Educational Resources

Below are links for educational resources from various sources that can be used by teachers and students to learn about the coastal environment. There are links for lectures, exercises and activities, informational websites, lesson plans, etc.

Recorded Presentations

• Presentation about the Texas High School Coastal Monitoring Program from the Bureau of Economic Geology’s Summer Seminar Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2SLLVBfX_n0
• Presentation titled Hurricanes and the Texas Coast from Bureau of Economic Geology’s Austin Earth Science ZOOMERAMA: https://www.beg.utexas.edu/outreach/earth-science-week/2020-thscmp

Barrier Islands and Coastal Processes

• Shoreline movement activity: ShorelineMovementLearningActivity.pdf
• Barrier islands and coastal processes PowerPoint: BarrierIslands&CoastalProcesses.pdf
• Coastal Processes information sheet: CoastalProcesses.pdf
• Vocabulary word search: BarrierIsland&ProcessesWORDSEARCH.pdf
• Introduction to waves exercise: WaveIntroExercise.pdf
• Sand sampling exercise: SandExercise.pdf
• GLO Education Texas Coast Lesson Plans: https://txgloeducation.com/texas-coast/index.html
• US West Coast vs US East Coast virtual field trip: http://seascisurf.com/geo_virtual_fieldtrip_west-east_coast_shores.pdf

Wetlands and Estuaries

• Wetland Status and Trends Activity
• Texas Coastal Wetlands: http://texaswetlands.org/
• http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_estuaries/welcome.html
• http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/estuary.html
• Estuaries 101 curriculum: https://coast.noaa.gov/estuaries/curriculum/

Tides and Currents

• http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_tides/
• https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/education.html
• http://www.noaa.gov/resource-collections/tides
• http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_currents/
• http://www.noaa.gov/resource-collections/ocean-currents

Hurricanes

• PowerPoint presentation on hurricane basics: Hurricanes.pdf
• https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/weather-atmosphere/hurricanes
• https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/surge/
• The National Hurricane Center, a division of the National Weather Service: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Sea Level Rise

• Sea Level Rise, Research & Scenarios for a Changing Coast. Information about sea level rise and storm surge as well as sea level rise modeling and scenarios.  http://slr.stormsmart.org/
• http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/sea-level-rise/welcome.html
• http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/sea-level-rise.html
• Lessons in sea level rise: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/the-science-of-earths-rising-seas/

Additional Environmental Education Resources

• Educational resources from the Bureau of Economic Geology: https://www.beg.utexas.edu/outreach/educational-resources
• Texas Earth Science Week: https://www.beg.utexas.edu/outreach/earth-science-week-career
• Austin Earth Science ZOOMERAMA!: https://www.beg.utexas.edu/outreach/earth-science-week/2020-zoomerama
• Geologic Wonders of Texas https://www.beg.utexas.edu/geowonders
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's (NOAA) National Data Buoy Center's (NDBC) Science Education pages. http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/educate/educate.shtml
• National Ocean Service education webpages. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/
• Educational resources from the US Geological Survey: https://education.usgs.gov/
• Online conversions: http://www.onlineconversion.com/

ADDITIONAL MODULES

Hurricane!

Description: Students will use Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) surveys to characterize the capitol city of Honduras - Tegucigalpa. These data sets provide digital elevation maps which can be artificially flooded to simulate real-life disaster management scenarios for an urban setting. The data have been provided by the Bureau of Economic Geology. Students will learn:

• To associate flooding and landslides with Hurricanes.
• To become familiar with Geological Information System (GIS) software packages.
• To relate model predictions to real-life scenarios.

Number of Activities: 2
Age-appropriate for: 10th-12th grade 
Supplies Needed: paper, pencil, calculator, computer, internet access
 

Download Materials
Module Overview
Exercise 1: Weather Tracking
Exercise 2: Flood Protection
Supplemental Material
LIDAR Powerpoint
Answer Key

Coastal Zone

Description: The coastal zone is constantly changing. Wind, waves, tide, and currents are processes that have a daily affect on the beach and shoreline. Storms can have a dramatic and instantaneous effect on the coast that may take years to recover from. An understanding of the changes to the beach and shoreline gives insight to the processes that form them.

• To associate flooding and landslides with Hurricanes.
• To become familiar with Geological Information System (GIS) software packages.
• To relate model predictions to real-life scenarios.

Number of Activities: 4
Age-appropriate for: 8th-12th grade 
Supplies Needed: scissors, colored sticky dots, computer, PowerPoint software

Download Materials
Module Overview and Activities
Worksheet 1 
Worksheet 2
Worksheet 3
Supplement #1 Power Point
Supplement #2 (Student) 
Supplement #2 (Teacher) 
Data Sheet