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Late-summer Ecosystems Monitoring (ECOMON) survey of the Northeast shelf ecosystem

Julie Long, ARMADA Master Teacher

Print Resources
  • Cerullo, Mary M. 1999. Sea Soup: Phytoplankton. Gardiner (ME): Tilbury House Publishing. 40 p.
    This is the first of the Sea Soup books. A great resource for kids (and adults) to learn the basics about phytoplankton. The information is simple and to the point. The color photographs make this book a real stand-out. There is a teacher resource guide to make the book more classroom friendly.
  • Cerullo, Mary M. 2001. Sea Soup: Zooplankton. Gardiner (ME): Tilbury House Publishing. 40 p.
    A great book for all ages to learn about zooplankton. There are great color photographs, clear explanations and an available teacher resource guide to make it even more useable in the classroom.
  • Cook, Mary Esther, Stanitski, Diane Marie. 2005. Teacher at Sea: Miss Cook's Voyage on the Ronald H. Brown. Boulder (CO): National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 33 p.
    A great picture book that illustrates a research cruise. This was written by a teacher at sea for use in her classroom to show her students what her voyage was like. While it is a children's book, there are great illustrations and explanations about the sampling equipment (CTD, Ago profiling float, floating buoys, etc). There is also a list of internet resources pertaining to research cruises.
  • Greenlaw, Linda. 1999. The Hungry Ocean. New York (NY): Hyperion. 265 p.
    An easy read, this book takes you into the world of a successful female fisherman. This book is not only useful for understanding life at sea for fisherman, but it also does a great job at skillfully showing what the draw is to this hard life at sea. For students that don't live by the sea, excerpts from this book can paint a very realistic picture of how life is.
  • Hendrickson, Robert. 1984. The Ocean Almanac. New York (NY): Doubleday. 446 p.
    I have not yet found a more comprehensive book about the ocean. This almanac has information about everything from weather to boating rules to bird identification. Anything you can think of that is related to the ocean can be found in this book (even some things that you didn't know were related to the ocean!). Easy to use and an excellent resource.
  • Katona, Steven K., Rough, Valerie, Richardson, David T. 1993. A Field Guide to Whales, Porpoises, and Seals From Cape Cod to Newfoundland (4th Edition). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press. 316 p.
    A great read that describes the history and current life of the mammals found in the waters off the Northern East Coast. Besides being an interesting read, this book is also a great field guide, with numerous pictures taken of the mammals in their natural environment and descriptions of what to look for in order to spot the mammals in the open ocean. The index includes a large number of resources available for finding out more information about a specific species.
  • Rushin, John W. 1999. Science Fair Projects. Mark Twain Media/Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company. 76 p.
    This is a great book to guide a teacher in introducing middle school students to the different steps in creating a science experiment. Not only does the book include reproducible pages that guide students through creating and developing a research question, the book also gives a list of 150 topic ideas. Very helpful for first time researchers.
  • Stevens, Betsy T. 1999. Sea Soup Teacher's Guide: Discovering the Watery World of Phytoplankton and Zooplankton. Gardiner (ME): Tilbury House Publishing. 96 p.
    A great resource for teaching students about plankton. This book corresponds to the two Sea Soup books about phytoplankton and zooplankton. The lessons included are inquiry based and include alignments to state standards, web-resources, and additional references. I found this to be very useful to students who are learning about plankton for the first time.
  • Ward, Nathalie. 1995. Stellwagen Bank: A Guide to the Whales, Sea Birds, and Marine Life of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Camden (ME): Down East Books. 232 p.
    This is an amazing guide to the North Atlantic, almost 850 square miles of the Gulf of Maine. What I appreciated most was that this book didn't just focus on marine mammals and birds, it also incorporated plankton and invertebrates. In addition, there are great descriptions of how currents, tides, and upwelling works in this ecosystem. I found this to be a great resource for my own background knowledge on the area in which I was doing my summer research.
  • Weiss, Howard M. 1995. Marine Animals of Southern New England and New York: Identification Keys to Common Nearshore and Shallow Water Macrofauna. Hartford (CT): State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut/Department of Environmental Conservation.
    This is an amazing identification guide for small land and water animals. Included is everything from isopods to squirrels. I used this book throughout college and found it invaluable again while I was on the research cruise in the North Atlantic. A fabulous guide with great pictures and descriptions.
Web Resources
  • Adopt a Drifter Tracking Page. NOAA Office of Climate Observation.
    http://osmc.noaa.gov/OSMC/adopt_a_drifter.html
    I was able to launch a drifter buoy while I was on my research cruise. Since activating the buoy, I have used this site numerous times to track the buoy. Students can get real time data about water temperature, latitude, longitude and sea level pressure not only from the buoy I released, but from buoys around the world.
  • Plankton. Chesapeake Bay Program.
    http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/plankton.cfm
    This is a great site that gives the basics about plankton and simple marine invertebrates that are considered part of the lower food web. In addition, there are great links to publication sites and data sites for more research based information on these organisms.
  • COPEPOD: A Global Plankton Database. National Marine Fisheries Service- Marine Ecosystems Division.
    http://www.st.nmfs.gov/plankton/index.html
    I found this to be an amazing site because it ties together all of the plankton research and counts from all of the cruises happening around the world. Data dates back to the early 1970s. It really helps to make students realize the importance of such a small organism when they see all of the research and data that has been collected (and that continues to be collected). I also enjoy that they were able to make copepod into an acronym!
  • Lesson Plans. The Bridge.
    http://www.vims.edu/bridge/lesson.html
    Great site with ocean related lesson plan resources for teachers from ages Kindergarten to twelfth grade.
  • United Streaming.
    http://www.unitedstreaming.com
    This is a great site that has full length videos and short video clips related to multiple subject areas. This site is owned and operated by Discovery, so the science material is excellent. In addition to videos, there are also links to relevant lesson plans and on-line quizzes related to the videos.
Audio/Visual Resources
  • The Blue Planet: Seas of Life. Video. BBC Video. 2001
    An eight-part series on four video cassettes. The series includes: "Ocean World/Frozen Seas", "Open Ocean/The Deep", "Seasonal Seas/Coral Seas", and "Tidal Seas/Coasts". I have used them in my class to teach about the ocean but also to teach about evolution, survival, and changing environments. My students love them and are mesmerized by videography from a world they never see.