Search for the Lost Whaling Fleets of the Western Arctic

Expedition Education Module

Ocean Explorer Expedition Education Modules (EEM) are designed to share the excitement of daily at-sea discoveries and the science behind NOAA’s major ocean exploration initiatives with teachers, students, and the general public. To enable educators to design their own instructional strategies for classrooms around particular expeditions as they are happening, we have compiled within this EEM lessons, multimedia tools, and a wealth of other resources developed just for educators to assist in bringing deep-sea exploration and discoveries into the classroom.

You might choose to dive deeply into the Expedition Purpose and learn more about why NOAA and its partners are exploring a particular area, what unique technologies are being used, and what explorers are hoping to find. You might also be looking for lessons on topics tied to the expedition’s science or for ocean explorers to help your students more fully understand what skills and expertise are required for the science team on a certain expedition. You just might need a short video clip or images to complete your lesson unit on a particular topic related to the expedition that you are following. Whatever your NOAA deep-ocean exploration education needs are, we hope that you will find them all met here in the Expedition Education Module.

The Lost Whaling Fleet 2015 Expedition offers a unique opportunity for explorers of all ages to investigate historically significant 19th century whaling shipwrecks in the Arctic.

Expedition Focus: Marine Archaeology and the Search for the Lost Whaling Fleet of the late 19th Century

The focus of the Lost Whaling Fleet expedition is to map the nearshore waters of the Chukchi Sea in Alaska in search of a large fleet of whaling ships lost at sea in the late 1800s. This mapping information will be essential for informing and guiding emerging economic development opportunities so that they can be achieved without diminishing the rich heritage resources present in this globally significant region.

We hope that you will use the education resources provided here to get your students closer to the deep ocean and discoveries in maritime history than they have ever been before.

Expedition Purpose: A summary of why scientists and educators are interested in exploring this area and what we might learn from our efforts in this region.

Expedition Purpose

Why Are Scientists Exploring the Nearshore Waters of the Arctic?

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Classroom Lessons

Classroom lessons and learning tools relevant to the expedition are listed below by grade level. Although some of these resources may have been developed for past expeditions conducted in other regions of the world ocean, the Focus Questions and Student Learning Objectives are applicable to the current expedition.

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Multimedia Content Themes

These Education Theme Pages are designed to provide the best of what the Ocean Explorer website has to offer to support your classroom during this expedition. Each Theme page provides links to content essays, lessons, multimedia interactive activities, career information, and associated past expeditions.

OceanAGE Careers

Ocean Careers to Inspire Another Generation of Explorers, or OceanAGE Careers, invites students to learn about the talented people who explore our ocean planet.