This story map lesson plan allows students to explore ocean circulation patterns as they relate to the world's ocean garbage patches using NASA ocean currents data. Students will investigate the forces that contribute to ocean circulation patterns, and how debris, especially plastics, travel from land to the garbage patches.
Educational Resources - Search Tool
Students identify patterns in chlorophyll concentration data to formulate their explanations of phytoplankton distribution.
Students will identify and describe the relationship between watersheds and phytoplankton distribution.
Students interpret a graph of surface temperatures taken from city districts and other types of communities.
Students interpret a double bar/column chart comparing the number of tropical cyclones in different locations.
Students review an animation of monthly average wind speed at 10 meters above the ocean surface for our global ocean to analyze the relationship between winds and ocean surface currents.
Compare a histogram and map to determine the differences in the information conveyed in each data display.
Learners will analyze and interpret a box plot and evaluate the spread of the data. Learners will compare it with a different visualization of the data to see how the two compare, discuss the limitations of the two types of data displays and formulate questions.
Interpret a scatter plot to find patterns in the number of tropical cyclones from 1842 to 2018.
For over 20 years, satellite instruments have measured the sea surface height of our ever-changing oceans. This video of images shows the complicated patterns of rising and falling ocean levels across the globe from 1993 to 2015.