NOAA Planet Stewards, Elkhorn Slough and South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRS) are hosting a simultaneous three-day workshop for educators who work with middle or high school level students.

To register at the physical location you will be attending the workshop and receive more detailed information, visit these links:

• South Slough NERRS Workshop Registration Link
• Elkhorn Slough NERRS Workshop Registration Link

Reserve your place today! Spaces are limited!

If you're looking for educational resources or ideas to plug into your academic planning, 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 as well as their students and audiences.

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

• Event/Item announcement title
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The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the nation’s underwater treasures with the release of the National Marine Sanctuaries stamps. For 50 years, U.S. national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments have protected areas with special ecological, cultural, and historical significance. The 16 new Forever stamps showcase the abundant wildlife and diverse ecosystems that can be found throughout the National Marine Sanctuary System. Preorders for the Marine Sanctuaries Forever stamps can be made online now at usps.com/stamps

We know less about the ocean floor than we do about the surface of the moon and Mars. But by the end of the decade we may know the general outline of our undersea contours and crevasses, thanks to an international project called Seabed 2030. The mapping initiative, called Seabed 2030, launched in 2017 to produce the definitive map of the world ocean floor by 2030. In June 2022, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad signed a memorandum of understanding that formalizes U.S. participation in the project.

CLEAN is leading a cohort of educators to the Summer Institute for Climate Change Education, hosted by Climate Generation in partnership with NOAA Climate Office.  This three-day experience is full of powerful and engaging keynote speakers, meaningful discussion about climate change, and collaborative conversations between a national network of climate change education leaders. Leave feeling reinvigorated for the new school year and prepared to educate your students to be global citizens.

The Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Education Committee will hold an in-person workshop with local educators, combined with an online workshop via Zoom. ESIP members will share a resource and lead teachers through an activity using Earth science data. Tools and resources include the NOAA Climate Explorer, UNAVCO Velocity Viewer, NOAA CIMSS satellite data activities, NASA SEDAC Hazards Mapper and HazPop App, En-ROADS Climate Decision Model, and the Concord Consortium Flood Risk and Impact module. Participants will also be directed to the Out 2 Lunch archive of Earth science webinar demos of data tools and resources.

In-person attendees will receive $200 to defray fuel and hotel costs; some meals will be provided. They’ll also be eligible to apply and compete for a FUNding Friday project of up to $3,000. Both in-person and online participants may apply for implementation grants the following school year. Register for free.

This free interactive online workshop allows teachers to engage with the MOSAiC Expedition–inspired A Changing Arctic Ecosystem storyline curriculum connected to NGSS life science standards. Participants will hear from MOSAiC scientists and the curriculum developers about the unit, in which students trace the flow of carbon through the Arctic food web to predict how declining sea ice might impact Arctic organisms. Teachers will engage with ArcGIS Storymaps, hands-on investigations, authentic Arctic datasets, and more. 

Participants are expected to complete about 2 hours of asynchronous work. Teachers will receive a certificate for 10 professional development hours and the option to purchase 1 credit ($80) from the University of Colorado Boulder.

The Smithsonian Science Education Center will convene educators, subject matter experts, school administrators, and education organizations to explore actionable approaches, backed by research and best practices in science, engineering, and education. Through this institute, participants will engage with the Smith-sonian’s action planning process, and build out an action plan to take action in their own school or community on one or more of these topics: innovation, inclusion, and sustainability.

Reserve your spot now! Register free at: https://ssec.si.edu/2022_API

1. "Striving for Sustainability Globally" Video Contest for all ages. 

Learn more about the Striving for Sustainability Globally video contest. The American Geosciences Institute invites individuals and teams to submit a brief, original video exploring the many ways people are using the Earth sciences to make decisions that maintain and strengthen the planet’s ability to support thriving life!

2. "Sustainability in Action" Photography Contest for all ages.

Sustainable practices promote the planet’s capacity to support life throughout the biosphere, which involves interactions with other Earth systems such as the geosphere, the hydrosphere, and the atmosphere. How does geoscience knowledge help support sustainability where you live? With your camera, capture an image of the ways geoscience informs local efforts to build a sustainable world. Learn more about the contest.

