Get started reading the Planet Stewards selection for our December Book Club! With the holidays approaching and many people focused on gatherings with loved ones and celebratory meals, we thought it would be a good time to revisit:

The Omnivore's Dilemma

by Michael Pollan

Monday, December 13 at 8:00 pm ET

Dial 866-662-7513 (toll free) then use the pass code 1170791#.
The discussion is open to all, please share with interested colleagues and networks. Learn more here.

Adding a science service learning project to a standard inquiry-based environmental science curriculum helped fifth grade students learn climate science as they made connections between a real-world problem and their classroom learning. Students brainstormed, researched, and developed a project to address idling in the school carpool lane. They collected and analyzed data, and used it to build a compelling anti-idling campaign for the school community. Find it here.

November is Native American Heritage month. The peoples, lands, and resources of indigenous communities in the United States, including Alaska and the Pacific Rim, are one of the most marginalized demographics. The impacts of climate change are having dramatic consequences and eroding indigenous ways of life that have persisted for thousands of years. NOAA Planet Stewards urges you to watch this archived presentation to learn more about how access to traditional food, decreases in water quality, quantity and sea ice, and relocation of Native communities are being brought on by changing climate conditions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledges that the greatest opportunities for adapting to, and mitigating for, climate impacts must include indigenous knowledge and perspectives.

If you're looking for terrific educational resources or ideas to plug into your academic planning this year, check out archived issues of The Watch! Our team has reviewed all content for use by formal and informal educators working to increase their own ocean, climate, and environmental awareness and that of their students and audiences.

If you have an item you'd like to share with our education community, email us at: oceanserviceseducation@noaa.gov and be sure to include:

• Event/Item announcement title
• Date and time if applicable
• One paragraph description
• Clear thumbnail image
• Link for more information

• Connect with ocean experts and explore topics from corals to coastal science with our audio podcast.
  Listen to episodes of the new NOAA Ocean podcast here—and subscribe to us in your favorite podcatcher or delivery platform so you never miss an episode. Just search for "NOAA Ocean."
  
  
• Celebrating Oysters!: To highlight the many benefits oysters bring to our ecosystem, economy, and table, NOAA celebrated oyster week in early November. We teamed up with partners inside and outside NOAA to celebrate these dynamic shellfish for an entire week! Learn more through our social media posts, videos, and photo essays highlighting NOAA’s work in oyster reef restoration and aquaculture, then check out our NGSS aligned K-12 oyster learning sequence Oysters in the Chesapeake! 
  
  
• Get Into Your Sanctuary Photo Contest: Every year NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries holds a photo contest and winning photos are featured in the Earth Is Blue Magazine. Check out this year's winners and think about submitting pictures for next year's contest.

Live ship to shore interactions are free 20 or 30-minute Q&A connections with professional ocean explorers onboard the Ocean Exploration Trust's Exploration Vessel Nautilus. Students can learn about ongoing expeditions and ask scientists questions about science and technology in real-time. Interactions are available daily using Google Meet or Zoom, can be scheduled to meet your needs, and customized to your audience. All you need is a computer with an internet connection, speakers, a projector, and a microphone! Share the excitement of ocean exploration through STEM career role models!

The team will be exploring with seafloor mapping and remotely operated vehicle dives throughout Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and around the Hawaiian islands until December 19, 2021.

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This "Harvest Season" explore the five part video collection "The Future of Ocean Farming" with your students. Find out how sustainable aquaculture is helping to grow healthy seafood and support a cleaner ocean. Get started with this regional Emmy award- winning series! 

Almost 20 years ago a young killer whale named Springer brought the Northwest together. The young orca first spotted alongside ferries in Puget Sound turned out to be an orphaned Northern Resident killer whale hundreds of miles from home. The new book "Orca Rescue: the True Story of an Orphaned Orca Named Springer," describes how she was rescued, rehabilitated, and returned to her pod on the north end of Vancouver Island. Today she is thriving, with two calves of her own. Hear the inspiring story from the people who lived it, and its lasting lessons for the recovery of Southern Residents. Register here.

