Looking for free, place-based science lesson resources for your Hawaiʻi classroom? Science is Cool 16: Hawaiʻi (ScIC16) gathers 15 sessions of Hawaiian place-based science — and the lesson materials behind them — into one free library inside PocketLab Notebook. Every session doubles as on-demand professional development you can watch on your own schedule and earn a PD certificate for. Activate a free ScIC membership and the whole collection is yours: ocean, volcanoes, astronomy, wildlife, and more, grounded in Hawaiʻi from Maunakea to the Pacific.
What science lesson resources are in the free ScIC16 library?
Fifteen on-demand sessions, each paired with classroom lesson resources. The science is Hawaiʻi-grounded — real reefs, real volcanoes, real research camps — so it connects to the places your students already know. Here's the full collection, grouped by topic.
Keynotes
- Victor Vescovo — from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Maunakea, the record-breaking explorer on why science is the next frontier for students.
- Guy Kawasaki — Silicon Valley evangelist and Honolulu native on making remarkable teaching a daily choice — opening a window instead of a textbook.
Ocean & marine science
- Waves and Why They Matter — wave data and ready-to-use lesson plans built for island communities (Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System).
- Humpback Whales — the science of koholā with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
- Coastal & Marine Science — ocean literacy with UH Sea Grant and Voice of the Sea.
- Intertidal — rocky-shore citizen science through the University of Hawaiʻi's OPIHI program.
- Deep Sea & Fisheries — exploring Hawaiʻi's deep ocean with UH SOEST and deep-sea fish ecologists.
- Marine Debris — tracking and stopping ocean plastic with NOAA and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project.
Wildlife & conservation
- LIVE from Lalo Atoll — inside NOAA's Hawaiian monk seal and green sea turtle research camps.
- Forestry & Wildlife — virtual field trips to Hawaiʻi's rarest snails, plants, and birds with the State of Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi DOE.
Earth, sky & natural hazards
- Volcanoes — live eruption monitoring from the caldera with USGS and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
- NOAA Tsunami Warning Center — how tsunamis are detected and forecast, using real warning-center data.
- Astronomy & Observatories — inside Maunakea's world-class observatories with the Gemini Observatory and the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy.
- Wayfinding, Star Compass & Voyaging — traditional celestial navigation with the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center.
NOAA classroom toolkit
- NOAA Educational Resources — a guided tour of NOAA's free classroom tools across wildlife, weather, ocean, climate, and geohazards.
How do Hawaiʻi teachers get free access to these lessons?
Activate a free ScIC membership, then sign in to PocketLab Notebook — the full ScIC16 collection is waiting there. No cost, no subscription, no classroom set of sensors required to watch and teach. Once you're in, browse by topic, drop resources into your own lessons, and come back whenever you need them.
Start here: Activate your free ScIC membership.
Can I earn PD certificates from the on-demand sessions?
Yes. Every ScIC16 session counts as professional development. Watch the recording on your own time, complete the session's simple verification step, and download a PD certificate you can submit for professional-development or license-renewal hours. Because it's on-demand, you can knock out PD during a prep period, over a weekend, or across the summer.
Why place-based, Hawaiʻi-grounded science?
Because your students learn science best when it lives where they do. ScIC16's resources use Hawaiʻi's own phenomena — waves, lava, koholā, reefs, the night sky over Maunakea — as the entry point into NGSS practices and disciplinary core ideas. That sense of place also supports the aims of Nā Hopena Aʻo (HĀ), the Hawaiʻi Department of Education's framework for grounding learning in Hawaiian values, language, and context.
Both conference days open with a traditional Hawaiian oli (chant), and the sessions were built with local scientists, cultural practitioners, and Hawaiʻi educators — so the content honors the place it comes from.
Who are these resources for?
K–12 science teachers, across grade bands:
- Elementary — wonder-first virtual field trips (monk seals, whales, volcanoes) that spark questions.
- Middle school — phenomena and data sets that anchor NGSS units in Earth and life science.
- High school — real research and real data: tsunami forecasting, deep-sea ecology, observatory astronomy.
Teaching outside Hawaiʻi? The resources travel. Ocean literacy, volcanoes, and astronomy work in any classroom — Hawaiʻi just makes them unforgettable. Browse the free PocketLab Notebook lesson library to see what's there.
Frequently asked questions
Are the ScIC16 lesson resources really free?
Yes. Activate a free ScIC membership and the full library of sessions and lesson resources is available in PocketLab Notebook at no cost.
Do I need PocketLab sensors to use them?
No. The sessions, virtual field trips, and lesson materials work without any hardware. Sensors deepen the hands-on labs, but they aren't required to teach the content.
When can I access the on-demand sessions?
After they're recorded at ScIC16 on July 22–23, 2026, the sessions live on-demand in PocketLab Notebook, so you can watch and teach with them all school year.
How do I earn a PD certificate?
Watch a session, complete its verification step, and download your certificate — proof of professional-development hours you can submit to your school or district.
I don't teach in Hawaiʻi. Can I still use these?
Absolutely. Any science teacher can use the ocean, Earth, and space science resources. The Hawaiʻi context makes the phenomena vivid for students anywhere.
Our partners:
- NOAA
- STEM Pre Academy (University of Hawai‘i)
- NOIR Lab
- United States Geological Service (USGS)
- PacIOOS
- SOEST (University of Hawai‘i)
- Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park
- Voice of the Sea
- Sea Grant Hawai‘i
- Sea Earth Atmosphere
- Exploring our Fluid Earth
- Institute for Astronomy (University of Hawai‘i)
More questions?
Email us! contact@thepocketlab.com or send us a message on this form.
Start exploring — it's free
Give your students Hawaiʻi's own science, and give yourself PD you can actually fit into your week. Activate your free ScIC membership and open the full ScIC16 library in PocketLab Notebook today.
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