3. "Our Sustainable World" Visual Arts Contest for Grades K-5 

A “sustainable” planet is one that supports living things — and that means taking care of all the things that life depends on, including land, water, air, and other living things. What does a sustainable world look like to you? What is necessary to have or change? What is not necessary? What is necessary to change? Use your artistic ability to produce an original work of art that shows how land, water, air, and living things interact in a sustainable world. Learn more about the contest.

4."Geoscience for Sustainable Development Goals" Essay Contest for Grades 6-9. 

We have all been called upon to help meet 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) articulated by nations around the world. Geoscience — which addresses interactions of the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere — can play a critical role. How can the Earth sciences help achieve SDGs in areas such as poverty, nutrition, education, equality, ecosystems, climate change, and/or industrial innovation? Learn more about the contest.

Check out this new lesson from NSTA focusing on understanding Sea Level Rise through Sensemaking, the process of students actively trying to figure out how the world works or how to design solutions to problems. This lesson is based on information from a new video Our Beautiful Planet: Saving Our Shores, as well as data resources from NOAA, NASA, and USGS.

Explore sea level rise using the tools, visualizations and educational materials on NOAA’s new Sea Level Rise Portal

Help high school students understand the relationship between soil and the Earth’s atmosphere with the Soil-Air Connection, a multifaceted lesson plan exploring the role of soil in the carbon cycle. Students investigate the connections among soil, the carbon cycle, and climate change. The lesson plan begins with the presentation of a video, The Soil Story, which discusses how the amount of carbon on our planet does not change, but it can be stored in different locations, including the atmosphere, oceans, biosphere, soil, and fossils. The video presents moving more carbon back into the soil as a possible solution to help solve the problem of climate change. Find the lesson and more here.

Subsequent lesson activities include links to the videos, articles, and links to worksheets and organizers. Topics of focus include:

• analyzing a carbon cycle diagram from the U.S. Department of Energy;
• examining data on the amount of carbon measured in the atmosphere from NASA’s Global Climate Change website
• reading articles about land management practices to increase the amount of organic carbon in the soil

Check out the resources here!

2022's Youth Learning As Citizen Environmental Scientists (YLACES) grants work to provide environmental research opportunities for all students. However, barriers such as lack of school resources, unsafe neighborhoods in which to conduct research and physical limitations of students create obstacles to achieving this goal.  Further, the negative environmental consequences of laws, regulations and policies, such as pollution, often disproportionately impact vulnerable populations such as minority, economically disadvantaged and immigrant communities. Therefore, the 2022 YLACES grant guidelines are designed to:

• Provide equitable access to environmental research opportunities for all and
• Support citizen science activities that will improve understanding of or help to address the environmental and human health challenges faced by the local community

Grantees must commit to coaching students in doing research projects and sharing their observations and reports. Grants of up to $1,250 are available, although larger grants may be considered following consultation with Dr. Dixon Butler.

Through this program, expert K–12 educators from the United States travel to participating countries and territories to carry out short-term assignments abroad. Educators support and work in schools, teacher training colleges, government ministries, or educational non-governmental organizations as identified by U.S. Embassies and Fulbright Commissions. Fields for these assignments include STEM, project-based learning, family and consumer science, assessment, curriculum development, elementary education, education for those with visual impairments, and academic remediation. STEM projects will take place in Peru, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Project dates run from January to August 2023. Learn more and apply.

The NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is seeking proposals under the Great Lakes B-WET program. Great Lakes B-WET is a competitive grant program that supports existing, high quality environmental education programs, fosters the growth of new, innovative programs, and encourages capacity building and partnership development for environmental and place-based education programs throughout the entire Great Lakes watershed (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Successful projects provide Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) for students and related professional development for teachers, while advancing regional Great Lakes watershed education priorities. The Great Lakes B-WET program is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Applicant resources can be found at: https://www.noaa.gov/office-education/bwet/apply#GL 
Contact the Great Lakes B-WET program coordinator for questions: sarah.a.waters@noaa.gov,    (989) 312-3520.