EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

The Marine Debris Monitoring Toolkit for Educators was created through a collaboration between the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. This toolkit provides many useful marine debris resources and adapts the MDP's Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, a robust citizen science monitoring initiative, for classroom use. The Toolkit is designed to assist teachers in educating their students about marine debris and involving them in marine debris research and outreach. Using the Toolkit, students conduct marine debris surveys, which can help to provide valuable information on where, when, and what kind of debris is showing up. Students can enter their data into a national database, analyze monitoring results, and become involved in marine debris stewardship within their communities. You can find the toolkit below, or on the NOAA Marine Debris Program website here.

The first step to solving a problem is learning more about it. NOAA’s Marine Debris Program is here to help you learn more about the problem of marine debris! To support that mission, we have created an easy-to-use platform through which to access all of our educational materials. The NOAA Marine Debris Program has organized resources to support stewards from any audience, including educators looking for lesson plans, students researching projects, families hoping to make a difference, professionals catching up on the latest science and policy, and anyone in between. Simply head to our education webpage, and dive into the many resources NOAA’s Marine Debris Program offers to help keep the sea free of debris!