The CLEO Program leverages techniques
developed at NOAA/AOML under the
Explorer of the Seas, Coral Health and Monitoring
Program, and Integrated Coral Observing Network (ICON/CREWS)
programs, under which knowledge transfer of oceanographic instrumentation and coral
reef processes have been developed.
The Educational Modules
are being developed primarily for middle school classes. Each module consists of
three segments: background information (science behind the instrument), classroom
experiment (experiment to test parameter instrument measures), and teacher's section
(describes the Educational Objectives / National Science Standards, Preliminary
Activities/Demonstrations, Suggestions for teaching the concept, and Follow-up or
Extension Activities for the class.) Students will be engaged to plot and manipulate
the data, and to witness events live on the Web via the ICON/CREWS Coral Cam.
The goal of the Gray Literature
Document Recovery Project part of the CLEO program is to accumulate pre-1990
gray literature in digital (PDF) format to support education, research and management
objectives at all the areas where ICON/CREWS stations are being installed. (The
ICON/CREWS project is pursuing a U.S. Coral Reef Task Force goal of establishing
monitoring stations at all major U.S. coral reef areas by 2010.)
NOAA's CoRIS is designed to be a single
point of access to NOAA coral reef information and data products, especially those
derived from NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program.
CoRIS is a web-based information portal that provides access to products from NOAA
coral reef research, monitoring, and management activities, with emphasis on the
U.S. states, territories, and remote island areas.
NOAA activities include coral reef mapping, monitoring and assessment; natural
and socioeconomic research and modeling; outreach and education; and management
and stewardship.
CoRIS provides a variety of ways to access NOAA coral data and information. The
Regional Data Portal allows
users to locate region-specific data and information in a clear, concise, and integrated
way. The CoRIS Map Search is a Google Maps-based
application that can display an array of products within a specific geographic area.
The CoRIS Data & Publication search feature
provides access to data and metadata created by NOAA research, citations of peer-reviewed
articles, references to NOAA publications and conference proceedings, and links
to NOAA and other coral reef websites. On-line access to literature is provided
when available.
CoRIS offers original essays on a variety
of topics including coral and coral reef biology, deep water corals, coral diseases,
and more. CoRIS recently started offering a series of essays on coral reef ecosystems
in United States jurisdictions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Gulf
of Mexico. The essays give up-to-date information on the status and health of the
coral reef ecosystems, and provide links to CoRIS-held metadata and data.
CoRIS also offers a variety of other informative tools including an
acronyms and abbreviations list, a taxonomic list of species in the metadata
database, and a glossary which defines
thousands of technical and scientific terms used in coral reef science and management.
Many definitions are accompanied by colorful illustrations.