 Artwork by Heidi K. (Grade 6, Virginia), winner of the Annual NOAA Marine Debris Program Art Contest.
Back to school season is here!
A new school year means new possibilities: Meeting new students, trying new lessons, and (of course) learning new things! A new school year is also full of new opportunities to prevent marine debris, from discovering more about the issue to reducing classroom waste to inspiring change throughout communities. Whatever new things you're looking forward to this school year, the NOAA Marine Debris Program has resources for you! Explore How to Help at School, learn something new with Discover Marine Debris, and dive into all of the educational resources at NOAA with the NOAA Sea to Sky database.
Here’s what you can look forward to in today’s newsletter:
New Resources:
Student Opportunities & Highlights:
Educator Opportunities:
Funding Opportunities:
Plus, we're wrangling all of the rulers on our desk with a totally tubular organizer made from a potato crisp canister!
Enthusiastically,
Alexandria Gillen
NOAA Marine Debris Program Education Specialist
 Check out these online resources to prepare for your back to school season (Credit: NOAA).
As you prepare your classroom and check off your back to school shopping list, the NOAA Marine Debris Program has resources for both students and educators to prepare for the school year ahead. Our online resources are a zero waste must-have for this back to school season!
Learn more
Best for: Educators, Non-Formal Audiences
Applicable Region(s): Anywhere
 Learn how to make these fun and colorful desk organizers and lots more in the marine debris craft corner! (Credit: NOAA).
Reduce waste and prevent items from becoming marine debris by turning them into crafts! Check out a variety of crafts that repurpose materials that would otherwise be thrown away, like old T-shirts, egg cartons, plastic bottles, and more. Crafts can be used for engineering projects, decorations, and storytelling props at home or in the classroom!
Learn more
Best for: Anyone, Elementary School, Middle School
Applicable Region(s): Anywhere
 Recycling bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans are implemented by the NOAA Ocean Guardian School Program and TREE Club at Simon Sanchez High School (Credit: J. Anitok).
Between hand-raising, hallway transitions, and homework, it can be difficult to prioritize classroom waste management over classroom behavior management. We've compiled a series of tips on how to make recycling responsibly a part of your classroom culture - from researching what is recyclable in your area to extending the learning throughout the year.
Best for: Anyone
Applicable Regions: Anywhere
 Put those detective hats on and get ready to explore ocean mysteries with this new resource from NOAA (Credit: Feiro Marine Life Center).
What do world-traveling plastic toys, biodiversity in the deep sea, climate change, and the last great unexplored area on Earth have in common? The critical need for ocean literacy!
Exploring Ocean Mysteries is a curriculum that makes it easy to teach the seven Ocean Literacy Principles while meeting a variety of learning standards. Lessons are targeted to middle grades and adaptable for grades 4-12. They use the National Marine Sanctuary System as an engaging backdrop that helps students understand their importance for exploration, research, Indigenous cultures, and more. These lessons and materials are also available in Spanish.
Learn more and Check out more back to school resources from the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
Best for: Elementary School, Middle School, High School, Educators
Applicable Region(s): Anywhere
 A football-field sized barge carrying nearly 3,400 super-sacks of marine debris from remote and rugged beaches from Alaska and British Columbia docked at the Waste Management facility in Seattle, Washington (Credit: NOAA).
MDMAP Guide for Educators
The Marine Debris Program is pleased to share a new resource for supporting our participatory science effort, the Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP): “Making a Marine Debris ‘MAP’: A Guide to NOAA’s MDMAP for Educators”! The NOAA Marine Debris Program created the Guide to MDMAP for Educators as a resource for educators who are interested in implementing MDMAP surveys with youth. The Guide provides instructions and tips for participating in MDMAP and planning, conducting, and following up on monitoring surveys with student groups. Learn more
Coastal Pollution Tutorial
Each year, billions of pounds of trash and other pollutants enter the ocean. Where does this pollution come from? Where does it go? And what can we do about it? Answer these questions and lots more through the National Ocean Service Coastal Pollution Tutorial! Explore three major types of coastal pollution: oil spills, marine debris, and harmful algal blooms - what they are, the problems they cause for our environment, and what we can do about them with this new resource from NOAA. Learn more
Best for: Middle School, High School, Educators, Non-Formal Audiences
Applicable Regions: Anywhere
 To date, Ocean Odyssey Grants have supported 4,764 K12 students, 207 college students, and 1,028 educators with ocean education and workforce development opportunities (Credit: NOAA).
Are you an ocean education professional working to chart the course for a more diverse future ocean workforce by providing STEM education and/or early career development opportunities for middle school, high school, or college-aged youth from communities historically marginalized from ocean science and exploration industries?
If your answer is yes - check out the latest funding opportunity offered by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, in cooperation with NOAA Ocean Exploration. This year, Ocean Odyssey Grants: Ocean Exploration Awards for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility are available to ocean educators leading projects that broaden access to ocean exploration education and workforce development opportunities to diverse learners in U.S. states, territories, or the Freely Associated States.
Learn more
Best for: Educators, Non-Formal Audiences
Applicable Region(s): All U.S. States and Territories
 Preventing marine debris is a great way to engage in marine conservation (Credit: NOAA).
