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Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled.

For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city’s congested waterways.

Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers.

FIRST LOOK: Preview the questions for the 2025 Teacher at Sea Field Season application! We plan to open our online application during the month of November, but you don't have to wait till then to learn more. GET A GLIMPSE of the application format and questions in a view-only PDF available now at the Teacher at Sea Program website.

Photo of a sandbar shark's eye by TAS '23 Martin McClure.

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 | 2 p.m. ET

Recent climate events across the country–extreme heat, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes–have provided many opportunities to engage in learning and conversation with students in the classroom. These events can also give rise to challenging emotions in students and teachers. Research shows that a majority of teachers don’t feel equipped to address climate change or the complex emotions the topic provokes. According to a recent report, climate change is impacting the mental health of 68% of U.S. youth (Blue Sky, 2023) and 64% of adults are worried about it (Yale, 2024). 

Navigating climate emotions effectively is vital for student and teacher well-being and emotional resilience. In this online workshop, participants will be supported to reflect on their own climate emotions, engage in activities and discussion related to helping their students express and manage theirs, and will leave with tools and resources for their K-12 classrooms. CTLE credit is available.

Register for the American Natural History Museum online event

Application Deadline: November 8, 2024

The American Meteorological Society invites applications from K–12 teachers to participate in its summer 2025 Project Ice teacher professional development course, offered as part of the National Science Foundation/Oregon State University (OSU)-led Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX). Teachers will be selected competitively from across the country, with a focus on those educating underserved students. Participants will engage in a graduate-level, multi-week hybrid course in paleoclimatology and ice core science that includes a workshop at OSU in Corvallis, Oregon, where they will engage with COLDEX scientists and visit the OSU ice core lab and Marine Geology Repository. 

Some support for travel, lodging, meals, and tuition will be provided for about 24 selected teachers. The course’s online portion will take place May 27–June 21, 2025, with the on-site residence experience scheduled for June 22–28.

Earlybird Application Deadline: December 15, 2024 

Final Application Deadline: January 15, 2024

PlantingScience is a Student-Teacher-Scientist partnership founded in 2005 by the Botanical Society of America. This no-cost program facilitates mentoring relationships with real plant scientists and teams of three to five students in grades 6–12 classrooms. Through asynchronous online conversations, the scientists provide support and encouragement as students design and carry out a plant-focused scientific investigation in the classroom. Teachers will receive free materials that will provide the content information needed, along with support from the participating scientists. 

Audience: Students enrolled at Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI), and American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) chapter students

Notice of Intent Deadlines:
Moon and Mars Tracks – October 24, 2024 
Gateway Track – December 9, 2024 
Contact: rcannon@carthage.edu

The First Nations Launch competition offers student teams the opportunity to demonstrate engineering and design skills through direct application in high-powered rocketry. Teams are guided through the engineering process on one of three tracks (Gateway, Moon, and Mars) to design, build, and fly high-powered rockets.

Don’t have any engineering, design, or rocketry skills yet? Students from all majors can sign up for the no-experience-necessary Gateway track where they’ll receive all the instruction and support they need to design, build, and fly their first rocket. Teams also give back to their communities by conducting outreach and serving as role models to inspire the next generation of explorers. The competition is managed by Wisconsin Space Grant and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Application Deadline: January 31, 2024 

The Earth Prize is an annual, global $100,000 environmental sustainability competition for students between the ages of 13 and 19, which rewards the teams whose projects have the most potential to address environmental issues. It aims to inspire and empower the next generation of environmental leaders and innovators, creating a global platform for sharing and scaling their solutions.

In 2025, there will be seven regional winners, each receiving $12,500 to implement their ideas. The regions are Oceania, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America, and Central & South America. Additionally, The Earth Prize will recognize three mentors and three educators of the year, awarding each $2,500.

Audience: Grades 6-12

This NASA Space Apps Challenge invites teams to create a game that integrates Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program protocols, helping players understand the world around them, develop awareness of one or more local or global environmental topics, and more.

Application Deadline: November 8, 2024 

The Future Blue Youth Council is a diverse, international group of young people working together to advance Bow Seat’s mission and to empower their peers to advocate for our environment. Council members are paid to serve one-year terms as project managers, advisors, and creative idea generators!

Future Blues support Bow Seat’s by-youth, for-youth True Blue Fellowship, from reviewing applications to mentoring existing projects.

The 2025 Future Blue Youth Council Application welcomes all Bow Seat alumni to apply. If young people are not yet an alum, they are eligible to apply if they participate in the Ocean Awareness Contest by November 8th.

In the Coastal Pollution Tutorial you can explore three major types of coastal pollution: oil spills, marine debris, and harmful algal blooms. These pages present the sources, impacts, and solutions that environmental scientists, responders, and others are using to address each type of pollution. Developed by NOAA’s Ocean Service Education and Office of Response and Restoration, the tutorial is intended for middle through high school-aged students, and everyone concerned with our oceans and waterways. 

The EnviroAtlas tools are a collection of standards-aligned lesson plans from the EPA that provides educators with grade-level appropriate curriculum to teach a variety of environmental concepts.

There are ready-made lesson plans for every grade level, from kindergarten through undergraduate that can be used in formal and informal educational settings.  

All lessons are aligned with Next Generation and State Science Standards.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Marine Energy Adventure Game, allows people of all ages and educational backgrounds to explore how an Atlantic salmon and a harbor porpoise might interact with a tidal or riverine energy turbine.

The video game can also be reached via the Marine Renewable Energy Educational Resources page, which includes a marine renewable energy video series, a coloring book for download, and short science summaries on the environmental effects of marine renewable energy.  

If you have feedback on the video game, use this Marine Energy Adventure Game feedback survey to share it with the developers.

Teachrock developed a collection of interdisciplinary lessons which bring together science, music, and civics in K–12 classrooms.

Each lesson includes essential questions, learning objectives, student procedures, as well as links and handouts to facilitate classroom implementation. Titles include Cleaning Up the Plastic Beach (elementary and middle/high school levels); The Science and the Civics of the Flint Water Crisis (elementary/middle and high school levels); Confronting the Climate Crisis (middle/high school); Greta Thunberg, Music, and the Climate Crisis (middle/high school), and Mountaintop Removal Mining in Appalachia (elementary, middle, and high school).

E-mail registration is required to access the collection’s complete lesson plans.

In this Oyster Reef Recovery activity, suitable for 6th-12th grade students, students will 60 years of oyster landing data from the Virginia Marine Resource Commission database to:

Compare landings from natural and seeded beds

Evaluate and graph long-term trends in shellfish harvests

Answer questions about environmental pressures facing oyster growers

Determine if oysters ar