impact in 2019! World Oceans Day unites the world around a shared desire for conservation action and continues to connect, activate, and mobilize worldwide support for our blue planet 365 days of the year. It serves as a unique and global rallying point to promote personal, community, and societal action. Read and download the World Oceans Day Report here.

The Earth Science Literacy Initiative (ESLI), funded by the National Science Foundation, establishes the “Big Ideas” and supporting concepts that all Americans should know about Earth sciences. It joins similar documents above from the Oceans and Climate communities that together provide a larger geoscience Earth Systems Literacy effort.

Other frameworks in the series: Atmosphere Literacy; Energy Literacy; and Great Lakes Literacy 

On Wednesday, November 20 from 12-1pm ET join others to begin a five-part webinar series brought to you by NC State University. The topic of each webinar will be focused on one of the key messages outlined in the Southeast chapter and findings and case studies from the Tribes and Indigenous Peoples chapter relevant to the U.S. Southeast. Join the webinar here.

Knowing when and where wildfires are most likely to occur throughout the year can help people be more prepared for a natural disaster, NOAA’s wildfire map shows the historical wildfire probability on a given day across the United States. Fire weather experts used daily records from the U.S. Forest Service Fire Program Analysis Fire-Occurrence Database to account for fires 100 acres or larger from 1992 to 2015. This type of information is valuable for both firefighting agencies and people who live in more wildfire-prone regions. Find, view, and use the map here.

NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region invites you to download their FREE series on salmon, use it to connect your students to their local watersheds, and share feedback with them. Resources are available also in Spanish.  For millennia, salmon have been a vital link between marine, freshwater, and riparian food chains—in fact, more than 130 species count on salmon for nutrients! From the West Coast of the United States to Russia and from Sweden to Canada, these iconic fish have been the centerpiece of many intergenerational fishing communities. Check out the free educational series on salmon here.

Why does coffee take so long to cool down? Why is ocean water sometimes the warmest when the average daily air temperature starts to drop? How can buoys help us explore these questions? In this hands-on introduction to heat capacity by the Bridge and COSEE-NOW, students explore the concept and its effects on our daily lives. Students use ocean observing system data to investigate why water acts as a thermal buffer and the practical applications this has.