30 November 2021 | 07:00 pm ET

Join this virtual conversation and book reading with author and WHOI veterinarian and marine scientist, Michael Moore, to celebrate the publishing of his book, “We Are All Whalers”. Moore shares his experiences caring for endangered whales and how we can all aid in the salvation of these imperiled animals with host Véronique C. LaCapra, PhD.

Thursday,  2 December 2021  | 12:00 - 1:00 pm ET

NOAA Planet Stewards and Black In Marine Science are hosting a 1-hour workshop with Harlem Promise Academy to explore the challenges and successes of keeping our rivers, bays and ocean free of marine debris.

Watch it Live at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlackinMarineScience

In this Science Update from the National Science Teaching Association and NOAA, you'll learn all about the  Hawaiian Islands false killer whale and why they are endangered. This presentation also introduces activities and resources to support classroom explorations, including how to be a community scientist and identify this species, how to report sightings and upload dorsal fin photos, and what you can do to help protect them. Register today to participate in this web seminar.

Get free training on Cornell Lab’s latest educational kit, eBird Explorers: Biodiversity Detectives, which uses birds and citizen science to bring science to life and build connections to your local environment with a global perspective. Available to workshop attendees, this curriculum provides everything needed to teach confidently with eBird while exploring animal evolution and speciation, diversity, and adaptations. Join the webinars to be guided through the curriculum with a strong focus on implementation. This program is open to grades 6–8 teachers in any public or private school within the United States. Learn more and apply by December 8 here.

To help teachers seeking Earth science professional development, the American Meteorological Society’s Education Program is waiving all course fees for the first 36 participants that are successfully matched to a mentor team for each of the three online Spring 2021 DataStreme courses in weather, ocean, and climate science! Participants earn three accredited graduate credits per course.

Nearly 23,000 teachers have completed a DataStreme course, helping them leverage real time data in their classrooms, advance their careers, inspire their students, and become science leaders in their schools and communities. Teachers should fill out the DataStreme Interest Form ASAP to get matched with a mentor for the spring semester. Learn more about this exciting microcredential at http://ametsoc.org/CAT.

(Completion of any two courses offered by AMS Education fulfills the requirements to become a Certified AMS Teacher!)

The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) - including computer science, is now accepting nominations! The PAEMST is the highest honor the U.S. government bestows for K–12 mathematics and science teaching, honoring up to 108 teachers each year. Presidential awardees receive a certificate signed by the President; a trip for two to Washington, D.C. to attend recognition events; and $10,000 from the National Science Foundation.

Consider nominating a talented teacher or applying for the award yourself here. This year, teachers in grades K–6 are eligible. Nominations close on January 7. Applications will be due by February 6.

If you were on Jeopardy and the category was Earth science, how well would you do? This month, NESTA (the National Earth Science Educators Association) introduces a "just for fun" monthly activity - The NESTA Challenge. An Earth Science question, with clues, asks about a person, place, or thing to challenge your knowledge of the Earth sciences. The answer appears in next month’s NESTA Challenge. The challenge can be found on bottom left of the the NESTA website home page. So visit each month for a new challenge! Have your students join you!

What’s it like to go on a mission into deep space without leaving Earth? Ask questions to crew who are simulating a journey to Mars! NASA’s new “Groundlinks” program connects students with crew members currently inside NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, a habitat housed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Students can learn more about how NASA prepares humans to live and work in space through connecting with HERA scientists! Find out how here.

3. Inspired by NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary system, this competition gives high school students an opportunity to tell their Great Lakes and ocean stories. Top entries will be selected to have their films screened at the virtual Thunder Bay International Film Festival in January 2022 with prizes awarded to the top three entries. All 3-minute films must relate to the theme: #ScienceInThe-Sanctuary.  Deadline: 4 January 2021.

4. Chipotle Sustainability Challenge, Here's How It Works, Apply by 31 January 2022: Young people research their community and report on how they're going to make their food system more sustainable. Download a Student Workbook, Adult Partner Guide, and more details at earthforce.org/csc. 

