The Bridge

An ocean of free teacher-approved marine education resources! The Bridge is an ever-growing collection of the best marine education resources available online.

Launched in 1998, the Bridge provides educators with a convenient source of accurate and useful information on global, national, and regional marine science topics, and gives researchers a contact point for educational outreach. The Bridge is supported by the National Sea Grant Office, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), and the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA). Proj

ect administration and staff are based at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the College of William and Mary's oceanography graduate school.

01/16/2026

We’re thrilled to announce that the 50th Annual National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Conference: Meeting of the Waters, is taking place in Cambridge, Maryland from July 12th-16th! The VIMS Office of Outreach & Engagement (home of the Bridge team) is serving as an affiliate organization and we strongly encourage folks across all of our audiences to attend and present. Session proposals may focus on education programs, research, professional learning, community partnerships, or innovative approaches to marine and aquatic education. The deadline to submit is Saturday, February 28th so please reach out with any questions in advance!

Call for Proposals: January 1 – February 28, 2026
Learn more and submit a proposal: https://www.marine-ed.org/2026
And mark your calendars - conference registration opens April 1st!

10/25/2025

04/02/2025

Attention Mid-Atlantic educators! The Virginia Scientists & Educators Alliance (VA SEA) will be hosting their 8th Annual Lesson Plan Expo on Wednesday, April 16th. Please join us for a fun night of hands-on lesson demonstrations, raffles, networking, and more! For everyone else, the new lessons will be LIVE on the VA SEA website on Thursday, April 17th! [vims.edu/vasea]

11/16/2022

“There’s a lot of interest in programming that brings youth from different tribes together and gives them leadership and networking opportunities,” says Bass. “Kenah has also worked with our community, so we're excited to work with them on this issue as well.” VIMS foresees an important role in this effort through its existing outreach programs, which include the Bridge Ocean Science Education Resource Center and a partnership with the JASON Learning project.

Native Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson will help amplify voice of Bay tribes as canoe voyages build links between indigenous communities of Pacific, Chesapeake.

09/23/2022

Attention middle and high school teachers: Did you know the Bridge offers 60+ lesson plans in our DATA series? What topics would you like to see us cover in future installments?

Lessons in the Bridge DATA Series address timely and important issues and provide students with opportunities to use scientific data as scientists do, in ways that demonstrate how data are collected and analyzed.

08/30/2022

Teachers on the Estuary Field Course, helps Virginia teachers bring coastal science back to their classrooms.

06/08/2022

Happy World Oceans Day! How are you celebrating? 🦑

04/14/2022

Attention educators! VIMS invites you to join us online for the fifth annual Virginia Scientists and Educators Alliance (VA SEA) Lesson Plan Expo. The Expo features middle and high school level lesson plans that have been developed by marine science graduate students and pilot tested by Virginia classroom teachers. During the Expo, you will meet the graduate students, learn about their research, and watch a demonstration of the science lesson plan they developed. Visit the VA SEA Expo webpage to register or for more information about the program. Registrants will receive an email with a link to the livestream as the event approaches. 🦑

Educators from the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia (CBNERRVA) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science's (VIMS) Marine Advisory Program/Virginia Sea Grant Extension Program invite Virginia's K-12 teachers to our fourth annual Lesson Plan Expo featuring classroom-te...

03/30/2022

Curious about your connection to deep sea life? Check out this talk by Harvard professor, Dr. Peter Girguis!

Peter Girguis is a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He studies the physiological and biochemical adaptations of marine...

03/29/2022

What do baking bread and studying plankton have in common? Find out in this interview with WHOI biologist, Heidi Sosik!

Why are microscopic plankton so important for life in the ocean's Twilight Zone? Find out in this interview with WHOI biologist Heidi Sosik.

02/21/2022

Millions of Africans were trafficked into slavery, forced aboard ships that made their way across the Atlantic—and an estimated 1.8 million of them died along the way.

Out of tens of thousands of voyages, about a thousand ships likely sank, burying countless lives, names, and stories in the depths of the ocean. Join National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts and a group of black scuba divers on a historic journey to document some of those shipwrecks and recover the lost stories of the slave trade in the six-part podcast Into the Depths, the cover story of our March issue of National Geographic magazine, and in conversation with NABJ on Febuary 23, 2022 at 7P.M. EST.

Address

Gloucester Point, VA

Website

http://www.bridgeoceaneducation.org/

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20 Years of Supporting Ocean Literacy!

Launched in 1998, BRIDGE is the official outreach site of the Sea Grant Educator Network (SGEN) and the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA). With links to over 1,500 vetted resources, it is an invaluable tool for educators seeking lesson plans and multimedia content on a variety of marine science topics. BRIDGE also supports broader impacts by giving researchers a contact point for educational outreach. The BRIDGE program is supported by the National Sea Grant Office, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), and the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA). Project administration and staff are based at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the College of William and Mary's oceanography graduate school.