Links

Links - Useful Websites

The OceanWorld team has spent time scouring the web for websites which will best further your understanding of the topic. The sites are rated and linked below with the high points briefly summarized.

Fisheries Sites:

Fisheries (Producer: NOAA): If looking to learn about the fresh water fish found in the Great Lakes, this site is for you. The University of Wisconsin has created a series of pages and fish facts on the ten types of fish that live in these lakes. Each fish has its own page with a beautiful colored picture, title, common names, habitat, and statistics. At the end of the series of fish, there is a a freshwater fish quiz for the students to work through. The Fish! site is part of the Jason IX project and is filled with useful information. There is even a fishery specialist and a t-shirt contest.

FAO Fisheries Department (Producer: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations): A massive site devoted to fisheries. The site is divided into several different sections, each pertaining to a different area of fisheries. One such of those sections is a database and statistics section full of

Weather Sites:

Climate Flips to the Past and Future (Producer: University of Washington - William Calvin): William Calvin has written about and provided tons of resources for global warming. This site offers a ton of information talking about our climate changes in the past and of the future. Several links take a reader to other interesting, popular magazine sites, such as Science and New Scientist, that pertain to the topic of oceans and global change.

Geoblox - Oceanography block models (Producer: John Koonz): A great way to teach Earth Science! Excellent for tactile and visual learners. Build classroom display models. Designed by a science teacher. Beware of terribly slow loading website.

Coral Reef Sites:

Oceanic Research Group (Producer: Oceanic Research Group): This is one of the best ocean sites on the web. This site provides an abundance of information as well as a number of great resources so you can get even more information. There are amazingly beautiful and educational graphics and movies. With numerous Emmy Award winning members of their team, this group provides a wealth of knowledge and experience. There are four or five different sections with a range of information from ocean movies to lessons for teachers (which are wonderfully detailed and thought out) to books, magazines, art and more. This is a site worth devoting some time to.

Fish Eye View Cam (Producer: Quantum Leap Networks): This site contains pictures and movies from a fish-eye-view cam. These cameras are used by marine biologists to study, for the most part, slow moving marine animals. This particular camera is located in Coral Gable, Florida. This site provides great graphics from pictures and movies pulled from the cameras. It also contains some great scientific information not only on the cameras and the project itself, but also on the marine life we can look at within their site.

Coral Health and Monitoring Program (Producer: NOAA): This site has an abundance of real-time data as well as maps of coral reefs from around the world. This site was designed to "help improve and sustain coral reef health throughout the world". It has an entire section on current data and bulletins on coral reef information, not to mention the awesome graphics you will find throughout the site. This site has a wealth of information as well as many great links and could be used in the classroom by teachers as well as for research by students or any other person wanting to learn more about coral reef health.

Grow Your Own Coral (Producer: Sea World Adventure Parks): This site provides detailed instructions on how to grow an artificial coral reef relatively simply and easily.

Iceberg Sites:

International Ice Patrol (Producer: US Coast Guard): A nice, thorough site that looks at several of the iceberg related areas. The oceanography section here is the focus of our investigation and is stocked full of useful information. This section goes into the history of their program and why the Ice Patrol was formed. A user will also find information about influencing ocean currents, general iceberg drift charts, temperature archives, and iceberg detection procedures. And this is just the tip of the sites abundance of information.

National Ice Center (Producer: NOAA): Not only does this site provide daily plots of icebergs, it goes into the explanation behind these plots and what they mean. There is a section for first time users that goes more into the iceberg and the differences between them. From there, a user can learn about the process of tracking the icebergs and then view the plots with a better understanding of the process. The site also offers an archive of information that works nicely for comparing and contrasting months.

Jason-1 Sites:

Jason (Producer: NASA Jet Propulsion Lab): This site gives a background description of what Jason is, how it is built and what it is doing. The introduction is general, but some of the links are more technical. However, with a little time and research, this site proves the most useful to understanding the Jason mission and space oceanography.

TOPEX for Kids (Producer: University of Texas, CSR): This site offers information on ocean salinity, density, temperature, velocity of sound in the sea, light penetration, and others. Some pages in the general menu take you to topics with interactive properties. Readability level is upper elementary and beyond. Exercises are downloadable in PDF format and there is a colorful review of the chemistry of the ocean.

The Space Place (Producer: NASA Jet Propulsion Lab): This is a fun site for kids with lots of good information about space oceanography, El Niño and space science. There are activities that would appeal to younger children as well as to older children here.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Producer: NASA Jet Propulsion Lab): This site has the latest news of what is happening at the Jet Propulsion Lab. There is information about all of their missions as well as general information about space science. This is a great site for all sorts of graphics.

Satellite Sites:

The Global Drifter Center (Producer: Atlantic Oceanographic and Meterological Laboratory - NOAA): Answers the who, what, where, when and why of drifting buoy deployment. Supplies the site visitor with real-time observations

National Oceanographic Data Center (Producer: U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA, NESDIS): There is a wealth of information and visuals at this site if the site visitor will only take the time to scroll each page and click on the many paths available. Go to the Library where you will be amazed at the beautiful photos of everything having to do with the ocean. Online data is available on IDARS (Interactive Data Access and Retrieval System) for coastal waters, environmental buoys, temperature, salinity, and on and on. The "Top Ten Questions" about oceans is informative and provides links for those seeking more information. A must see site!

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: This site has the latest news of what is happening at the Jet Propulsion Lab. There is information about all of their missions as well as general information about space science. This is a great site for all sorts of graphics.

Wave Sites:

Welcome to Tsunamis (Producer: University of Washington): Quoted directly from the site: "This site has been developed with a broad audience in mind; consequently, it contains extensive background information that is intended primarily for the general public, including information about the mechanics (physics) of tsunami generation and propagation, the impact of tsunamis on humankind, and the Tsunami Warning System." This site offers a very thorough look into the tsunami and is a valuable resource to its users.

El Nino Sites:

Reports to the Nation on our Changing Planet (Producer: NOAA): This is the place to find a wonderfully thorough description of El Niño and all that comes with it. Coupled with the " What is an El Niño?" site, both produced by the same group, a user gets a complete description of El Niño and a wide array of coordinated illustrations.

What is an El Nino (ENSO)? (Producer: NOAA): A bit more technical for the average Joe. The site gives a background description for what El Niño is plus a wide variety of links to the real time data to support the concepts described. Many of the real time links are to technical sites, not educational based sites, offering little background on how to read and/or interpret the information. With a little bit of time and research, the data proves very useful and beneficial to the understanding of the El Niño event.