Welcome to the Teachers' Corner!

Teachers can use the Focus site for lesson planning, fact-checking, explaining difficult concepts, or linking to other resources. We provide links to educational resources such as lesson plans, activities, and teacher-training opportunities. We link only to reputable, federally-recognized organizations, research and educational institutions, and government sites. Our goal is provide you with a reliable source of basic scientific information, as well as some current research.

The site has been designed with the National Science Education Standards in mind, and consists of two main interdisciplinary modules: Oceanography and Space Sciences. A special module, Blow the Ballast!, focuses on the history of submarines and exploration of the sea.

You can fit Focus into your lesson plans when addressing the following content standards:

Levels K-4

Earth and Space Science

• Properties of earth materials: Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water and the gases of the atmosphere. Oceanography-Ocean Water
• Objects in the sky: The Sun, Moon, stars, clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described. The Sun provides the light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the Earth. Space Sciences-Observing the Sky, Navy & Satellites, Solar System
• Changes in Earth and sky: Objects in the sky have patterns of movement. Space Sciences-Observing the Sky, Solar System

Physical Science

• Properties of objects and materials
• Position and motion of objects. Space Sciences-Observing the Sky
• Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism. Space Sciences-Observing the Sky, Solar System

Life Science

• Organisms and environments: Humans depend on their natural and constructed environments. Oceanography; Blow the Ballast!-People Under the Sea
• Life cycles of organisms. Oceanography-Ocean Life
• Characteristics of organisms. Oceanography-Ocean Life

Levels 5-8

• Structure of the Earth system. Space Sciences-Solar System
• Earth's history. Space Sciences-Solar System
• Earth in the solar system. Space Sciences-Solar System

• Properties and changes of properties in matter.
• Motions and forces. Oceanography-Ocean in Motion; Space Sciences-Navy & Satellites,
• Transfer of energy. Oceanography-Ocean in Motion; Space Sciences-Solar System

High school

Current news items on the latest scientific research are available on the ONR Media pages.

About the site and the Office of Naval Research

The web site is compliant with federal regulations outlined in Section 508, so that it is accessible to those with a variety of disabilities. To address different learning styles, images and graphics are provided where appropriate, and are supported by text descriptions.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsors science and technology in support of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Founded in 1946, ONR today funds work at more than 450 universities, laboratories, and other organizations.

ONR supports an amazing amount of research in areas such as oceanography, advanced materials, sensors, robotics, biomedical science and technology, electronics, surveillance, neurotechnology, manufacturing technology, information science, advanced combat systems and other technologies for ships, submarines, aircraft, and ground vehicles. ONR-sponsored science has produced the laser, the Global Positioning System, and thousands of other discoveries and products used every day around the world. More than 50 Nobel laureates have received ONR funding. You can learn more about ONR by visiting our homepage.