Note:
This project is exactly the type of work done by scientists around the world. You will be using the same resources available to them for your research. This is not easy work.
The problem or question being investigated:
Is there a predictable pattern (caused by air/water temperatures, and the amount of phytoplankton in the water) to the movement of the released sea turtles?
Your task is to determine if there is some sort of pattern and, if so, identify (describe) it. If you find there to be no pattern to the movement of the sea turtles, carefully explain why you have reached this conclusion. You must document your conclusions with appropriate maps, data, etc. that you retrieve from the internet sites listed below. How you proceed with your research and present it is your decision.
Background information and getting started:
Go to link.
Once there, click on "Sea Turtle Tracking Education Program". This will take you to the web pages describing what was done with the sea turtles.
Check out all of the links on this page to get an idea of what is happening and of what is recorded. You will want to print out several blank maps for your work on this project.
Resources:
The links given below all utilize government collected and assembled data for your research. You will need to decide what resources to utilize and how to utilize the data you select. You will have access to a vast amount of information that you will not need nor use!
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/sst.html - sea surface temperature information
http://cnodds2.nws.noaa.gov/ - air and sea temperature information
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/products.html - storm information
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics.html - imagery library
http://www.nws.fsu.edu/buoy/ - current weather conditions
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/NOAAServer?stype=HTML2 - assorted information
http://www.catalinas.net/seer/weather/weth_sst.htm - global sea surface temperature information
http://www.cosmosnet.net/azias/cyprus/inf12.htm - air and sea temperatures (current)
http://www.usgs.gov/network/science/earth/ -- additional resources
http://www.nos.noaa.gov - all kinds of coastal information
http://www.nos.noaa.gov/websites/welcome.html - various program offices to contact for additional information
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html - Seawifs information
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS/LIVING_OCEAN/ - additional Seawifs information
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/ - interesting site with great lakes information