Discovery Stories are case studies in coastal and ocean science drawn from research conducted by NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS). They are opportunities to learn through inquiry and are accompanied by a set of supporting resources, including student and teacher guides, interactive quizzes, exercises with real data, and interviews with NOS scientists that explore how scientists think. In addition, ... Full description.

This website explores an active submarine volcano just off the Oregon coast, Axial Seamount, on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. On this site, users explore an interactive 3-D model of the seafloor and can view hydrothermal vents and fresh lava flows. At each of the six virtual tour sites there is an animated tour, an interactive panorama, links to video clips taken by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and ... Full description.

This interactive site tracks the JOIDES (Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling) Resolution, JR, one of the largest earth and ocean science research vessels in the world. Users can ask real scientists questions, track the ship's location, explore daily ship blogs, watch up-to-the-minute videos, or join JR's facebook page. Free posters, JR tracking globes, and other materials are ... Full description.

The Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) is a digital library designed to classify, integrate, and facilitate access to scientific information about the oceans and the adjacent parts of the atmosphere and solid Earth, as well as to the people, techniques, and organizations involved in marine science. By integrating information science and communication technology, the MRIB creates a new vision of ... Full description.

In this activity students will explore how changes in the salinity and temperature of water affect its density and motion. They will discover that in winter months, primary production in the Antarctic Ocean is nearly zero, which creates difficulty for the grazers who depend on primary production. But in the 5-6 months of austral spring and summer, these waters become a nutrient-rich pasture for plankton. ... Full description.

In this activity, students focus on the physical and chemical processes associated with the Charleston Bump, a series of rocky scarps, mounds, overhangs, and flat pavements that rise from more than 700 m at the surface of the Blake Plateau to within 400 m of the sea surface. They will be able to describe how the Charleston Bump affects the flow of water in the Gulf Stream, describe the potential biological ... Full description.

In this activity, students will discover the importance of carbon, where carbon is stored on Earth, and that the largest reservoir of carbon is in the form of gas hydrates where methane and other hydrocarbon gases are trapped in a lattice of water molecules in deep sea sediments. Students will learn how climate change is related to the greenhouse effect. They will also learn about the potential of ... Full description.

This site has a list of references that cover a wide range of information about the sea floor. From the discovery of the Titanic to the undersea riches of black smokers, the list includes a number of magazine articles that have taken a close look at deep sea vents. The list contains articles in publications that range from Boys Life to Science World. The magazine articles look at: the challenges of ... Full description.

The I2I-Acid Ocean virtual lab is an e-learning activity where students become virtual scientists studying the impact of ocean acidification on sea urchin larval growth. Students recreate a real, up-to-date climate change experiment. They also learn important general scientific principles, such as the importance of sample size and numbers of replicates, and discuss what this research into a specific ... Full description.

This overview of Canadanain oceans outlines the characteristics of the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic marine ecosystems. After a brief look at Canada's ocean environments from a global perspective, additional chapters provide an overview of the physical properties, fauna and human impacts associated with Canada's oceans. For each ocean there is information on water properties, currents, tides, and the ... Full description.