Working in groups, students will design a small-scale oyster farm and use NOAA's online calculator to predict how much nitrogen their operation will remove from the surrounding water over a growing season. Resource type: website, reference.

In this exercise, students will use both both forecasting tools and buoy data to determine the temperature and salinity ranges most likely to result in a bloom of nettles in the Bay. Resource type: website, reference.

These gentle giants can grow to be the size of a school bus! So why don't we know more about where they go? In this activity, students examine data visualizations created using 16 years of sighting and tracking information to determine when and why whale sharks migrate.

In this activity, students will graph population counts from two breeding grounds and answer some questions about the past, present, and future of whale populations. Resource type: website, reference.

Using Mauna Loa and greenhouse gas data, evaluate trends over the past 50 years as well as seasonal variations in sea level.

This activity serves as an introduction to these weather phenomena which critically impact our coasts each year. Students will use weather maps and ocean observing system data to explore hurricanes and nor'easters and their effects on vital habitats, our beaches, and our communities.

Scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are taking video of reefs and then analyzing it via a computer program back in the lab. Resource type: website, reference.

Track the Dead Zone using water quality data from the Nutrient Enhanced Coastal Ocean Productivity (NECOP) Program.

Using tsunami time travel maps, predict how long it will take a tsunami to reach the shore.

Cast real time sea state conditions using buoys from NOAA's National Data Buoy Center.