Adopt a Drifter

The Adopt a Drifter Program began in December 2004 with the mission of establishing scientific partnerships between schools around the world and engaging students in activities and communication about ocean science. This free program provides teachers with an opportunity to integrate ocean observing data into their curriculum. A drifting buoy, or drifter, is a floating ocean buoy equipped with meteorological and/or oceanographic sensing instruments. Classrooms can track their adopted drifters in the ocean and use the real time data for different classroom lesson plans, such as predicting currents and temperature profiles or using the data to plot the drifter’s track.

SEREAD

SEREAD (Scientific Educational Resources and Experience Associated with the Deployment of Argo profiling floats in the South Pacific Ocean) is an educational program and resource that provides regionally relevant and focused ocean science that is built upon Argo data in a format that fits directly into existing curricula of Pacific Island schools. SEREAD teaches basic scientific fundamentals in a hands-on approach using examples that build on Pacific students’ everyday observations and experiences. This program aims to inspire students to study and understand the physical world around them, and facilitates interactions between today’s ocean and climate scientists, teachers and students, and tomorrow’s leaders on the important connections between the ocean, land and climate of the Pacific Island Region. 

Internships & Fellowships

GOMO participates in Sea Grant’s Knauss Fellowship Program and several of NOAA Education’s internship programs, including the Hollings Scholarship Program, Lapenta Internship Program, and the EPP/MSI Scholarship Program by hosting fellows and summer interns. Learn more about these programs and other internship opportunities through the NOAA Education Office:

• Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship Program
• NOAA Office of Education: student opportunities

Women in Science

GOMO actively supports women in science by taking leadership roles in NOAA Research’s annual Women’s History Month campaign and the Women in Sciences Leadership Workshop. In 2019, women from the GOMO office organized a two-day panel to celebrate International Women’s Day. You can view the recorded panels on on the Library’s YouTube page: Day 1 & Day 2. The Women’s History Month digital campaign highlights women of NOAA Research on its Scientist Profiles page, and is viewable on social media with the hashtag #womenofNOAA. The Women in Sciences Leadership Workshop, sponsored by Earth Science Women’s Network,  was created by GOMO Program Manager Emily Smith in 2018 with the goal of offering professional development in leadership skills for women across the sciences, from academia to industry.

Capacity Building

Through participation in the Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP), GOMO supports international capacity building workshops. GOMO Program Manager Sidney Thurston leads the Indo-Pacific Capacity Building Workshops and is on Capacity Building Task Team for DBCP, an international program coordinating the use of autonomous data buoys to observe atmospheric and oceanographic conditions, over ocean areas where few other measurements are taken.