As part of our environmental monitoring programs, Sanibel Sea School places temperature loggers in the Gulf of Mexico. It is a funny thing, monitoring the temperature of the ocean is a very simple thing to do, but like many aspects of science, the simple things turn out to often yield the most interesting patterns.
If you look at these data, you can see that water temperature goes through cyclic significant decreases in temperature. By comparing these patterns to other physical and meterological data, we can better understand what might be influential to these changes in temperature.
But the most interesting analyses are to make comparisons between physical, meterological and biological components of the near-shore environments of the oceans. These multi-parameter analyses can tell us important things about how are ocean ecosystems function.
And it all starts with monitoring simple things like temperature, plankton communities and the things that wash up on the beach. Most things a 6th grader can do. Ways to have kids learn about about, and tech us about the ocean.
Come Explore the Ocean with Us.
