Skip to Content Skip to Navigation

Ocean Portal by The Smithsonian Institution

Get Involved

FEATURES


BLOG POST Helping Kids Help the Ocean An 11-year-old in Texas is saddened by the oil spill and begins searching for something she can do to help. A 13-year-old in Washington, D.C., convinces her mom to make small changes in thei...MORE STORIES


	BLOG POST MORE STORIES Coral Reefs Need You For those of you who have had the opportunity to visit a coral reef, you know th...
	BLOG POST MORE STORIES Saving Sharks and Dolphins, Near and Far Sophi Bromenshenkel is an unlikely shark-lover. She's eight years old and hails...
	BLOG POST MORE STORIES Teens Making a Difference in Your Community Over the past year I have been working for an organization called Coastal Americ...

EDUCATOR RESOURCES

LATEST TODAY'S CATCH


					NOAA's Adopt a Drifter Program Apr 20, 2012 - 12:50PMNOAA is working with students across the globe to place floating buoys throughout the ocean through their Adopt a Drifter Program. The buoys will drift with the help of ocean currents and record the sea surface temperature and...

Celebrate World Ocean Day

Jun 3, 2011 - 2:55PM

June 8th is World Ocean Day- a great time to celebrate all that the ocean...

Marine Debris: Trash Travels, But You Can Help Stop It

Sep 19, 2010 - 12:09PM

Marine debris--or trash that has washed or been dumped into our ocean and...

SPOTLIGHT


How You Can Help the Ocean Make the ConnectionThe first step in making a difference is learning about the ocean and how your actions have an impact....

Teens Making a Difference in Your Community Apr 4 2011 - 9:43am Over the past year I have been working for an organization called Coastal America helping to plan the Third National Student Summit on the Ocean and Coasts, a program that teams up high school students with educators to work on an ocean-related research project and “action plan” in their community.	Back to School, Ocean Portal Style Sep 2 2010 - 12:08am At the Ocean Portal, we love the back-to-school season. There’s excitement in the air—new classes, new teachers, new friends, and new subjects to explore. We like to think of a new school year as a fresh opportunity for students of all ages to find something they are passionate about. This year, we...
Teach Us Mar 12 2010 - 8:10pm Welcome Teachers! Thank you for visiting the Ocean Portal. We hope the “OP” will be a valuable tool for you and for your students—a place where you can find teaching resources and your students can find helpful, exciting, or just-plain-weird content that sparks interest in science and the ocean....	Celebrate Earth Day by Thinking of the Ocean Apr 20 2012 - 10:16am The surface of the Earth is 71% water, so we should celebrate the ocean this Earth Day. This Earth Day on Sunday, April 22nd, think of what you can do on an everyday basis to help our Planet Ocean. The ocean provides us with so much - from beach weekends with family and friends to the...
Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary Map Project Sep 2 2010 - 12:44am Students participate in a map project for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.	The JASON Project Live from the Shedd Aquarium Jul 19 2011 - 1:58pm This week people representing federal, state, and local governments, academia, non-profits, and private industry are in Chicago for the biennial Coastal Zone Conference. This meeting will give more than 1,000 attendees the opportunity to discuss ocean issues, strategies, and solutions.
Clean-up Your Act Jun 1 2010 - 7:40pm Even if you don't live near the coast, water—and anything else—that goes down your drain can eventually end up in the ocean. You can help keep the ocean and other waterways healthy by picking your cleaning products carefully. Many household chores can be done with simple, non-toxic ingredients like...	Helping Kids Help the Ocean Jul 15 2010 - 5:19pm An 11-year-old in Texas is saddened by the oil spill and begins searching for something she can do to help. A 13-year-old in Washington, D.C., convinces her mom to make small changes in their daily routine that make their home more ocean-friendly. A 7-year-old spends a part of his Saturday trip to...
2011 Ocean Hero, Sophi Bromenshenkel Jun 9 2011 - 4:08pm Shark-lover and Minnesota native Sophi Bromenshenkel poses with her hammerhead snow sculpture. The eight-year-old is one of Oceana's 2011 Ocean Heroes.	A Watershed Moment for the Ocean Jun 2 2010 - 9:05am As the days grow long, school bells fade into distant memories, and families start taking long weekends at the beach, the Ocean Portal Team is preparing for the weeks ahead. The way we see it, June 2010 is going to be a significant month for the ocean.
Coral Reefs Need You Oct 13 2010 - 10:51am For those of you who have had the opportunity to visit a coral reef, you know that it’s an experience you are unlikely to forget. Coral reefs are among the world’s most magnificent ecosystems. Their beauty alone makes them incalculably valuable, but beyond aesthetics, their importance to both...	Seafood for Thought Nov 18 2010 - 4:49pm Sunday, November 21 marks World Fisheries Day, an annual occasion observed in many fishing communities around the world. It’s a great opportunity—even for those of us who do not fish for a living—to pause and reflect on the importance of maintaining healthy fisheries.
Educational Uses of Gyotaku or Fish Printing Jul 18 2011 - 12:01pm Gyotaku is a traditional form of Japanese art that began over 100 years ago as a way for fishermen to keep a record of the fish they caught. They would apply sumi ink to one side of a freshly caught fish, then cover the fish with rice paper and rub to create an exact image of the fish. The ink...	Be Kind to the Beach Jun 24 2010 - 9:49am Ah, summer (in the northern hemisphere, anyway). For me, despite growing up in land-locked cowboy country, the word summer has always been synonymous with beach. It’s that time of year when bathing suits come out of hiding, and we make our annual pilgrimages to visit the sun, the sand, and the surf.
Learning from a Sea of Teachers Oct 24 2009 - 6:00pm On Friday, the OP Team had another great opportunity to talk face-to-face with some of the people that the Ocean Portal will serve: teachers. More than 4,000 teachers attended Smithsonian Teachers Night, and hundreds stopped by our table in the Sant Ocean Hall to chat with us and learn more about...	Using Light Painting to Teach Bioluminescence Nov 21 2011 - 12:00pm What does a bioluminescent creature that lives more than two miles below the surface of the ocean and a glow stick have in common? More than you think. In a unique spin on an art technique called "light painting," you can create your own bioluminescent organisms with glow sticks in your classroom...