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Project Learning Tree (PLT) are passionate about providing resources to create a better understanding of the importance of forests and the many communities that rely on forests for the spiritual, cultural, environmental, and economic benefits they bring. Together they've compiled a non-exhaustive list of resources for educators' and students’ "learning journeys." Browse the resource page here.

Tending Nature explores how, for a thousand years, land has provided for Native peoples and how tribal groups have actively cared for the land. This science curriculum explores the eco-systems of the Klamath River Basin, the problems caused by its unhealthiness, and the collaborative efforts by tribes, government and others to solve the problem by restoring the river. Find it here.

Join PBS KIDS and explore the seasons! The lessons have been co-designed by museum and educational partners and introduce media clips, extension activities, articles, and crafts into learning. Share the resource with families to strengthen a school-to-home connection. Children will learn about the world around them through science, math, and art activities on the site here.

Comida pa' los Pobres follows Giovanni, a young Puerto Rican activist, as he confronts the island’s persistent crisis of food insecurity. Motivated by his childhood struggle with hunger, he seeks to inspire his fellow citizens to join a movement of solidarity-oriented work by feeding families and college students through mutual aid efforts—all while facing challenges from local authorities. This video is in Spanish and is accompanied with a variety of classroom curricula extensions!

SubjectToClimate (StC) has lesson plans to help K–12 teachers integrate climate change studies into subjects from civics to science. The lesson plans are presented in an easy-to-follow three-step format (e.g. Step 1: Inquire; Step 2: Investigate; and Step 3: Inspire) and include teaching tips, standards information, and links to accompanying teacher materials. Resources are available for grades K - 12. Check them out here.

Climate Visuals is a website and image library that draws evidence from "over 350 climate change and environmental groups, journalists, educators, and businesses," to illustrate how climate change is physically affecting the planet, its people, and their lives. Use the resource in a variety of ways, especially in education! Readers can contribute their own photographs and participate in documenting climate change in their communities also. Climate Visuals is a project of Climate Outreach, an organization dedicated to centering people in discussions about climate change.

The National Wildlife Federation’s 96-page guide presents the information needed to plan, build, and maintain a successful garden program. The guide walks readers through each step of the process from engaging the community, creating a Habitat team, and assessing the garden site to designing, building, maintaining, and celebrating the completed garden site. Check out the learning activities to support educators in making the most of their garden.

Picture your nearest river or lake. How do people use it? Are you happy with the way it is treated and its relationship to your community? In this PBS NewsHour lesson, students will explore inventions that harness the power of water to make electricity. Students will then sketch, model or build an invention that uses renewable energy and helps protect the environment.

Using whale-count data from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, compare whale counts in relation to environmental factors. This activity allows students to manipulate real-world data to calculate the average number of whales counted while interpreting environmental factors such as waves and bathymetry. Find the activity here.

• Understanding Sea Level Rise from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Learn about sea level rise with this free report. Take an in-depth look at factors contributing to sea level rise along the East Coast.
  
  
• New Publication Provides Insight into Resident Perceptions of Coral Reef Ecosystem Services: This new NOAA publication suggests that outreach efforts have been successful in communicating to the public the benefits provided by coral reef ecosystems. The study's findings provide insight into which coral ecosystem services are valued in each region, allowing resource managers to make science-based decisions about how to communicate conservation and management initiatives.
  
  
• Deepwater Horizon Restoration Agencies Release First-of-its Kind Programmatic Review: NOAA and the Deepwater Horizon federal and state Trustee agencies released the 2021 Programmatic Review and interactive story map. This is the first review of multiple years of work across this program restoring habitats, fish, and wildlife impacted by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
  
  
• Report Highlights Economic and Climate Benefits of America’sEstuaries: NOAA partners at Restore America’s Estuaries has released a new report focused on the economic value of estuaries in the United States. In particular, the report highlights the economic benefits that coastal habitats provide by protecting communities from the impacts of flooding and climate change. Learn more here.