Free Back-to-School Data Tool
Improved Water Quality & Weather Data Graphing Tool
Kick Off the New School Year Exploring Coastal Challenges!
Get ready to excite your students with this free and improved back-to-school data exploration tool! A tool developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estuary data into the classroom. Students use these data to explore coastal challenges such as a hurricane’s impacts on water quality, rainfall impacts on oyster populations, and drought impacts on salinity.
Data originate at the 28 sites within NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System, where 1.3 million acres are set aside for conservation, research, and education. Each site has a system-wide monitoring program that covers water quality, weather, biological information, and nutrient levels. With a few clicks, teachers and students can view and download these data for up to 20 years at some locations. Users can compare two parameters such as air temperature and water quality on the same graph from one station, between two stations within the same research reserve, and between stations in different reserves.
Recent tool updates are making these data even easier to use:
- Color-coded stations to indicate which are real time, non-real time, and inactive
- Mouse pop-ups indicating active dates for stations
- Pre-selectable end dates when querying
- A “How to Access the Data” tutorial (see http://estuaries.noaa.gov/ScienceData/Default.aspx?ID=536)
These data are being used in the classroom to analyze short-term variability and long-term changes in estuary waters, which provides a better understanding of how change impacts humans and the environment.
Follow-us if you are interested in learning about upcoming training opportunities.
Get started with some data investigations below...
What happened?
Date: October 25, 2012 - November 9, 2012
Location: Jacques Cousteau, NJ
Station: Lower Bank
Type of Data Collected: Water Quality
Parameters: Salinity and Depth (could also look at pH, barometric pressure, and rainfall)Answer: Superstorm Sandy!
Impact: Hurricane/Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy had an enormous impact on life and property. Storm surge created some of the most devastating impacts. One of the factors that contributed to Sandy's destructive power was the fact she arrived during a rising/peaking full-moon tide, so her surge stacked on top of an already extreme water level.
Estuaries 101 Curriculum Connection: Extreme Weather and Estuaries
What happened?
Date: March 25, 2010 to April 5, 2010
Location: Wells, Maine
Stations: Little River Mouth and Laudholm Farm
Type of Data Collected: Water Quality and Weather
Parameters: Salinity, Water Temperature, and PrecipitationAnswer: Extreme rain event saturated the estuary with freshwater!
Impact: This event had a big impact on the benthic community in the Little River, including erosion and loss or alteration of habitat. Worms, clams, and even many crabs died and were pushed out of the mud because of the 24-48 hour stretch of fresh water input.
Estuaries 101 Curriculum Connection: Estuary and Watershed
What happened?
Date: December 1, 2005 to January 30, 2006
Location: San Francisco Bay, CA
Stations: China Camp and Gallinas Creek
Type of Data Collected: Water Quality
Parameters: Salinity
Answer: Big storm causes widespread flooding!
Impact: The low salinity event appears to have caused 100% mortality in the native oyster population at China Camp State Park, part of the San Francisco Bay research reserve. Oysters do not open to feed at low salinity levels.
Estuaries 101 Curriculum Connection: The Great Oyster Mystery
About NOAA
The mission of NOAA is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Twitter and Facebook.
Website: estuaries.noaa.gov