Sea Level Education, Awareness, & Literacy

The Sea Level Education, Awareness, and Literacy (SEAL) project is a partnership between NASA and four NOAA Sea Grant programs to improve understanding of sea level rise (SLR) within coastal communities across the United States, particularly those that are historically underserved and vulnerable to SLR impacts. To accomplish this, SEAL will mature, co-develop, and translate NASA and NOAA Sea Grant sea-level-related products into education content for use in formal and informal education settings. SEAL will also engage educators, students and members of coastal communities on the east, west, and gulf coasts of the United States to advise, pilot, and evaluate sea-level education content and modules that cover SLR observations, processes, modeling, variation, and impacts. Additionally, our learning platforms will provide educators with STEM opportunities that help learners better understand what future projections for SLR tell us and how they enhance community resilience to climate change. Ultimately, regional, place-based education programs will integrate NASA SLR material into Sea Grant programming with a variety of partners across three coasts, representing substantially different local issues and ecosystems. In doing so, this project team will build a sustainable partnership between NASA and Sea Grant by incorporating long-term supported NASA resources into a plan for promoting SLR awareness and implementing the developed materials across the United States. By integrating sea-level-related educational content that is developed as part of this project with existing NASA Science Activation activities and Science Mission Directorate infrastructure activities, SEAL will promote a better understanding of SLR in coastal communities, schools, and the general public.

The SEAL project’s overarching goal is to improve the understanding of SLR by merging NASA sea-level science and resources with existing educational efforts in coastal communities around the United States. This project focuses on underserved, underrepresented communities and communities that are most affected by SLR now and in the future.