The Athena Project have put together two wonderful interactive, guided inquiry learning activities that take advantage of oceanographic data placed on the World Wide Web. Students are presented with detailed information to learn how drifter buoys measure ocean currents.
Students also learn about satellite imagery of ocean topography.
Students are presented with a dataset of information to plot on a map. After this practice activity, students must use information from spreadsheet files to locate the Gulf Stream. Science journal activities are also included. This activity is appropriate for both middle and high school students. This activity examines how scientists interpret satellite imagery.