Adam Skarke, physical scientist and expedition coordinator discusses the plan for this expedition to the New England Seamounts. Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. Download larger version (mp4, 90.3 MB).
Ocean Explorer Expedition Education Modules (EEM) are designed to reach out in new ways to teachers, students, and the general public, and share the excitement of daily at-sea discoveries and the science behind NOAA’s major ocean exploration initiatives with the people around the world.
On this expedition, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will conduct seafloor and water column mapping operations in the Western North Atlantic Ocean over a portion of the New England Seamount Chain. This group of seamounts is a chain of extinct submarine volcanoes that extend from east to west across the Western North Atlantic Ocean.
The chain was created by the movement of crustal plates across a relatively stationary “hot spot” plume of magma, deep in the Earth’s mantle. The youngest and easternmost seamount (Great Meteor) formed approximately 80 million years ago and the oldest and westernmost seamount (Bear) formed approximately 100 million years ago.
Educators and scientists working with NOAA developed a series of lesson plans for students in Grades 5 - 12 that are specifically tied to the mapping technology being used on this expedition.
View lessons
The Okeanos Explorer Education Materials Collection was developed to encourage educators and students to become personally involved with the voyages and discoveries of the vessel.
The Multimedia Discovery Missions are a series of interactive multimedia presentations and learning activities that address topics, including plate tectonics, subduction zones, and seamounts.
To see archived video highlighting some of the careers that will be represented onboard the ship during this expedition, click on the OceanAGE Careers page.
You can also meet the explorers from past canyon expeditions here and read the article “Ocean Floor Mapping from the Perspective of an Intern and an Interview with a Marine Ecologist.”
The following expeditions cover topics similar to those of interest on the current expedition. These expedition web pages have an education component with associated lessons and other resources that you might find useful to classroom teaching and learning.