The National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) is proud to provide opportunities that support young marine educators, scientists, and conservation leaders. Through the Student Conservation Project Grants, NMEA provides young ocean leaders with grants of up to $250 to support their work in this field. The Student Scholarship provides student members of NMEA with an opportunity to receive $500 to support educational studies or technical training in pursuit of a career in marine or aquatic education, conservation, research, or a related field.
Applications for both opportunities are due September 1. Applicants for the Student Conservation Project Grants must be between the ages of 13-18 years old, and applicants for the Student Scholarship must be 18 or older.
Learn more
 Volunteers gather to cleanup DC’s Anacostia River at the 25th Annual Anacostia Watershed Society Earth Day Cleanup (Credit: NOAA).
In partnership with volunteer organizations and individuals around the globe, Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup® (ICC) engages people to remove trash from the world’s beaches and waterways. Thanks to millions of volunteers around the world, the ICC has become a beacon of hope, leading and inspiring action in support of our ocean. Since its beginning, more than 17 million volunteers have collected more than 350 million pounds of trash.
Join the International Coastal Cleanup from anywhere in the world! Use the map to find a coordinator planning a cleanup in your region. Want something closer to home? Go out by yourself or with friends and family to cleanup your favorite beach or beloved park. Trash travels, so even picking up litter off a city sidewalk can help protect wildlife and communities that depend on clean waterways.
Learn more
Best for: Anyone
Applicable Region(s): Anywhere
 Waste reduction in schools and communities were some of many action projects undertaken by last year's Fellows (Credit: NOAA).
In July, 15 high school students from across the United States and territories traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with each other and with NOAA for the first time. Though they walked in as strangers, they left four days later as a unified cohort ready to spend the year working together for positive change.
Three weeks before arriving in the capital city, these students received word that they had been accepted into the eeBLUE Young Changemakers Fellowship. Entering its second year, this program helps empower its participants to take action on ocean and environmental issues both at the local and the national scale. The program is supported through eeBLUE, a partnership between NOAA’s Office of Education and the North American Association for Environmental Education, which works to increase environmental and scientific literacy to build more resilient communities nationwide.
Learn more
Best for: High School, Non-Formal Audiences
Applicable Region(s): Anywhere
Check out marine debris projects around the country at the "In Your Region" page.
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 Artwork by Johanna B. (Grade 1, Minnesota), winner of the Annual NOAA Marine Debris Program Art Contest.
Microplastics, tiny plastic particles less than 5 millimeters long, pose a significant threat to aquatic animals and ecosystems.
In this training, explore sources of microplastic pollution and dive into ways that you and your students can reduce single-use plastic to make a difference for animals and their habitats! Learn various lab techniques and sampling methods to detect and quantify microplastics in water and sediment. Plus, hear from Shedd Aquarium experts about common issues related to plastic pollution and how best to engage your students in this topic. You’ll leave with lab procedures and adaptable lesson plans ready for use in your classrooms.
Learn more
When: November 16, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Where: Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, IL
Best for: Educators (Grade 6-12)
Applicable Region(s): Great Lakes (Chicago, IL)
 Students explore the salt marsh at Waterford Town Beach in Waterford, Connecticut (Credit: Connecticut Sea Grant).
Is your school located in the Long Island Sound watershed? If so, consider applying to become a Long Island Sound School.
With funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Long Island Sound Study and facilitated by Connecticut Sea Grant and Mercy University, the program supports schools that implement a school or community-based project and create a plan to increase ocean literacy by engaging students, families, and the public.
All K-12 schools located within the Long Island Sound watershed in New York and Connecticut are eligible, from inland areas with waterways that flow into the estuary to shoreline communities.
Learn more
Best for: Educators
Applicable Region(s): Mid-Atlantic, Northeast
 Organize all of those tall, unwieldy rulers (or reusable straws) with a repurposed potato crisp can (Credit: NOAA).
Organizing supplies can be a great way to start the school year, but it can also be a source of additional waste. A great way to get organized without purchasing new items is to use what you already have! We've put together a fresh new take on desktop organization with this special container to wrangle your rulers - Using a potato crisp can!
Totally Tubular Organization
Supplies Needed:
- Potato crisp can
- White paint (plus other colors if you'd like to paint your organizer!)
- Paintbrush(es)
- Decorations - I had trouble deciding how I wanted to decorate my organizer... You could use paints, stickers, collage, ribbons, or almost anything you might think of!
 The only supply you really need is a potato crisp can! You can use almost anything to decorate your organizer. Plus, your project comes with a ready-made snack! (Credit: NOAA).
Steps:
- Clean and dry the can.
- Paint the can white (if you are covering the material with a collage or ribbons, you could skip this step, but I liked starting with a blank canvas).
- Decorate! I used some repurposed planner pages to create a double-sided look (artwork by Katie Daisy) and accented it with ribbons and pom-poms.
 After a successful project (and satisfying snack), the organizer is ready to put on your desk (Credit: NOAA).
Looking for a craft from a previous newsletter? Check out our NOAA Marine Debris Program Newsletter Archive page to revisit all of our past activities, or explore the brand-new Craft Corner to see even more upcycling crafts.
Interested in more ways to help prevent marine debris at home, at school, or at the store? Dive into all kinds of ideas on our How to Help page.
Have any feedback on our content?
Contact us at marinedebris.web@noaa.gov if you have any questions, ideas, or hopes for our marine debris materials.
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