Exploring Carolina Canyons

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 educators, students, and the public around the world.

The Exploring Carolina Canyons expedition offers a unique opportunity for explorers of all ages to investigate and better understand the geology and biological communities within marine canyons, as well as the tools and techniques used to explore them. You might choose to dive deeply into the Expedition Purpose and learn more about why NOAA and its partners are exploring this particular deep-ocean area, what advanced technologies are being used and what explorers are hoping to find. You might also be looking for ocean explorers to help your students more fully understand what skills and expertise are required for the science team on expeditions. 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.

This collection includes an Expedition Purpose written for educators, standards-based lessons relevant to the technology being used during this expedition, and an OceanAGE career interview with expedition participant Liz Baird. Additionally, below you will find topical theme pages on Cold Seeps, Deep-sea Canyons, and Deep-sea Corals, each of which includes selections of essays from past expeditions, additional lessons, videos, career interviews, and much more.

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 Carolina Canyons?

Learn more

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.

View Lessons

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.

Related Expeditions

The following expeditions cover topics similar to those of interest on the current expedition. 2015-2017 expedition web pages have an education component with associated lessons and other resources that you might find useful to classroom teaching and learning.

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.