Integration of the Maury Modules and Data-Streme with Earth and Space and Physical Science Curricula

The Maury Project, supported by the American Meteorological Society, NOAA, and the US Navy, provides modules on physical oceanography for teachers. In my eighth-grade classroom, I have found that integrating the modules with the physical and Earth science curriculums provides an exciting, applicable platform for teaching eighth-graders about physical oceanography, weather, space and physical science.

Beginning the school year with the teaching of hurricanes, using DataStreme materials from the American Meteorological Society's on-line sources, makes science real-time with live data. Students learn to track hurricanes utilizing what they know about air pressure, temperature of the ocean, wind speed and direction. With this information and looking at past history of where hurricanes have traveled before in certain locations, the students predict where they think the hurricane will move in the next 24 hours. They are immediately involved in reading weather maps, observing buoy data on ocean temperatures and wind speed, and utilizing computer technology within the first few weeks of school.

In our Earth and Space unit, students learn about satellites and track them with particular web-sites so that they can observe them in the night sky as they orbit. Using the Maury module on Measuring Sea Level from Space, the students see the relevance of satellite telemetry and the importance of the data collected. Through observation of the expansion of the ocean water, the inter-relation of three other Maury modules, Upwelling, Sound Channel, and El Nino, with the satellite module, forms a base for students to see the air and sea interaction.

The physical science component of the curriculum is enhanced by the use of the Maury modules on Density, Sound Channel, and Wind-Driven Surface Currents. Students study air pressure, density currents, sound waves and ocean current movement through the observation of changes in pressure.

Integrating the Maury modules along with Data-Streme access and our curriculum has made science "come alive" for my eighth-grade students. They continue to bring in data they collect at home on their own time even after the unit is completed. The teaching has provided an extended learning classroom for my students and given them a correlation for science in their real world.